For almost two weeks, police have been desperately searching for Sarm Heslop, a British flight attendant who disappeared from a boat off the coast of the US Virgin Islands.
However, this search became more and more difficult after her American boyfriend, Ryan Bane, aged 44, stopped cooperating with the police and forbade her to investigate the ship. To make matters worse, Bane appears to have 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 disturbed that Sarm is missing. We would like assurances that the Virgin Islands authorities are doing their best to find her and that the investigation into the disappearance of our beautiful and beloved daughter includes a comprehensive search of the boat with her fingertips, “her family said in a statement on Saturday.
“Our daughter is a citizen of Great Britain and we ask for all the support offered by the British authorities. We will never give up looking for Sarm and we still have hope that we will find her safe “.
Virgin Islands police say Heslop, 41, was last seen on Bane’s Siren Song on March 7 after the couple went out to dinner. A few hours later, around 2:30 a.m., Bane called authorities to report her missing.
When officers arrived at the boat, anchored in Frank Bay, St. John, Bane said the pair sailed from St. John’s. Thomas and went to bed around 22:00. Bane explained that he was awakened about four hours later at the ship’s mooring alarm. and noticed that his girlfriend was gone.
But shortly after officers conducted a first ground search and asked Bane to contact the U.S. Coast Guard, the 44-year-old Michigan native took the lawyer and banned police from his boat. . The U.S. Coast Guard said it was first alerted to the incident around 11:46 a.m. on March 8 – when Bane called to say his girlfriend had fallen from the 47-meter catamaran. .
“Shortly after reporting Ms. Heslop’s disappearance, Mr. Bane acquired the services of a lawyer,” a police spokesman said in a statement. “On the advice of his lawyer, Mr Bane exercised his constitutional right to remain silent and rejected the requests of the ship’s search officers.”
Heslop’s friends and family are outraged by Bane’s decision not to cooperate with the authorities.
Andrew Baldwin, who has known Heslop for more than 25 years, said in a statement that the “chronology” of his best friend’s disappearance “makes no sense”.
“We know they had dinner at a local restaurant and left at 10pm. What we don’t know is what happened in those intervening hours,” the 41-year-old said in a statement, noting that Bane lasted almost 10 hours until he calls the Coast Guard that night.
“She is skilled and sensitive, she is not like her at all, she just doesn’t add up.”
Baldwin added that “Heslop’s phone, passport and everything else [her] the goods were left on the boat “and insisted that” she will not disappear without a trace “.
“She’s skilled and sensitive, she’s not like her at all, she just doesn’t add up,” he said, adding that he found it extremely suspicious that Bane’s lawyer had rejected requests from local boat search officers.
“Given that Sarm lived on the boat with Mr. Bane and he claims that he disappeared from that boat, it would be natural for him to be the first place the police look for. We are trying to understand why, as we hear, this would not allow this to happen, and we continue to call for a thorough search for Siren Song, given that almost two weeks have passed since Sarm disappeared, “Baldwin added. .
“We call for an urgent and immediate investigation into this incident, as her friends at home are devastated and only need her disappearance to become a critical priority, as there are also many discrepancies in the timing of what we have heard.”
But Bane’s lawyer, David Cattie, insisted that Bane’s schedule is not suspicious – and that after contacting 911 on March 8, he “traveled to meet members of the [Virgin Islands Police Department] to give a statement on Sarm. ”
“Later that morning, the U.S. Coast Guard came to Mr. Bane’s ship (Siren Song) at Mr. Bane’s request,” 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 handed over his personal belongings [the Virgin Islands Police Department], including her mobile phone, iPad, passport, etc. ”
However, the lawyer did not seem to comment on why his client no longer talks 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 so surprising, given his alleged violent past. In an interview with CrimeOnline, Stevenson said Bane had been abusive during 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 a simple attack on Stevenson. Stevenson told CrimeOnline that she had communicated with the Virgin Islands police about her ex-husband’s past.