US Virgin Is - Sarm Joan Lillian Heslop, 41, British, aboard vessel Siren Song, St. John, 7 Mar 2021

[pizzaman12]

I’d never begrudge someone for getting an attorney but seems premature to have his attorney making these statements for him. Wonder what he did to afford the boat? I know we can’t sleuth him so it’s a hypothetical question!

I'd imagine the lawyer is deciding what statements to issue and when, not the client. However, I could be wrong

 

[Inthedetails]

So far the reporting on this case seems like it was done by spring break co-eds who skipped most of their journalism classes.

jmo

 

[insearchoflight]

Father living on boat at the time as well?? The mystery thickens. This is a weird one. Poor Sarm

 

[KALI]

According to latest update, apparently boat not yet searched.

Home – #FindSarm

 

[tedtink]

So, if I woke up at 2am to find my partner missing from a boat, I would shouting their name LOUDLY, calling out to the other boats, waking them up, "are they with you, have you seen them"?
Using a searchlight to illuminate the water.
Did RB do any of that?

My first instinct would be, if they were not on the boat, they must be in the water.
Then I would consider other scenario's.

But that's just me.

 

[LietKynes]

IF they went out to eat, had dinner, watched a movie and fell asleep... she should have been found by now. Imo.
So maybe they went out into deeper water, out past the bay ?
Or was she handed off to someone else ?
It doesn't seem likely that she left of her own volition.
Did she find out something nefarious that he was up to ?

Again, the article at the DM mentioned that she's a strong swimmer and is experienced on the water --hardly a novice.
So wouldn't she have easily made it over to another boat, or even the shore ??
MOO

 

[MsMarple]

IF they went out to eat, had dinner, watched a movie and fell asleep... she should have been found by now. Imo.
So maybe they went out into deeper water, out past the bay ?
Or was she handed off to someone else ?
It doesn't seem likely that she left of her own volition.
Did she find out something nefarious that he was up to ?

Again, the article at the DM mentioned that she's a strong swimmer and is experienced on the water --hardly a novice.
So wouldn't she have easily made it over to another boat, or even the shore ??
MOO

Nothing is making sense. Let's say a boat came by and hailed Sarm to go somewhere to a "party." No one on any other boat moored in the same area noticed this boat cruising through. The witness (per msm) saw and heard nothing throughout the night, no anchor alarm, no commotion of Bane searching for Sarm, nothing.

We only have Bane's statement that they returned to the boat at 10 pm. Only Bane says an anchor alarm went off at 2 am. Searches of the water came up empty.

IMO what's left is Sarm could be on land somewhere in the area. Nearly two weeks in and no word from her, with no ID, passport, cell phone or money. So what, she somehow "fled" to St. Thomas, as a ghost on the ferry and chooses to stay invisible even though it's totally against her prior behavior? She ignores the pleas of her parents who are begging USVI LE to search Bane's boat.

Let's say she ran off without any personal belongings in order to escape Bane. Why? Why not come forward?

No, something's wrong. MOO.

 

[whitelilac]

^ I'm also wondering where the father fits into this. It's said he was living on the boat too. So was he there that night? Didn't he worry about Sarm vanishing into thin air? Did he search? Did he go to the dinner as well? Did the dad hear the alarm?

What happened between dinner and sailing back to the mooring spot?
The people on the nearby boat saw Sarm on deck in the "afternoon/evening".
I don't understand any of it....

and good grief, as tedtink above said....why was there no commotion looking for her in the water at 2 am? why didn't Bane and his dad shout out out to Sarm, and the other nearby boats? It's the reasonable thing to do to friggin look for her, she could be in trouble, hurt.
I'm beginning to lean to Sarm not even arriving on the boat at all that night, after the dinner. And if so, didn't the dad ask where she was?
Are Bane and his dad being questioned at all by investigators, with the lawyer ?

 

[realanastasia]

Sarm’s family set up this page: Official Site For Sarm Heslop: Missing Person From USVI | #findsarm

 

[swedeheart]

So, if I woke up at 2am to find my partner missing from a boat, I would shouting their name LOUDLY, calling out to the other boats, waking them up, "are they with you, have you seen them"?
Using a searchlight to illuminate the water.
Did RB do any of that?

My first instinct would be, if they were not on the boat, they must be in the water.
Then I would consider other scenario's.

But that's just me.

Exactly. Not only would you search and scream her name, you'd expect to wake Dad up in the process, and he, in turn, would do the same.

As far as the search on the boat goes, not only would you allow them to search the boat, you would insist that LE get on that boat and find as many clues as possible to her whereabouts. Your girlfriend is missing, possibly at sea!

Isn't that what most of us would do if we loved our girlfriend? (Or even just liked our girlfriend?)

 

[Bogyo13]

^ I'm also wondering where the father fits into this. It's said he was living on the boat too. So was he there that night? Didn't he worry about Sarm vanishing into thin air? Did he search? Did he go to the dinner as well? Did the dad hear the alarm?

What happened between dinner and sailing back to the mooring spot?
The people on the nearby boat saw Sarm on deck in the "afternoon/evening".
I don't understand any of it....

and good grief, as tedtink above said....why was there no commotion looking for her in the water at 2 am? why didn't Bane and his dad shout out out to Sarm, and the other nearby boats? It's the reasonable thing to do to friggin look for her, she could be in trouble, hurt.
I'm beginning to lean to Sarm not even arriving on the boat at all that night, after the dinner. And if so, didn't the dad ask where she was?
Are Bane and his dad being questioned at all by investigators, with the lawyer ?

Great questions, why hasn't the father been mentioned before?
Speculation ONLY to see dynamics:
So it's a family business then? 3 ppl (bf, bf's dad and S plus dog) living on the yacht entertaining tourists? She's cooking, bf I guess being the captain. Dog being cute. What is father's role?
Getting weirder with every news update MOO

 

[MrsWatson]

I'm confused. Was his dad living on the boat WITH Sarm & RB or did he turn up after she went missing? To me, it's not entirely clear from the articles we've seen. Those Spring-Breakers need to put down the beerbongs and do some real reporting.

 

[JuicyLucy]

It strikes me as odd that RB has admitted he woke in the middle of the night to find her gone, even though the next logical questions after that are why didn't you raise the alarm/alert the authorities/activate the MOB protocol/jump up and down screaming and shouting like a loon. If he has something to hide (even something small in the scheme of things, like being too drunk to bother, say) you might expect that he'd gloss over that and say he woke in the morning to find her missing, then contacted LE when he realised she'd left everything behind. It makes me think something happened in the small hours that he had a reasonable concern might have been seen or heard by witnesses, creating the need for a story of some kind of activity on the boat. As it is, a witness claims to have heard a scream at about 1am, which may or may not be related.

On balance, I feel she did make it back to the boat but what happened then is a mystery. I could get on board with the idea of a row and an assault, and her jumping overboard and swimming to shore to get away from him, but I can't believe she wouldn't have made contact by now if still alive. If not alive, why is there no body? I don't know that region. Is it plausible that a body would just get washed away? Everyone seems agreed the water is shallow and clear, yet nothing's been found. From a murderer's perspective, it would be a risky move to dispose of a body overboard, surely, but perhaps if you knew local LE was slack it might be a calculated one.

If I weren't a complete duffer about all things maritime, I think I would be taking a close look at the local tide timetables for that night and the following day.

JMO/speculation

 

[Curiousobserver]

It strikes me as odd that RB has admitted he woke in the middle of the night to find her gone, even though the next logical questions after that are why didn't you raise the alarm/alert the authorities/activate the MOB protocol/jump up and down screaming and shouting like a loon. If he has something to hide (even something small in the scheme of things, like being too drunk to bother, say) you might expect that he'd gloss over that and say he woke in the morning to find her missing, then contacted LE when he realised she'd left everything behind. It makes me think something happened in the small hours that he had a reasonable concern might have been seen or heard by witnesses, creating the need for a story of some kind of activity on the boat. As it is, a witness claims to have heard a scream at about 1am, which may or may not be related.

On balance, I feel she did make it back to the boat but what happened then is a mystery. I could get on board with the idea of a row and an assault, and her jumping overboard and swimming to shore to get away from him, but I can't believe she wouldn't have made contact by now if still alive. If not alive, why is there no body? I don't know that region. Is it plausible that a body would just get washed away? Everyone seems agreed the water is shallow and clear, yet nothing's been found. From a murderer's perspective, it would be a risky move to dispose of a body overboard, surely, but perhaps if you knew local LE was slack it might be a calculated one.

If I weren't a complete duffer about all things maritime, I think I would be taking a close look at the local tide timetables for that night and the following day.

JMO/speculation

I agree- if you're going to make up a story, make it sound reasonable.

Perhaps the anchor alarm did go off, his father got up and noticed that S didn't show up to help and asked why. This might be the unplanned thing.

 

[swedeheart]

Apologies if this has been posted already, but looks like Nancy has picked it up the story. Maybe she'll do a podcast about it today or next week.

Sarm Heslop: Boyfriend won’t let police search his boat in missing person case on ‘attorney’s advice’

 

[Inthedetails]

I agree- if you're going to make up a story, make it sound reasonable.

Perhaps the anchor alarm did go off, his father got up and noticed that S didn't show up to help and asked why. This might be the unplanned thing.

Yeah, I'm wondering if the dad noticed her missing at 2am and that's why the boyfriend called LE.

If he harmed her, you'd expect him to wait until later in the morning and say she was gone when he woke up. The 2am alarm is odd, imo, especially since they didn't call out to neighboring boats or make a commotion that awoke neighbors.

jmo

 

[JerseyGirl]

A Coast Guard spokesman issued the following statement, confirming that Coast Guard personnel did board the vessel:

"On March 8, gthe Coast Guard received a report of a possible person in the water from the sailing vessel Siren Song," says the statement from Lt. Cmdr. Jason Neiman, public affairs officer of the Seventh Coast Guard District.

"As part of the search and rescue effort, the Coast Guard went aboard the vessel to interview and gather information from the reporting source. Later, the Coast Guard returned to the vessel to conduct a standard vessel safety check to ensure proper equipment and compliance with applicable rules and regulations for vessel type and operation.

"After an extensive search, no sign of distress reported by aviation or marine units, no response to the urgent marine information broadcast, and no additional or correlating information to support further surface search efforts, the Coast Guard suspended the active search."

The VIPD now says that Bane is not answering questions and will not allow authorities to search the boat.

"Soon after reporting Ms. Heslop missing, Mr. Bane acquired the services of an attorney," a VIPD spokesperson said Friday. "Upon his attorney’s advice, Mr. Bane exercised his constitutional right to remain silent and denied officers’ requests to search the vessel."

Virgin Islands disappearance: Friends of missing UK woman push for new search of American boyfriend's boat

It appears that the coast guard did do a search of the vessel but did not search the nooks and crannies of the hull section. After their standard safety check “search” he refused further inspection.

 

[zelmajane]

Thanks @Tortoise for the superb timeline!

Apart from 10pm close for the restaurants, what are the covid restrictions there, is it known?
Perhaps more patrolling the waters, tourism restrictions etc??

Pretty sure curfew is 11pm right now. Not 10pm.

So far the reporting on this case seems like it was done by spring break co-eds who skipped most of their journalism classes.

jmo

That’s VIFreePress. Great description.

VIConsortium is a fantastic publication written almost in the Queens English.

I need to look in to that attorney. If he wasn’t born there, that isn’t who I would use.

 

[pizzaman12]

The anchor drag software would have record if it went off at 2am. Getting that info is going to require a warrant.

While lying about it seems silly, people tend to make a lot of mistakes

 

[whitelilac]

Why would an attorney advise him on refusing the search? "Constitutional rights", while his gf is missing? GMAB, and for 12 days already? Boat could have indications of why Sarm may have left, that Bane missed. His "constitutional rights" demand only makes him look more suspicious. That in turn could stop people from searching the waters and land for a woman that may be alive and in trouble. Why wouldn't he want all the help he could have?

Is she on the boat? Do 47 ft cats have a freezer...especially since this is a charter boat for groups of guests?