The search continues for a 41-year-old British woman who went missing in a boat moored off the coast of the US Virgin Islands earlier this month, but police now say the woman’s boyfriend, an American man , acquired a lawyer. will not allow them to search the vessel.
Sarm Heslop was last seen on the evening of March 7 on the boat, owned and operated by Ryan Bane, after the couple went out for dinner.
Virgin Islands police officers met with Bane on March 8 at about 2:30 a.m. when he reported her missing. Officers conducted an initial land search and told Bane to contact the U.S. Coast Guard, which conducted a search of the vessel later that morning.
Police in the Virgin Islands now say Bane has given counsel and not allowed them to search the boat since Heslop went missing almost two weeks ago.
‘Mr. Shortly afterwards, Bane had Ms. Heslop was reported missing, ‘a police department spokesman said in a statement. “On the advice of his lawyer, Mr Bane denied his constitutional right to remain silent and denied the officers’ requests to search the vessel.”
The U.S. Coast Guard did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Sarm Herslop, 41, was last seen on a boat in the US Virgin Islands on the evening of March 8.
(Virgin Islands Police Department)
FRIEND OF WOMAN MISSING IN VIRGIN ISLANDS PRAYS TO SEARCH THE AMERICAN BOYFRIEND’S HUNT
Heslop’s friends in the UK urged police to drop the investigation and search Bane’s 47-foot catamaran. Andrew Baldwin, a friend of Heslop’s, said this week he found it “incredibly difficult” to believe she had fallen off the boat.
“It’s been eight days since Sarm disappeared,” Baldwin told Fox News on Wednesday. “Eight days in, they could get anything on the boat.”
Bane’s attorney, David Cattie, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Cattie said earlier in a statement that “Bane’s only hope is that Sarm will be found alive and well.”
“Mr Bane has been looking for Sarm for countless hours and will continue to do so,” Cattie said this week. “Ryan is devastated that Sarm is missing.”
The Virgin Islands police station said the search for Heslop is continuing, including conducting several searches daily and going through hours of surveillance videos that could shed light on her disappearance.
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U.S. Coast Guard spokesman Ricardo Castrodad told the Virgin Islands Daily News that immediately after Heslop went missing, they searched the “shores, adjacent islands and all the waters around and to the sea from which the vessel was located,” which was about 50 meters abroad in Frank Bay.
“We had a Coast Guard helicopter search in the afternoon and the search continued throughout the night,” Castrodad told the local newspaper. “Conditions were excellent in terms of visibility, the state of the sea, and there were no signs of anyone in the water.”
Anyone with information about the disappearance of Heslop 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.
Fox News’ Stephen Sorace contributed to this report.