The search continues for a 41-year-old British woman who disappeared from a boat that was anchored off the coast of the U.S. Virgin Islands earlier this month, but police now say that the woman’s boyfriend, an American man, got a lawyer and did not. will allow them to search the ship.
Sarm Heslop was last seen on the boat, which is owned and operated by Ryan Bane, on the night of March 7, after the couple left for dinner.
Virgin Islands law enforcement officials met with Bane at about 2:30 am on March 8, when he reported her disappearance. The officers conducted an initial land search and told Bane to contact the U.S. Coast Guard, who searched the ship later that morning, according to the U.S. Virgin Islands Police Department.
But police in the Virgin Islands now say that Bane defended and has not allowed them to search the boat since Heslop disappeared almost two weeks ago.
“Shortly after reporting Ms. Heslop’s disappearance, Bane hired the services of a lawyer,” a police department spokesman said in a statement on Friday. “Following the advice of his lawyer, Mr. Bane exercised his constitutional right to remain silent and denied the officers’ requests to search the ship.”
The US Coast Guard did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday night.
Sarm Herslop, 41, was last seen on a boat in the U.S. Virgin Islands on the night of March 8.
(Virgin Islands Police Department)
FRIEND OF THE WOMAN DISAPPEARED IN THE VIRGIN ISLANDS CALLED TO SEEK THE AMERICAN BOY’S YACHT
Heslop’s friends in the UK have been lobbying the police to step up the investigation and search Bane’s 47-foot catamaran. Andrew Baldwin, a friend of Heslop’s, said this week that he finds it “incredibly difficult” to believe that she fell off the boat.
“It has been eight days since Sarm disappeared,” Baldwin told Fox News on Wednesday. “Eight days later, they could have found anything on the boat.”
Bane’s lawyer, David Cattie, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.
Cattie previously said in a statement that “Bane’s only hope is that Sarm will be found alive and well”.
“Mr. Bane has spent countless hours looking for Sarm and will continue to do so,” said Cattie this week. “Ryan is devastated because Sarm is missing.”
The Virgin Islands Police Department said it was continuing to search for Heslop, including several daily searches and hours of video surveillance that could shed light on his disappearance.
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US Coast Guard spokesman Ricardo Castrodad told the Virgin Islands Daily News that immediately after Heslop’s disappearance, they searched “the coast, the adjacent islands and all the waters around and into the sea from which the ship came. was located “, which was about 50 meters offshore in Frank Bay.
“We had a Coast Guard helicopter searching that afternoon and the search continued through the night,” Castrodad told the local newspaper. “The conditions were excellent with regard to visibility, the state of the sea and there was no sign of anyone in the water.”
Anyone with information about Heslop’s disappearance should call 911 or the Criminal Investigation Bureau in the St. Thomas / St. John district at (340) 774-2211 or in the St. Croix district at (340) 778-2211 .
Stephen Sorace of Fox News contributed to this report.