Inside the Terrifying Mystery of Amy Bradley’s Cruise Ship Disappearance: Was It an Accident — or a Crime?

Amy Bradley, 23, was on a Caribbean cruise with her family when she vanished without a trace on March 24, 1998.

Her disappearance 27 years ago and her parents’ belief that she is still alive is now the subject of a three-part docuseries, Amy Bradley is Missing, airing on Netflix July 16.

“There are a few stories that you just have to tell and many that deserve to be told,” directors Ari Mark and Phil Lott wrote in a statement. “This was a must do for us.”

The series includes interviews with Amy’s parents, Iva and Ron, who are “deeply convinced” that their daughter is still alive.

“This is not uncommon in unsolved cases, especially since no body had ever been discovered and the FBI still labels the case as ‘open,’’ Mark and Lott said. “But, after hours of talking about Amy, meeting Amy’s brother who lived in the house next door, unpacking the pristine duffel bag Amy had used on that spring family vacation, and circling around (but not touching) Amy’s perfectly polished ‘all gassed up’ red Miata waiting for her return — this felt different.”

“The more we got to know the Bradleys in the subsequent months, the more two things became abundantly clear — first, that the family’s belief that Amy is still alive was and continues to be unbreakable and second, that maybe they’re right,” the statement read.

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.

It was in the early morning hours of March 24 while the ship was between the two destinations that Amy disappeared.

Before she vanished, Amy was at the cruise ship’s disco with her brother, other passengers and crew members.

However, the next morning, despite an extensive search of the ship, she could not be found.

“Myself and my parents have had to endure a lot of sadness, but the last thing that I ever said to Amy was, ‘I love you,’ before I went to sleep that night,” Amy’s brother Brad said in a video, which was shared by the FBI. “Knowing that’s the last thing I said to her has always been very comforting to me.”

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.

Amy’s disappearance baffled the family, passengers and crew. Some passengers reported seeing a woman, who was not confirmed to be Amy, heading to the top deck of the ship in the early morning hours while others claimed she was with an unidentified ship employee.

Or did she accidentally fall overboard before port?

“When we discovered Amy missing, we begged the ship’s personnel to not put the gangway down, to not allow anybody to leave the ship. And we told them that if Amy had left the room for any more than 15 minutes, she would have left us a note. And they put the gangway down anyway. People left the ship in Curaçao,” Iva said in a 2005 interview with NBC News.

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.