Amy Bradley's Brother Slams Online Critics After Netflix Doc: We're Not 'Racist Homophobes' (Exclusive) By Sarah Jones

Amy Lynn Bradley’s brother, Brad Bradley, is speaking out in the wake of Netflix’s new three-part documentary series, Amy Bradley Is Missing, pushing back against what he calls a wave of “toxic” accusations aimed at his family since the doc premiered on July 16.

“Me and my family are getting killed. The internet is a toxic place,” Brad tells PEOPLE exclusively. “Over the years, we’ve grown some pretty thick skin, because, you know, there’s always that side, you have the side of prayers, and support, and love, and caring, and all that good stuff. And then you have people just trying to chew us up and spit us out.”

“So the picture that’s being painted online is that, you know, I’m this Trump-supporting, racist homophobe, and of course she killed herself. Why would, you know, how could she live with a family like that?”

The documentary — which details the unsolved case — explores what happened when Amy disappeared without a trace in March 1998 from a Royal Caribbean cruise sailing from Oranjestad, Aruba, to Curaçao. She was 23 at the time and on a family vacation with her parents, Iva and Ron, and brother, Brad.

The docuseries has brought renewed attention to her story. The doc examines the events that led up to Amy’s disappearance, the search that ensued, alleged eyewitness sightings of Amy and speculation about what happened.

In January of 1998, Amy confessed over the phone to her girlfriend, Mollie McClure, that she had kissed somebody else while both of them had been drinking. Needing time to process the news, McClure, then 23, stopped taking Amy’s calls. 

Determined to reach McClure, Amy sent her a “message in a bottle,” expressing her remorse in a handwritten letter — one that took on new meaning after she vanished during the cruise with her family.

Brad tells PEOPLE, “If they’re gonna talk about her sexuality and out her — especially, obviously in this case where she has no voice to speak for herself — I thought it was important to at least, you know, share that with people, that the portrait was incomplete.”

According to Brad, Amy was bisexual — and she was dating a man at the time she vanished.

“That was one thing that was excluded,” he says. “I mean, she did write her boyfriend a letter shortly before the cruise, saying that she kinda needed, wanted to take it slow, and kinda step back a little bit. And I do believe, you know, she had some intention of rekindling things with Mollie when she had returned, hence the message in the bottle, a month prior to the cruise.”

“So, you know, her boyfriend: I don’t wanna out him and his name, because he’ll get killed online, too. But he was an awesome dude, very successful guy, loved our family, spent a lot of time with us. And true, Amy dated women. She came out in 1995 and initially, you know, I never gave a crap.”

“Again, that’s not me trying to argue she, she didn’t like women. My point was she wasn’t just gay. She was bisexual, had plenty of guys she dated over the years, and girls too.”

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Brad says that Amy’s sexuality “didn’t bother me one bit.”

The situation with her parents is more complex: In the documentary, a friend of Amy’s says they struggled with her coming out — a reaction that, according to the friend, caused Amy lasting pain.

Brad acknowledges this, but he says, “That was well gotten over” by the time Amy vanished.

“Her girlfriend spent the night at the house. We took her girlfriends on vacation with our family,” he says, adding that he and McClure “were good friends.”

“Always were, I really like her a lot. She was at our house last Easter, 2024.”

On Saturday, March 21, 1998, the Bradley family embarked on what was supposed to be a fun-filled, seven-day adventure on the Royal Caribbean International Cruise Line’s ship Rhapsody of the Seas, departing from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Two days later, the ship sailed towards Curaçao.

In the early morning hours of March 24, while the ship was between the two destinations, Amy disappeared.

Before she vanished, Amy was at the cruise ship’s disco with Brad and other passengers and crew members. However, the next morning, despite an extensive search of the ship, she could not be found.

The ship soon departed from Curaçao and made two more Caribbean stops before returning to Puerto Rico on March 28.

Her mysterious disappearance sparked an FBI investigation that is still currently open.

In 2017, the agency shared age-progressed photos of Bradley, who is described as 5 feet 6 inches tall with brown hair. According to her missing persons poster, she has four tattoos: a Tasmanian Devil on her shoulder, the sun on her lower back, a Chinese symbol on her right ankle, and a gecko on her stomach. 

Anyone with information on her disappearance is asked to contact their local FBI office.

Amy Bradley Is Missing began streaming on Netflix on July 16.