British citizen Sarm Heslop still missing after 13 days – statement calling for “fingertip search” and comments on timeline of calls.
Friends call for “immediate and urgent” investigation and search of the boat.
Southampton resident 41 year old Sarm Joan Lillian Heslop went missing from a catamaran from St. John in the US Virgin Islands in the early hours of Monday March 8, 2021.
Heslop was first reported missing on Monday by her boyfriend and the owner-operator of the boat, Ryan F Bane.
Sarm’s best friend in the UK, Andrew Baldwin, 41, who has known her for more than 25 years, 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.”
“Heslop was last seen on March 7 aboard the vessel Siren Song, that was moored off the coast of St. John,” VIPD spokesman Toby Derima said.
Sarm’s family has released a statement as follows:
We are shocked and distraught that Sarm is missing. We would like assurance that the authorities in the Virgin Islands are doing everything possible to find her and that the investigation into our beautiful and cherished daughter’s disappearance includes a comprehensive fingertip search of the boat.
Our daughter is a UK citizen and we ask for all of the support that the UK authorities have to offer. Our thanks go to the local people of St John who continue to search for Sarm.
We will never give up looking for Sarm and we still have hope of finding her safe.
Baldwin continued; “We have heard that Sarm’s phone, passport and all belongings were left on the boat, where she was living with Mr Bane. She would not just disappear, leaving no trace. She is savvy and sensible, it’s not like her at all, it just doesn’t add up.
Given that Sarm lived on the boat with Mr Bane and he claims she has gone missing from that boat it would be natural for this to be the first place for police to search. We struggle to understand why, as we hear, he would not permit this to happen and we continue to ask for a thorough search of Siren Song given that it is almost two weeks since Sarm went missing.
“We are asking for an urgent and immediate investigation into this incident as her friends here at home are devastated and just need her disappearance to be made a critical priority as there also seem to be many discrepancies in the timeline of what we have heard.
According to press reports A U.S. Coast Guard spokesman said that Sector San Juan received a call from a man at 11:46 a.m. Monday, “who reported that his girlfriend may have fallen from their 47-foot catamaran, the Siren Song, the night before.”
The caller said they had gone to sleep at around 10 p.m. and “at 2 a.m. he woke up and realized that she was not on board.”
Baldwin added “We would like to thank all the local community for their support in searching for Sarm both on water and land. They have been so amazing but we urge them not to give up until she is found or we have more information.”
She is described as 5 feet 8 Caucasian female of slim build. She has a coloured tattoo on her left shoulder.
A Facebook page has been set up MissingSarmHeslop
The Virgin Islands Police Department is asking for the community’s assistance in locating her and asking for any information about her disappearance.
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