Jamie Barnett suffered her own cruise ship tragedy when her daughter Ashley died just 24 hours after boarding a cruise with her boyfriend, now she advocates for families like the Bradleys
A woman who sadly lost her daughter on a cruise ship has shared her story while advocating for Amy Bradley’s family.
Jamie Barnett, who hails from California, runs the International Cruise Victims organization after her daughter Ashley tragically died on board a cruise in 2005 while celebrating her upcoming 25th birthday. Speaking in a new interview with Catie Beck on her Untold A WTVR Podcast, Jamie discussed her appearance on Netflix docuseries Amy Bradley Is Missing.
Amy Lynn Bradley was just 23 years old when she embarked on a cruise with her family, which would see her never return home. The Bradley family boarded Royal Caribbean’s Rhapsody of the Seas to visit an array of luxury destinations, including Aruba and Curaçao. However, things took a devastating turn for the family when, on the morning of March 24, 1998, Amy’s parents found her missing without a trace.
Jamie has become close with Amy’s parents, Ron and Iva Bradley over the years, after suffering what she believed was injustice over own daughter’s death, with a string of inconsistencies surrounding what happened to Ashley, who it was claimed died of a methadone overdose.
Talking on the podcast Jamie said, You get that phone call, and it’s heartbreaking. So, I knew shortly after that, that I had to do everything I could. It dawned on me. I said, you know, if the roles had been reversed and I died on that cruise ship, Ashley would have fought like a tiger to find out what happened and all the details. So how could I do any less?
Jamie has been working to make sure cruise ship owning companies are held accountable for their actions and to try and make them a safer place for passengers since Ashley died. She had admitted that she talks with Iva nearly every day.
She continued, I think sorrow is one of the deepest bonds humans have with one another. So, they asked me to be part of the documentary, which, gosh almighty, I’m so grateful for. Iva and I would talk about that back and forth, but anyway, when Iva and I finish a conversation, almost every one of them and this is so rare almost every one of them ends in I love you.
Ashley was found dead in her cabin less than 24 hours after her cruise departed from Long Beach, California. She was traveling with her boyfriend, Geoff Ginsburg, and while her official cause of death was listed as toxic effects of methadone, Jamie has remained adamant that Ashley was not a drug user.
The Barnett family hired their own investigator and pathologist, requesting a hair follicle test, which they claim showed no signs of methadone use. At the time Carnival cruise ships denied any negligence or wrongdoing regarding her death.
Meanwhile, Amy had just graduated from university when she joined her parents, Ron and Iva, and her younger brother Brad for the cruise. On March 23, 1998, Amy and Brad attended a party at the onboard nightclub where they interacted with several other guests and staff on the ship.
Amy headed back to her cabin at around 3:35 a.m. on March 24. Her father said he saw her asleep on the balcony around 5:30 a.m. By 6:15 a.m., she had vanished, and her cigarettes and lighter were also gone. The Bradley family immediately sought help from the ship’s staff and asked for passengers to be prevented from leaving the vessel. However, the crew did not act until the majority of the guests had disembarked.
No trace of Amy was ever found, despite days of helicopter and radar searches. Over the years, many theories on what may have happened to Amy have emerged. The FBI continues to offer a reward of $25,000 for information that could lead to the discovery of Amy’s whereabouts. Dutch authorities and Royal Caribbean staff also conducted searches at the time of her disappearance, but found nothing to indicate what had happened to Amy.
To this day, her family maintains a website dedicated to her case and has kept her belongings in the hope that she will return one day. They have urged anyone with any information about what happened to Amy to come forward.
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