A British woman who was last seen on board her friend’s yacht in the US Virgin Islands is still missing almost two weeks later – and now police say her boyfriend will not let them search the boat.
Ryan Bane, who owns the 47-foot luxury catamaran, had reported girlfriend Sarm Heslop, 41, missing on March 8, but then immediately filed a lawyer, Virgin Islands police told British Telegram on Friday night.
The boat has remained moored – and off limits to the police – off the coast of St. John as a massive search for the waters continues.
“Shortly after Ms. Heslop was reported missing, Mr. Bane enlisted the help of a lawyer,” police told Telegram in a statement.
“On the advice of his attorney, Mr. Bane exercised his constitutional right to remain silent and refused requests from officers to search the ship.”
Authorities need a search warrant to search the boat. But they can’t get one because Heslop’s disappearance has not been classified as a criminal case.
“We thought we could just ask Mr Bane to search the boat and he would say yes,” police spokesman Toby Derima told the British newspaper.
“But he didn’t.”
The couple went ashore to eat and then returned to the yacht at 10 p.m. on Sunday, March 7, authorities said.
Ryan called the local police at 2:30 a.m. the next morning and said he had just woken up and realized that Heslop was no longer on board, although her passport, bag and phone were left behind.
Police told Ryan to call the US Coast Guard immediately. But Ryan reportedly waited until nearly noon the next day to report Heslop’s disappearance to the U.S. Coast Guard station in San Juan.
The family of the missing woman urged British authorities on Friday to intervene and help.
“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,” said family members in a statement. statement.
“We will never give up looking for Sarm and we still hope to find her safe.”