For nearly two weeks, police have been desperate for Sarm Heslop, a British flight attendant who disappeared from a boat off the coast of the US Virgin Islands.
However, that search became increasingly difficult after her American boyfriend, 44-year-old Ryan Bane, stopped working with the police and stopped them from searching the ship. To make matters worse, it appears that Bane has a history of domestic violence, his ex-wife said in a new interview.
Now Heslop’s friends and family are fed up.
‘We are shocked and distraught that Sarm is missing. We would like to be assured that the Virgin Islands authorities are doing everything they can to find her and that the investigation into the disappearance of our beautiful and cherished daughter includes an extensive fingertip investigation of the boat, ”her family said in a statement Saturday. .
“Our daughter is a British citizen and we ask for all the support the British authorities have to offer. We will never give up looking for Sarm and we still hope to find her safe. “
Virgin Islands police say 41-year-old Heslop was last seen on the ship Siren Song – which is owned by Bane – on March 7 after the couple went out for dinner. Hours later, around 1:30 PM, Bane called the authorities to report her missing.
When officers arrived at the boat docked in Frank Bay, St. John, Bane said the couple had sailed from St. Thomas and went to bed around 10 PM. Bane explained that he was awakened by the ship’s anchor alarm about four hours later. , and found his girlfriend gone.
But shortly after officers conducted an initial land search and asked Bane to contact the U.S. Coast Guard, the 44-year-old Michigan resident imposed the law and banned police from his boat. The U.S. Coast Guard said it was first made aware of the incident at around 11:46 a.m. on March 8 – when Bane called to say his girlfriend may have fallen off the 14-meter catamaran.
“Shortly after Ms. Heslop was reported missing, Mr. Bane engaged the services of a lawyer,” a police spokesman said in a statement. “On the advice of his attorney, Mr. Bane exercised his constitutional right to remain silent and declined requests from officers to search the ship.”
Heslop’s friends and family are outraged by Bane’s decision not to cooperate with the authorities.
Andrew Baldwin, who has known Heslop for over 25 years, said in a statement that the “timeline” of his best friend’s disappearance “is incorrect”.
“We know they ate at a local restaurant and left at 10 p.m. What we don’t know is what happened in those intervening hours,” the 41-year-old said in a statement, noting that it was nearly 10 p.m. took to call the coast guard that night.
She’s smart and sensible, it’s not like her at all, it just doesn’t make sense.
Baldwin added that Heslops’ phone, passport and all [her] stuff was left on the boat ‘and insisted that’ she wouldn’t just disappear and leave no trace ‘.
“She’s smart and sensible, it’s not like her at all, it just doesn’t make sense,” he said, adding that he found it extremely suspicious that Bane’s lawyer had rejected requests from local officers to search the boat.
“Considering that Sarm lived on the boat with Mr. Bane and he claims she disappeared from that boat, it would be normal for this to be the first place the police can carry out a search. We are struggling to understand why, as we hear, he would not allow this and we continue to ask for a thorough investigation of Siren Song as it has been almost two weeks since Sarm went missing, ”added Baldwin.
“We are asking for an urgent and immediate investigation into this incident as her friends here at home are heartbroken and only need her disappearance to be a critical priority as there also seem to be many discrepancies in the timeline of what we have heard.”
But Bane’s attorney, David Cattie, insisted that Bane’s timeline is not suspicious – and that after contacting the emergency number on March 8, “he traveled to see members of the [Virgin Islands Police Department] to make a statement about Sarm. “
“Later that morning, at the request of Mr. Bane, the US Coast Guard came to Mr. Bane’s (Siren Song) ship,” Cattie said in a statement to Fox News. Several USCG officers boarded the ship and interviewed Mr. Bane on the ship. Mr. Bane, at the request of Sarm’s family, then reported her personal belongings [the Virgin Islands Police Department]including her cell phone, iPad, passport, etc. “
However, the lawyer did not seem to say why his client is no longer talking to the police. Cattie did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment.
For Cori Stevenson, her ex-husband’s decision not to cooperate is suspicious, but not surprising given his allegedly violent past. In an interview with CrimeOnline, Stevenson said Bane allegedly abused their six-year relationship that ended in 2014.
The alleged abuse led to at least one police report in 2011, and Bane was charged with simple assault on Stevenson. Stevenson told CrimeOnline that she has communicated with the Virgin Islands police about her ex-husband’s past.