A mum whose daughter has been missing for two years, after she vanished from her boyfriend's catamaran in the Caribbean, believes she is dead.
Brenda Street says she feels she should grieve for former air hostess daughter Sarm Heslop and says her heart is broken.
There have been no sightings of Sarm since she left a bar on St John in the US Virgin Islands in the early hours with boyfriend Ryan Bane on March 7, 2021.
She vanished from the £500,000 Siren Song at night after the couple returned from a meal ashore and Mr Bane has refused to let detectives to search his boat.
Sarm's possessions, including her bank cards and mobile phone, were on the boat where she had been staying and working with her American boyfriend.
At 2.30am Mr Bane called 911 and reported that he had been woken by the boat’s anchor alarm and found Sarm missing. He was advised to contact the US Coast Guard but did not do so until nine hours later.
And he was later cited for allegedly obstructing their agents who tried to board, reportedly blocking a doorway.
Bane, convicted in 2011 for assaulting a previous partner, has refused to speak to detectives or let them search his 47ft catamaran – which he put up for sale.
His lawyer David Cattie has said his client had been left “heartbroken” by Sarm’s disappearance and he had no hand in any wrongdoing.
Speaking to the BBC, Brenda said: "Now after two years it's not possible she is missing. I don't believe she is still alive - I wish to be able to find her and bring her home. Sarm would never put her family and friends through this torment, this gut wrenching heartache for this long."
Sarm's disappearance is being treated as a missing persons investigation by the Virgin Islands Police Department (VIPD), who have not been able to confirm if Ms Heslop was on board as reported.
Brenda added: "They just seem to try and push it under the carpet. I had an email from the VIPD a couple of weeks ago. That's the first time in 18 months. It said, 'Hope you're doing well, have you any further information?'
"My relationship with the authorities is non-existent, they just ignore us. We sent a long list of questions - lawful and legal ones - but they just didn't reply to us. "They didn't go to the boat to check she was there. They didn't tell the coastguard. If she had fallen overboard, the coastguard would have been there immediately, not nine hours later.
"The FBI and Hampshire police have offered help but they have been turned down."
Speaking to the People in December, Sarm's best friend Kate Owen revealed the missing Brit’s family want UK police to launch their own probe into her disappearance.
Kate said family and friends have become increasingly frustrated at the lack of progress by cops in the US Virgin Islands.
She said: “What we really want more than anything else in the world right now is for the UK police to get involved.
“There’s been no investigation this side, and the one over there hasn’t given us any answers.
“We’re no clearer as to what happened that night than at the start. We need them to get involved.”
Kate had worked alongside Sarm, of Southampton, for the now defunct airline FlyBe and went with her to the US Virgin Islands before she met Mr Bane.
She said: “We’d like the UK police ideally to travel to the US Virgin Islands to question Ryan.
“Sarm deserves someone out there asking questions. They want to help and are willing to, they just need to be invited by the US Virgin Islands Police.”
She added that they have urged local cops to publicly release CCTV images, said to show Sarm heading with Mr Bane to his boat.
Kate said: “The police still have Sarm’s iPhone and iPad. We want them released – we don’t know if they’ve been looked at properly, including checking location data.
“If they could be sent back to her mum we could get our police to look and find out, have messages been deleted? Or was anything done with her phone?
“Did she definitely go back to the boat, or did they go elsewhere? We’re coming up to two years in March. How can they still be investigating those belongings?”
The CCTV was shown to mum Brenda on a visit in March. But she says it raised yet more questions. Kate said: “She isn’t sure the video actually came to an end or if the policewoman stopped it.
“We want to get the CCTV footage released, it’s so vital. Was it Sarm and Ryan? Was it that actual night? Because Sarm wasn’t wearing the clothes that Ryan said she was wearing on the night.”
