A FRIEND of a woman who vanished from a yacht in the US Virgin Islands last year has appealed for help from the UK authorities.

Sarm Heslop, 41, disappeared from the catamaran Siren Song, owned and operated by her American boyfriend Ryan Bane, while off the coast of St John in the early hours of March 8 2021.\

The boat has never been searched and Mr Bane has not been questioned by police.

Speaking to GB News today (THUR) Sarm’s friend Kate Owen commented on whether she felt Mr Bane was the prime suspect.

She said: “This is the difficult thing. It’s understanding American laws in relation to UK laws that we’ve all grown up around.

“Apparently, you can exercise the fourth and fifth amendment over there and that allows him to protect himself. Basically, he didn’t have to go in for questioning on the advice of his lawyer.

“These are things that we’re still having to ask ourselves as to why he hasn’t been questioned, the boat hasn’t been forensically searched. That’s why we just really want the UK forces to get involved with this. They’re willing to.

“Unfortunately, over there, also in the US Virgin Islands, police have to invite other police forces to join the investigation – and so far they’re not doing that.”

Commenting on how she found Sarm’s boyfriend Ryan, she said: “When I first met him, I thought he was lovely. He was charming, charismatic, really outgoing and fun to be around. And I thought, yeah, he’s suited to Sarm really well.

“They were together for a few months. I met him several times. They spent time with me and my partner as well and we really liked him, there was no concern whatsoever. When she said she was going back to work with him on his boat, we actually encouraged her to do that.

“My mind changes daily. It goes from horrific really dark thoughts of what could have happened, which you obviously don’t want to think about, up until, you know, she could have fallen off that boat.

“It’s not impossible but it’s very, very unlikely that she fell off that boat.”

Recalling how Sarm and her Ryan were last seen in a bar, Kate continued: “I messaged her to see how the first charter had gone and she actually seemed fine. They were seen by other friends as well. They seemed to be just chilling after a day’s work and really fun. She sounded absolutely fine.”

Kate said one of the biggest frustrations is around CCTV footage seemingly showing Sarm’s last moments.

“It is a strange one,” she said. “So her parents were shown the CCTV footage when they visited the Virgin Islands and then according to her mum, the police officer, stood up and stopped the tape at the end but we’re not actually sure it was the end of the tape. They’re not clear on the timestamp and the date of it.

“We don’t know if it definitely was Sarm’s last movements, we’ve been told it is. It was them walking along the promenade towards their dinghy, they would have got to take them back to the boat…

“But they won’t release the footage. They say it’s part of an ongoing investigation. So we’re now asking what is the ongoing investigation that you’re doing? And we’re just getting no communication from the police at all.”

On the whereabouts of Ryan, Kate, from Portsmouth, Hants, said: “We believe he’s in Grenada. People are keeping an eye on him, the sailing community is a big community and we all look after each other…we do get updates of where he is.

“Last we heard it was Grenada, we don’t know what he’s doing for work. We believe his boat is up for sale. But he’s blocked me. He doesn’t talk to me anymore.

“We did have a conversation for a while afterwards, but I can’t reach him by phone. He doesn’t answer my messages and he’s blocked me on Facebook.”