Sarm Heslop vanished from her boyfriend's moored luxury catamaran three years ago. Her mother says she believes her daughter was murdered.
The British mother of missing woman Sarm Heslop has broken her public silence, saying she now belives her daughter was murdered.
Heslop was last seen as she left a bar in the U.S. Virgin Islands with boyfriend Ryan Bane on March 7, 2021. Bane reported her missing from his luxury catamaran at 2:30 a.m., the next day, saying he awoke to find her missing from the Siren Song, which was moored off St. John's island, authorities said.
The couple had been living on the vessel, police said.
In an interview with a British media outlet, the missing woman's mother, 67-year-old Brenda Street, said she blames local police and Bane for not doing more to find her daughter.
"I want justice for her," Bane told The People newspaper. "I want to bring her home so I know where she is. She deserves that," the mother said.
Heslop was 41 when she disappeared. She had met Bane on Tinder eight months before she went missing, her friends have said.
Street has visited the island, trying to learn more about her missing daughter, who was a former flight attendant.
"There's too many things that don't make sense and don't add up," the mother told the newspaper.
Despite water searches by the U.S. Coast Guard and an ongoing police investigation, no trace of the woman has been found and no one has been charged in connection with her missing person case.
Bane's attorney, David Cattie, sent a statement to the news outlet, saying his client was "heartbroken" over Heslop's disappearance.
"We certainly understand and empathise with her mother's pain and frustration," the statement said.
"Mr. Bane called 911 immediately upon waking and finding Sarm was not on board," the attorney said.
Bane met investigators from the Virgin Islands Police Department after reporting her missing, his lawyer said. Coast Guard officers twice boarded Bane's vessel, Cattie said.
"Later Mr Bane and I personally took all of Sarm's belongings to the police, including all of her electronic devices," the attorney said.
The woman's family and friends have established a Facebook page for information and updates on her case.
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