The latest binge-worthy standalone Netflix documentary to grace our screens this week is Amy Bradley Is Missing. The series takes us back to 1998, when a woman named Amy goes missing while on a cruise with her family, last seen by her father Ron on the balcony of their room. Half an hour later, Amy had vanished, and hasn’t been seen since.
There are multiple theories surrounding what happened to Amy that we explore during the three-part true crime series, but there are no conclusive answers and very little evidence to support them. If you’re no stranger to a Netflix documentary series, you might have realised that most of the stories we see are open-ended, mysteries lost to mistakes of the past and, sometimes, just time itself.
But that isn’t always the case. On Netflix and some of the other best streaming services around, we do actually have missing persons series that have a happy ending, with the person in question found safe and well. If you’re looking for that kind of vibe after Amy Bradley Is Missing, these are the top three shows you won’t want to miss.
Reported Missing
- US: Now available to stream on YouTube
- UK: Now available to stream on BBC iPlayer
- Australia: Now available to stream on Freeview On Demand
You’ll see there’s a theme across our choices. Most of the missing people TV shows where people are found are anthology series, meaning a different story is explored in each episode. UK-based Reported Missing is one of these, following teams of local police officers and volunteers as they try to work together to find who has been reported missing.
Not only are most of the victims eventually found across the show’s four seasons, but sometimes the drama becomes something else entirely. In season 2 episode 1, a 5-year-old boy called Tyler was reported missing by his father, but it was later proved that the child didn’t actually exist. The young child seen in photos was a completely different kid, who had no relation to the man who contacted the police.
Missing: Dead or Alive?
- US: Now available to stream on Netflix
- UK: Now available to stream on Netflix
- Australia: Now available to stream on Netflix
Missing: Dead or Alive? is arguably the biggest TV show of the bunch, adopting the same anthology format as Reported Missing. Granted, the name of this one is a little jarring, but that doesn’t mean the outcome is always so fatal. This time, the cases come solely from the South Carolina sheriff's department, though only four episodes are currently making up the series.
The biggest case comes in episode 1, following when Iraq war veteran Lorraine Garcia was reported missing in 2021. Her son Anthony was quickly declared as a person of interest after he was caught throwing out his mother's belongings and illegally trying to sell her house. Thankfully, Lorraine was later found by Missing Persons Investigator Vicki Rains, though she chose not to disclose her current location in the show.
Without A Trace
- US: Now available to stream on Prime Video and Apple TV+
- UK: Now available to stream on Apple TV+
- Australia: Now available to stream on 7Plus and Apple TV+
If you’re not looking for a documentary, why not try a straight-up drama? Without A Trace could best be described as a missing persons version of Law & Order, solely following the Missing Persons Unit of the FBI in NYC. We watch on as they psychologically profile people of interest to gain more insight into the lives of those they’re looking for, often with positive results.
The team’s cases are inspired by a mix of real-life tales and completely fictional storylines – it features information about real-life missing persons cases at the end of episodes. This later led to real missing people being found while it was first on air during 2002-2009.
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