Now missing Sarm’s boyfriend vanishes
THE FBI is urgently hunting for the boyfriend of the British woman who is missing in the uS Virgin Islands.
Agents chartered a boat to find ryan Bane after he reportedly ‘sailed away’ from the island of St John on his 47ft catamaran.
It is feared he could be heading for British, French or Dutch territories in the Caribbean, which could lead to a complicated extradition process. Mr Bane is not considered a suspect but he was the last person seen with Sarm Heslop, 41, after they went out drinking on the island.
He has refused police permission to board his vessel and instead hired a lawyer who is also representing Ghislaine Maxwell.
The dramatic development came as police in the Virgin Islands said Miss Heslop may not have made it back to the vessel, Siren Song, where they both lived. A spokesman for the force admitted Mr Bane ‘could be anywhere’.
Southampton-born Miss Heslop vanished without trace on the evening of March 7. Mr Bane, 44, has said he was asleep on the boat when she disappeared and was woken at 2am by the boat’s anchor alarm, which sounds when the vessel has drifted too far.
But he waited nine hours before calling the uS Coast Guard, despite being told by police to do so. The uS Coast Guard gave Mr Bane a citation for refusing to allow officers on board the Siren Song on March 8.
After reporters confronted him and photographed him looking relaxed and drinking a beer on the Siren Song, Mr Bane sailed off under the cover of darkness on Thursday night, the New york Post reported.
A source said: ‘If he has travelled to nearby uK, French or Dutch territories it may be impossible to extradite him.’
Police are combing through CCTV footage from the island to see if Miss Heslop made it back to the Siren Song, where she worked as a cook and Mr Bane was the charter captain.
Police spokesman Toby Derima said: ‘Nothing so far actually confirms the couple went back to the yacht together that night. That’s why we are looking through the surveillance video.’
The uS Coast Guard search for Miss Heslop has now been called off and will not be resumed unless new information comes to light.