CCTV shows missing Sarm Heslop’s last movements as police issue plea
The British woman disappeared from a luxury yacht in the US Virgin Islands
New CCTV footage has been released of the last recorded sighting of missing British woman Sarm Heslop before she went missing in the US Virgin Islands more than four years ago.
Ms Heslop, from Southampton, Hampshire, went missing from the Siren Song, a catamaran owned and operated by her American boyfriend, Ryan Bane, off the coast of St John in the early hours of 8 March, 2021.
The new CCTV footage, shared by the police, is being shown in a BBC Two and BBC Three documentary called Missing In Paradise: Searching For Sarm.
Recorded six hours before Ms Heslop was reported missing, the footage shows the couple walking side by side down a wooden dock before boarding a dinghy to head back to their luxury yacht anchored in the next bay.
Ms Heslop’s mother, Brenda Street, of Ongar, Essex, told the BBC that she now accepts that her daughter is dead and added: “We still haven’t been able to grieve properly.
“We all deserve to know what happened to her and to bring her home. It’s just so, so unfair.”
Explaining the release of the footage, Steven Phillip, chief of police for the US Virgin Islands, said: “We’re at a dead end. If anybody could look at this video and see something and say something it can help. That’s why now.”
US Virgin Islands’ police commissioner, Mario Brooks, told the BBC there were inconsistencies in the timing of events provided by Mr Bane.
He said: “The timeline is suspicious, and that’s one of the reasons why we need to talk to Ryan.”
But Mr Bane has always denied any involvement in Ms Heslop’s disappearance and his lawyer, David Cattie, said that this characterisation of the timeline was “irresponsible”.
Mr Cattie said Mr Bane believed Sarm had hit her head and fallen overboard or had become disorientated while swimming, lost her way and drowned.
Mr Cattie added: “People are suggesting he had a hand in her disappearance. There’s no evidence of that at all.”
Missing In Paradise: Searching For Sarm starts on BBC Two on Wednesday at 10pm.