British woman Sarm Heslop was last seen on CCTV boarding a dinghy with her boyfriend before she disappeared from a luxury charter yacht in the US Virgin Islands on 7 March 2021, footage released exclusively to the BBC shows. The recording, handed to investigators by the islands’ chief of police, contains the final recorded sighting of the 41-year-old, but has not produced definitive answers about how she came to be missing.
The footage shows Heslop and her then-partner, 49-year-old Ryan Bane, walking hand in hand along a dock at Cruz Bay before motoring off into darkness toward a catamaran named Siren Song, which police and the family say was anchored in the next bay. Family and friends have long pressed for a fuller inquiry after a search failed to find Heslop’s body; the case remains classified as a missing-person investigation.
Police investigators say the CCTV raises a significant timing discrepancy. The footage’s timestamp, which authorities say they have verified, shows the couple leaving Cruz Bay at about 20:45 local time. The US Coast Guard report and statements attributed to Bane said they returned to the yacht at 22:00. With boat transfers along that route taking five to 10 minutes, investigators say there is about an hour unaccounted for in Bane’s timeline.
"The timeline is suspicious, and that's one of the reasons why we need to talk to Ryan," US Virgin Islands police commissioner Mario Brooks told the BBC. Bane has not been formally questioned by police and has used constitutional rights to limit law-enforcement access to the yacht and to his testimony. His lawyer, David Cattie, said the timeline difference could reflect an honest error under stress and denied there was evidence his client "had a hand" in Heslop’s disappearance.
Bane told investigators he discovered Heslop was missing at about 02:00 local time after being woken by an anchor alarm indicating the yacht was drifting from its mooring, according to police documents and US Coast Guard reports. He later made a brief statement to police at 02:44. Police accounts say officers advised Bane to call the Coast Guard; Bane did not contact the Coast Guard until 11:46 local time, nine hours after his initial report to police. The Coast Guard began a search about 11 hours after police were first notified.
"Minutes count at that point," Commander Jan League of the US Coast Guard said in the BBC report. "So waiting nine hours is decreasing the possibility of finding a person in the water." League also said it is very rare in the US Virgin Islands for an overboard person’s body not to be recovered and described the elapsed time before an extensive search as a critical factor in the lack of physical evidence.
Bane has invoked the Fourth Amendment to block a forensics team from searching Siren Song and the Fifth Amendment to decline police questioning that might be self-incriminating. Cattie said his client was exercising lawful rights and that using those protections does not indicate guilt. "There’s absolutely no indication that he ever had a violent altercation with Sarm," Cattie said, while also acknowledging Bane did not follow every step that some maritime experts might expect following a disappearance.
Friends describe Heslop as a "free spirit" who left the UK in 2019 to sail across the Atlantic and later took a job as a chef on Bane’s chartered catamaran. She completed her first charter on the night she vanished and left behind her passport, phone and money. Her mother, Brenda, has said she believes her daughter is dead but has called for answers and for authorities to pursue the case further.
Former Metropolitan Police officer David Johnston, engaged by the family to review the investigation, told the BBC that if Heslop had gone missing in Britain the case would likely have been treated from the outset as a missing person case involving potential criminality. The family has urged the US Virgin Islands police and the local Office of the Attorney General to reclassify the matter as a no-body homicide investigation so investigators can expand their inquiries.
Authorities interviewed other boat captains who were anchored nearby on the night of the disappearance. Those captains told the BBC they were unaware Bane had raised an alarm that night or the following morning. Captains typically say they would shout the missing person’s name, call a mayday and notify neighbouring vessels. Bane’s actions on the night and in the hours after have been questioned by some maritime experts and by family members.
Investigators also reviewed Bane’s personal history. The BBC located his ex-wife, Cori Stevenson, who described a history of domestic violence. Bane was convicted and received a 60-day sentence in a single domestic violence simple assault case related to an incident in 2011, Cattie acknowledged, while stressing there is no evidence connecting that conviction to Heslop’s disappearance.
The US Virgin Islands Police have said they remain committed to pursuing leads. Commissioner Brooks told the BBC investigators were at a "dead end" but that public viewing of the CCTV might prompt new information. The footage had previously been viewed by Heslop’s mother but not by her friends, who were recorded watching the full clip with the BBC and said it did not resolve key questions.
Five weeks after reporting Heslop missing, Bane left the US Virgin Islands and has not returned. He later sought to sell Siren Song. He has never been charged in connection with Heslop’s disappearance and no warrant has been issued, Cattie said, adding that if his client were required to return he would do so voluntarily.
Heslop’s family and friends continue to campaign for further inquiries. "We still haven't been able to grieve properly. We all deserve to know what happened to her and to bring her home," her mother said. A BBC Three documentary, Missing in Paradise: Searching for Sarm, examines the case and includes the newly released CCTV; it is scheduled to be available on iPlayer and to air on BBC Two on 17 September.
The investigation into Heslop’s disappearance remains open. Police say they will follow any credible lead, and family members say they will continue to press for answers as they seek closure more than four years after she was last seen alive.
