Five Years After Amy Disappeared
According to federal court records and reporting by maritime attorney Jim Walker, just over five years after Amy Bradley vanished from Royal Caribbean’s Rhapsody of the Seas, two crew members working aboard the same ship sexually assaulted a 15-year-old passenger near the pool on Deck 9 during the early morning hours of July 17, 2003.
According to federal prosecutors, Elias Luis Herrera and Edgerton Phillip Medford grabbed the girl by the arms, forced her onto a deck chair, restrained her so she could not escape, and took turns sexually assaulting her while she screamed.
The assault was reported aboard the ship. The victim was examined by the ship’s physician and physical evidence was collected. When Rhapsody returned to Galveston on July 20, the FBI boarded the vessel and began investigating. Herrera was among the crew members interviewed and voluntarily provided a DNA sample.
Neither Herrera nor Medford was arrested at that time.
Within days, Herrera disappeared from Rhapsody. Royal Caribbean later informed the FBI that he had “jumped ship” in Cozumel, Mexico, on July 30, 2003. A later Royal Caribbean security report stated that Herrera had actually been reported missing from the vessel on July 25, just five days after his FBI interview.
Medford also subsequently left the ship and returned to St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
DNA testing later identified Herrera as the major contributor to seminal fluid recovered during the victim’s examination. A federal grand jury indicted Herrera and Medford in December 2004.
Medford was extradited to the United States in 2007, pleaded guilty, served his sentence, and was later returned to St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Herrera remained a fugitive for more than two decades.
What Happened to Herrera?
Herrera eventually surfaced in Costa Rica, where his criminal history took another disturbing turn.
Costa Rican authorities arrested him in 2014 in connection with an international cocaine-trafficking operation. Costa Rican courts found that Herrera and two other men trafficked more than 737 kilograms of cocaine from Colombia into Costa Rica by boat.
Herrera was convicted of international drug trafficking and sentenced to 12 years in prison.
After spending years incarcerated in Costa Rica, he was extradited to the United States in October 2025 to face the unresolved charges stemming from the 2003 assault aboard Rhapsody of the Seas.
In June 2026, more than 21 years after the original indictment, Herrera pleaded guilty to sexually abusing the 15-year-old passenger.
Why It Matters to Amy’s Case
Same cruise line. Same ship. Same general era. Same upper-deck recreational area as the Viking Crown Lounge.
Amy disappeared from Rhapsody of the Seas in March 1998.
Just over five years later, two employees aboard that same vessel acted together in a violent sexual assault against a teenage passenger. Both men subsequently left the vessel before facing prosecution. Herrera ultimately remained a fugitive for more than two decades and was later convicted of participating in large-scale international cocaine trafficking.
There is no known connection between either man and Amy Bradley’s disappearance.
But the case raises legitimate questions about the environment aboard Rhapsody of the Seas during this era.
This was not simply the misconduct of one isolated employee. Two crew members acted together against a passenger. Their case invites questions about employee supervision, accountability, crew culture, access to passengers, and how effectively serious concerns involving crew members were identified and addressed.
And when considered alongside Amy Bradley’s disappearance from the same ship only five years earlier, it raises an uncomfortable question:
How much did Royal Caribbean know about the people working aboard its ships, how effectively were those employees supervised, what safeguards existed when passengers found themselves vulnerable around crew, and what measures, if any, were taken to restrict or monitor crew members once they became subjects of such a serious criminal investigation?