We dream of wrapping our arms round darling Sarm
Parents devastated they cannot join search
THE heartbroken parents of missing Brit Sarm Heslop have told of their despair at not being able to join the search for their daughter.
Sarm, 41, vanished from her boyfriend’s boat in the US Virgin Islands 26 days ago.
Wealthy American Ryan Bane has so far refused to let police search his £500,000 catamaran Siren Song, where she was last seen.
Now Sarm’s parents, Peter and Brenda, are increasingly desperate to get to the Caribbean but have been hampered by UK Covid restrictions.
They said: “If we could travel, we would – we just want to be out there helping with the search and we dream of being able to wrap our arms round our darling daughter.
“It is now over three weeks since Sarm went missing.
ALARM
“We know the Virgin Islands Police Department is doing as much as possible and we are happy Hampshire Police is also assisting their investigation.
“We want to say a heartfelt thanks to the local community for continuing their efforts to help search for Sarm.”
The former flight attendant, who worked for the now defunct airline Flybe, left Britain 15 months ago to start a new life in the Caribbean.
Sarm, from Southampton, met Mr Bane on Tinder last July.
He told police he raised the alarm after finding Sarm was missing at 2am on March 8.
Mr Bane said he had been woken by his catamaran’s anchor alarm, which sounded to warn it was drifting off the coast of St John, the smallest of the US Virgin Islands.
Officers say they got his call at 2.30am and told him to contact the Coast Guard – which he did, nine hours later.
Local police have previously said Mr Bane is not a suspect in Sarm’s disappearance – but both they and the FBI want to speak to him.
Detectives have since appealed for him to let them on board the 47ft catamaran, and revealed they could go to court to break the deadlock.
Police spokesman Toby Derima said yesterday: “We still want to search the boat. Mr Bane hasn’t
We need probable cause to get search warrant
TOBY DERIMA ON MOVE TO SEARCH BANE BOAT
co-operated yet. He’s still refusing us and we are still working to see what other angles we can use to find out exactly what happened.
“We could get a search warrant, but we would need to have enough probable cause so that a judge would give us permission.
“On top of the searching we’re doing, some of it is trying to find probable cause. If we have enough, a judge will grant us the warrant.”
When asked what police would need to prove probable cause,
Mr Derima added: “That I won’t get into. Because that is actually part of the active investigation – and if we give that out, people could take steps to make sure we don’t get it.
“The search is still ongoing. As long as there’s some kind of hope, they’ll keep searching. Anyone with REFUSAL
information can contact the Virgin Islands Police Department. Any piece of information, no matter how insignificant, could be crucial.”
Last week, it was revealed that Mr Bane had been charged by the US Coast Guard with obstructing law enforcement agents who boarded his boat after Sarm’s disappearance. Mr Bane was handed a citation, which does not count as a criminal record, for
refusing
to let officers inside the vessel. When they boarded anyway, he is believed to have stood in a doorway and told them they could not go inside.
Mr Bane has since hired Virgin Islands attorney David Cattie – who has previously represented British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell.
When asked if the Virgin Islands Police Department were in touch with Mr Bane, Mr Derima said: “Law enforcement knows where he is. He’s still in the US Virgin Islands.”