Associates of a British girl who has been lacking within the US Virgin Islands for greater than two weeks have known as for authorities there to “prioritise the investigation” into her disappearance.
The US Virgin Islands Police Division (VIPD) mentioned Sarm Heslop, 41, a Southampton resident, was final seen on 7 March off the coast of St John on the Siren Tune, a catamaran her associates say is owned and operated by her American boyfriend, Ryan Bane.
US and British media, quoting a police spokesperson, mentioned Bane had refused to permit police to look his vessel, with a Fb replace from the Discover Sarm group on Tuesday expressing hope the media consideration “pushes the VIPD to prioritise the investigation”.
Heslop’s buddy within the UK, Andrew Baldwin,41, queried the timeline round when the Briton disappeared in an announcement on findsarm.com.
He mentioned: “We all know that Mr Bane known as the native police at 2.30am and was advised to name the coastguard. The coastguard was reported as saying that it was alerted to her disappearance by Mr Bane at 11.46am on Monday. This timeline simply doesn’t make sense to us.
“We additionally can’t perceive why Mr Bane’s lawyer has denied officers’ requests to look the boat and exercised his constitutional rights to stay silent.
“We all know that they had dinner in an area restaurant and left at 10pm. What we don’t know is what occurred in these intervening hours.”
The group additionally printed an announcement from Heslop’s household.
The mentioned: “We’re shocked and distraught that Sarm is lacking. We want assurance that the authorities within the Virgin Islands are doing all the things doable to search out her and that the investigation into our lovely and cherished daughter’s disappearance features a complete fingertip search of the boat.
“Our daughter is a UK citizen and we ask for the entire help that the UK authorities have to supply. Our thanks go to the native folks of St John who proceed to seek for Sarm.
“We’ll by no means quit on the lookout for Sarm and we nonetheless have hope of discovering her protected.”
In a tweet on Wednesday morning, the VIPD reissued an attraction for details about Heslop and an 81-year-old man in an unrelated search, including: “When you’ve got info on both of their whereabouts, you might be urged to name police.”