Police Unsure If Missing Brit Sarm Heslop Was Ever Onboard Yacht

Police in the Caribbean have said they are unsure if a British woman reported missing from a yacht was ever onboard.

Sarm Heslop, from Southampton, had been staying with her American boyfriend Ryan Bane on a boat moored off St John in the US Virgin Islands.

Bane reported her missing from the yacht at 2.30am local time on 8 March, but now police have said they're not certain she was ever onboard.

Facebook/@MissingSarmHeslop

According to the BBC, Virgin Islands Police Department said: "Investigators cannot confirm with certainty, if and when Ms Heslop boarded the Siren Song on March 7."

The 41-year-old had gone for dinner with Bane on 7 March and it was thought she had returned to the yacht afterwards and gone to bed. Her personal belongings were subsequently found on the boat by officers investigating her disappearance.

It has since been reported locally that Bane had sailed away from the area, but police have refuted this claim.

Spokesman Toby Derima said: "To the knowledge of investigators, Mr Bane remains in the Territory.

"His whereabouts are known by law enforcement."

Derima previously told the Sunday Mirror detectives are 'looking at all avenues' and 'not ruling anything out'.

Asked if Bane was a suspect, he replied: "I'm not sure I can say that yet. Right now we are still trying to find Miss Heslop."

findsarm.com

The FBI and UK police are assisting the investigation, and a statement on behalf of friends and family on the findsarm.com website said they were 'hugely grateful for their involvement'.

Friend Andrew Baldwin has previously questioned the timeline of her disappearance.

He said: "We know that Mr Bane called the local police at 2.30am and was told to call the Coastguard. The Coastguard was reported as saying that it was alerted to her disappearance by Mr Bane at 11.46am on Monday. This timeline just does not make sense to us.

"We also cannot understand why Mr Bane's lawyer has denied officers' requests to search the boat and exercised his constitutional rights to remain silent.

"We know they had dinner in a local restaurant and left at 10pm. What we don't know is what happened in those intervening hours."

The Heslop family added: "We will never give up looking for Sarm and we still have hope of finding her safe."

Topics: Police, World News, crime

Jake Massey

Jake Massey is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from Newcastle University, where he learnt a bit about media and a lot about living without heating. After spending a few years in Australia and New Zealand, Jake secured a role at an obscure radio station in Norwich, inadvertently becoming a real-life Alan Partridge in the process. From there, Jake became a reporter at the Eastern Daily Press. Jake enjoys playing football, listening to music and writing about himself in the third person.

@jakesmassey