JUST FIND HER
»»Pals’ concern for missing Sarm »»Caribbean ‘kidnap’ fears
FRIENDS of missing Brit Sarm Heslop have described the pain suffered by her loved ones and said: “We just want to find her.”
In an exclusive interview, Anna Wilson revealed the last messages she received from Sarm, 41, who vanished from her boyfriend’s yacht in the Caribbean earlier this month.
At the same time, Sarm’s best friend Kate Owen, also 41, demanded “answers” to her mysterious disappearance in the US Virgin Islands.
And a third pal said she fears Sarm may have been kidnapped.
Their comments came just hours after it emerged Sarm’s boyfriend Ryan Bane, 44, has sailed away from St John, where she vanished. His whereabouts are unknown.
Anna, 40, who had Sarm as a bridesmaid at her wedding, told the Sunday Mirror: “We love her and we miss her and we just want to find her.
“The Virgin Islands police are in touch with Sarm’s mum and dad, who are finding it very difficult.”
WORRY
We will not leave quietly. We deserve answers.
She deserves answers
KATE OWEN BEST FRIEND OF MISSING BRIT SARM HESLOP
“The last messages I had from Sarm were she was with Ryan and he had this big dog and they were enjoying themselves on the boat.
“She seemed happy and didn’t give any sense that she wasn’t or that there was anything to worry about.”
That all changed at 2.30am on March 8 when American Ryan called police to say he had woken to find Sarm no longer on board his luxury catamaran, the Siren Song.
The former air hostess from Southampton has not been seen since.
Sarm’s heartbroken pal Kate – who travelled to the Caribbean with her to start a new life 15 months ago – is now demanding to know what happened to her.
Writing online, she said: “She is a daughter, a sister, a niece and an auntie. A godmother, a girlfriend, a colleague and my best friend.
“We will not leave quietly, we need a thorough investigation, we deserve answers.
She deserves answers.”
Snaps posted online show the friends on board a boat.
Kate, of Southsea, Hants, has told friends that Ryan has stopped speaking to her – and she cannot understand why.
Anna confirmed: “Ryan had contact with Kate in the early stages, but he ceased contact.”
When asked what Ryan had told Kate about Sarm’s disappearance, Anna added: “He just said everything was fine, they had dinner out then took the dinghy back to the boat. Nothing seemed untoward.
“They went back to the boat at about 10pm and watched a film. Ryan
LUXURIOUS The Siren Song
NIGHT OUT Sarm with boyfriend Ryan Bane
said he woke and realised she was gone, but that her phone and wallet were still on the boat.”
The Sunday Mirror told last week how Ryan’s refusal to co-operate with police has heaped further agony on Sarm’s parents, Peter and Brenda.
Yesterday, it was revealed he has been charged by the US Coast
Guard with
obstructing law enforcement agents who boarded the Siren Song, after Sarm vanished. He is believed to have stood in a doorway and said officers could not go inside.
Anna, from Whiteley, Hants, said: “It’s hard to understand and it’s hard to know the last place Sarm probably was hasn’t been properly looked at.” Sarm met Ryan on dating app Tinder last July. Police said he called them at 2.30am on the morning she disappeared and they advised him to call the US Coast Guard – which he did, nine hours later. The US Virgin
Islands police
force have said Ryan is not a suspect in Sarm’s disappearance – but they and the FBI still want to speak to him.
Earlier this week, a friend of Sarm and Ryan’s wrote a lengthy 1,700-word Facebook post in support of him.
Flora Pickard, who is from Bournemouth but now works in the US Virgin Islands as a chef, wrote: “I am aching so much now as my heart goes out to poor Ryan.
“I feel almost as heavy for him right now as I do for losing Sarm as I feel like we are losing a second life.”
Describing Sarm, Flora said: “She liked to adventure and party.
“There is a possibility she could still have gone off the boat to someone else’s boat or even ashore.
Sarm and Ryan had been out to dinner and knowing them, they would have had a fair few drinks.
“Sarm also COULD have fallen off the boat whilst she got out of bed for a smoke.
“She could have hit her head, she could have even been kidnapped. But no one actually knows… NOT even Ryan!”
Flora, who shared a photo of Sarm and Ryan on a night out, added that she did not trust local police.
It also emerged yesterday that Mr Bane’s US Virgin Islands lawyer, David Cattie, represented Ghislaine Maxwell, the former girlfriend of paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.