The mother of missing British sailor Sarm Heslop has begged for Donald Trump to step in and quiz her daughter’s American boyfriend over her mystery disappearance.
Four years ago, Ms Heslop, 41, vanished from her partner, Ryan Bane’s £500,000 catamaran Siren Song in the US Virgin Islands.
Mr Bane was the last person to see the former flight attendant on March 8, 2021, who left her passport, phone and money behind on the yacht.
He said he noticed his girlfriend was no longer onboard after they spent an evening together until he was awoken by the anchor alarm sounding at 2am that day. Half an hour later, he reported her missing to the police.
No suspects are wanted in connection with her disappearance while the last person to have seen her, Mr Bane, has refused to co-operate with police, pleading his fourth and fifth US amendment rights.
And while the case remains open, the police investigation into the matter is now categorised as a ‘cold case’
Half a decade later, her mother Brenda Street, still desperate for answers, has called on the help of the US president to ‘push’ for an investigation to be ‘properly’ carried out.
She told The Mirror: ‘I think Trump is likely to do more than anyone else so far. I’d like him to push for the investigation to be done properly – to appeal for Bane to come forward and to order a forensic search of his yacht.
British sailor Sarm Heslop went missing on March 8, 2021, in the US Virgin Islands of St John and was last seen by her boyfriend Ryan Barne
Her mother, Brenda Street (pictured), still desperate for answers, has called on Donald Trump to get her daughter’s boyfriend to co-operate with authorities
‘It makes me very angry and disappointed that Bane has not been brought in for formal questioning.
‘He is wandering around doing his own thing while we’ve put our lives on hold. If [Trump] could put out an appeal that’d be amazing.’
Lawyers representing Mr Barne have said there is no evidence suggesting he did anything awry to Sarm.
In March 2021, while Mr Bane had reported Sarm missing from their yacht off the US Virgin Island of St John where the couple lived. He failed to contact the US Coast Guard for nine hours despite being advised to do so immediately.
Later, it was claimed he obstructed Coast Guard agents from boarding the yacht, and also later blocked Sarm’s mother’s phone number.
Ms Street has alleged that if her daughter’s partner had nothing to hide, he would co-operate with the authorities.
She added that if his ‘conscience is clear’, he would provide a ‘minute-by-minute account’ to police, adding: ‘He’s the only person of interest because there was nobody else around.’
Sarm, who was described as a strong swimmer, had left her home in Southampton in 2019 to sail across the Atlantic and live her dream life in the US Virgin Islands.
In 2020, the British sailor met Mr Barne, then 49, on Tinder before eventually returning to the US Virgin Islands to become a cook for guests on board the Siren Song.
American Ryan Bane, pictured walking his dog on the US Virgin Islands in 2021. He has never been formally questioned by police after pleading his US Constitutional rights
But things took a dark turn after the couple completed their first charter together with it later emerging, following her disappearance, that Mr Bane’s had previously been convicted for assaulting his ex-wife.
In light of the information, Sarm’s mother is also calling for criminal record checks across all dating platforms, insisting her daughter would ‘have upped and left’ had she known of Barne’s criminal past.
Despite, her daughter being missing for four years, Sarm’s friends and family haven’t given up hope, and continued to raise awareness on her missing persons case on BBC Breakfast last Saturday.
‘What am I going to do without her?’ Brenda shared. ‘I am stronger now, I know I’m crying now but I am stronger now and I am going to do everything I can, I will never give up. I’ll never give up.’
Commissioner Mario Brooks of the US Virgin Islands’ police department also appeared on the show’s segment and urged Ryan to cooperate with detectives.
‘You were the last person to have contact with her,’ he told the programme. ‘What is so secretive that you can’t tell us? What? You loved her, that’s your girlfriend, you lived with her on the vessel.
‘She goes missing and all of a sudden, you get silent. You sell the boat, basically come off radar.’
In response to the Commissioner’s comments, Ryan’s lawyer said that his client has not been charged or had a warrant issued and that if his presence is required in the US Virgin Islands, he will return voluntarily.
Sarm’s close friends also said they want to keep searching for answers so they can ‘lay her to rest’.
The last recorded CCTV sighting of Sarm Heslop from her boyfriend’s £500,000 catamaran yacht on March 7, 2021
Police have now released previously unseen CCTV footage of Sarm’s last movements on land, years after her friends and family put pressure on the force to circulate it in the hopes it would bring new information on the case.
In the new BBC2 documentary, Missing in Paradise: Searching for Sarm, Stephen Philip, Chief of Police for the US Virgin Islands, showed the missing Brit’s last recorded moments on land, in the lively Caribbean town of Cruz Bay.
The CCTV video showed Sarm and Ryan walking on a path near the town’s dinghy dock, with his arm on her lower back as the pair stroll along the pier.
The couple had spent the evening at a bar named ‘420 to Center’, just a two-minute walk away.
Sarm can be seen wearing what appears to be a monochrome patterned dress or a top with a matching skirt or shorts, whereas Ryan appeared to sport a short-sleeved patterned white shirt with shorts and flip flops.
Praising the footage’s ‘huge’ importance, her friend Zan, added: ‘If she had been gone missing here, the CCTV would’ve been released immediately as part of the search for her.
‘Lots of people would’ve seen [them], maybe noticed [something], maybe someone will remember something.’
Her friend Kate Vernalls also shed some light on the difficulties they’ve faced on securing Sarm’s last recorded sighting.
‘At the beginning we were told there was no CCTV, right back in the early days, and then through the grapevine, which a lot of this has been, we hear there was CCTV footage,’ she explained.
‘As Zan said, we were asked for years for the CCTV footage to be released because we’ve been brought up in this country where that gets shown, you want it out there so people might recognise something.’
When asked in the documentary why the islands’ police department had finally decided to release the video publicly, Chief of Police Philip remarked: ‘We are at a dead end, if anybody could look at this video and see something and say something, it could help. We are at a dead end road and we need help.’
Elsewhere Sarm’s mother has also told The People that she believes her daughter was murdered.
Speaking to the outlet last year, she shared: ‘I don’t believe Sarm just went missing. I believe she was murdered. I want justice for her.’
After years without answers, the parent added she felt ‘let down’ by police on the Caribbean tourist hotspot and ‘hatred’ for Mr Bane, whom she accuses of not doing enough to help find her daughter.
She has called on Mr Bane to provide the police with everything he knows about her daughter’s disappearance.
His lawyer, David Cattie, said previously said in a statement to The People: ‘Mr Bane is heartbroken over Sarm’s disappearance.
‘We certainly understand and empathize with her mother’s pain and frustration.’
