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

[Mandalas]

What a relief to see the FBI's involvement. I do wonder whether RB knew this development was imminent (on the summation those close to the case know more than we do), and that was why he has finally emerged in public.

Fingers crossed things will start progressing finally.

MOO

 

[ApparentlyInDenial]

Am I understanding correctly that the FBI don’t routinely get involved with missing adult cases, unless there’s a suspicion of kidnap or murder?

I know they get involved with missing minors immediately but not sure with adults.

What I’m getting at is that the Feds’ involvement might be meaningful and not just operational. Thoughts?

 

[MrsWatson]

The FBI has the most high tech methods at their disposal, esp with electronics data gathering, getting faster results with evidence.

It's defo meaningful, imo.

ETA: Also, the profiling. the geo data, the psych, the whole shebang.

ETAII: I just googled some info on the FBI and the auto fill in came up with "How do I know the FBI is investigating me?" which I found quite humorous.

 

[tedtink]

Am I understanding correctly that the FBI don’t routinely get involved with missing adult cases, unless there’s a suspicion of kidnap or murder?

I know they get involved with missing minors immediately but not sure with adults.

What I’m getting at is that the Feds’ involvement might be meaningful and not just operational. Thoughts?

In the Telegraph article it says that the FBI getting involved is important as they don't normally investigate common incidents or crimes on the USVI and would only normally investigate serious offences involving US citizens, including murder, drugs smuggling, extortion and sex trafficking.

(paraphrased due to sub only)

 

[Curiousobserver]

My partner and I were talking about this case the other day. He grew up with boats, got his first boat years before his first car - but he’s used to little day boats/ribs you use to get from a to b or go fishing, his mum and aunt and uncle are the ones who sail in sailboats/yachts.
I gave him an outline of the description of what the boyfriend said happened. My partner, although admittedly not familiar with this type of boat or anchor alarms, said if he heard the anchor alarm and I wasn’t on board he would assume I had gone over and was either struggling to hold onto/climb the chain in strong currents or had been messing about with it (ie pulled it up) and got caught in it as it’s gone back down. He said the first thing he would do in that circumstance is call out for me. If he didn’t hear a reply he would have had a torch out and the anchor up to check it wasn’t me setting off the alarm. Then he would have called the coastguard and roused other boats/got people out searching the bay by torchlight in their dinghies.

My brother is an avid sailor on the same types of boats; he has sailed in the America's cup race. His account is virtually identical to this. If the alarm was going off and she wasn't anywhere to be found, he would eventually have assumed she and the alarm were related and that she was either climbing the chain, or caught in the chain, or fell over trying to fix the issue. It might take a few minutes to put 2 and 2 together in the middle of the night but the connection would occur to you. The BF's account of his actions made no sense to him at all. When I told him there was another boat 100 feet away he said he would have immediately shouted over, radioed, cell call, or if need be paddled over to see if she was on it/near it/clinging to it, or trapped on it... but definitely would have woken up everyone.

 

[tedtink]

420 to Center diner and bar in Cruz Bay

Google Maps

 

[MrsWatson]

@Curiousobserver & @SouthPark, thank you for your insight. Very interesting and revealing.

It really annoyed me, those pics in the Daily Fail, of him chugging a can, in the sunshine, on his yacht, with his tiny man ponytail.

 

[JuicyLucy]

Am I understanding correctly that the FBI don’t routinely get involved with missing adult cases, unless there’s a suspicion of kidnap or murder?

I know they get involved with missing minors immediately but not sure with adults.

What I’m getting at is that the Feds’ involvement might be meaningful and not just operational. Thoughts?

What it makes me think of is the Met transferring the Everard case over to Specialised Crime Command because it was 'complex', which turned out to be code for 'we've got a pretty good idea now what happened and we need to call the big boys in so we make sure we nail the '.

JMO though.

 

[Mandalas]

I don't know the ins and outs of how, why or when the FBI might get involved in the case, but their spokesperson confirmed "they are supporting local law enforcement in the investigation, which is being led by the US Virgin Islands Police Department."

From the same article, it mentions they are reportedly interviewing restaurant staff.

To what extent can they get involved in a case on foreign soil? I don't know, but with a little bit of googling there is info on their website about this re their International Operations including rationale on being involved in cases "of interest" overseas, where it is in both country's interests to investigate. Lots more info here on their website, all interesting, too much to paraphrase here! I'm assuming it's ok to share this as it's a LE website, but learning as I go!

 

[MrsWatson]

@Mandalas, thank you for posting that link. I went there to find the link, and got lost looking around.

RB is from Michigan, my home state. I live in the UK now, my husband is a Brit. One of the places we've been interested in for retirement is the Virgin Islands. We've spent time in the area, although not within the past ten years. The island lifestyle is wonderful, but there is a lot of booze involved, it's hard to escape, and anything else you want to use to alter your mood. It can bring out the worst in people and there are people there who go to escape demons.

MOO

 

[Mandalas]

@Curiousobserver & @SouthPark, thank you for your insight. Very interesting and revealing.

It really annoyed me, those pics in the Daily Fail, of him chugging a can, in the sunshine, on his yacht, with his tiny man ponytail.

Agreed, I really enjoyed reading their posts too and it makes me realise how little I know about the realities of that lifestyle, community and region.

So is the FBI involvement likely because of the pressure the friends/family have placed on the authorities locally, and the profile the case received in the international press? Or would they get involved for reasons to do with the case itself? I ask only as (which may be entirely unrelated) the investigation of Lucy Schumann's disappearance from the same island in unusual circumstances (eg. backpack found on cliff path) got very little attention and has since been closed, unresolved. Curious given the resemblance between the two women, not dissimilar similar age too.

Again, I appreciate this is extremely speculative and is only IMO.

For anyone interested, there is a WS thread for the LS case.

Edited to correct typos.

 

[Satchie]

I don't know the ins and outs of how, why or when the FBI might get involved in the case, but their spokesperson confirmed "they are supporting local law enforcement in the investigation, which is being led by the US Virgin Islands Police Department."

From the same article, it mentions they are reportedly interviewing restaurant staff.

To what extent can they get involved in a case on foreign soil? I don't know, but with a little bit of googling there is info on their website about this re their International Operations including rationale on being involved in cases "of interest" overseas, where it is in both country's interests to investigate. Lots more info here on their website, all interesting, too much to paraphrase here! I'm assuming it's ok to share this as it's a LE website, but learning as I go!

Yes, FBI may get involved in foreign crimes, whether it's the victim or the suspect who's an American citizen, for example many cases in Belize.

In this case, the USVI isn't even a foreign country, it's a US territory, residents are US citizens. So I think the assistance would be similar to what they may provide to US states, such as advanced forensics (DNA testing, access and analysis of cellphone and computer data, criminal profiling).

 

[ApparentlyInDenial]

Agreed, I really enjoyed reading their posts too and it makes me realise how little I know about the realities of that lifestyle, community and region.

So is the FBI involvement likely because of the pressure the friends/family have placed on the authorities locally, and the profile the case received in the international press? Or would they get involved for reasons to do with the case itself? I ask only as (which may be entirely unrelated) the investigation of Lucy Schumann's disappearance from the same island in unusual circumstances (eg. backpack found on cliff path) got very little attention and has since been closed, unresolved. Curious given the resemblance between the two women, not dissimilar similar age too.

Again, I appreciate this is extremely speculative and is only IMO.

For anyone interested, there is a WS thread for the LS case.

Edited to correct typos.

They’d get involved at local request for an adult missing person if the suspicion was murder and the locals needed the FBI’s technology (ie labs) or other specific assistance.

USVI is American soil so they could still get involved at their discretion for a kidnapping, murder, extortion case.

I can’t see a public record of the FBI just getting involved in a “plain” missing adult case. By this I think it’s a safe assumption that there is information that something has happened (murder) or happening (kidnap).

 

[Mandalas]

@Mandalas, thank you for posting that link. I went there to find the link, and got lost looking around.

RB is from Michigan, my home state. I live in the UK now, my husband is a Brit. One of the places we've been interested in for retirement is the Virgin Islands. We've spent time in the area, although not within the past ten years. The island lifestyle is wonderful, but there is a lot of booze involved, it's hard to escape, and anything else you want to use to alter your mood. It can bring out the worst in people and there are people there who go to escape demons.

MOO

Yes...it was a bit of a dissertation on legal attachés! Fascinating though.

 

[MsMarple]

Bane’s confidante told DailyMail.com that he had already consented to two searches of Siren Song before he sought legal advice.

‘When they wanted to search a third time he was like, listen, I want you to search for her but she’s not on the boat,’ the friend said. ‘And that got spun into him denying a request to search the boat which wasn’t really the case.
American boyfriend of missing Sarm Heslop is seen on yacht drinking beer | Daily Mail Online

RB consented to two searches? That's the first I've heard about that.

 

[Satchie]

So is the FBI involvement likely because of the pressure the friends/family have placed on the authorities locally, and the profile the case received in the international press? Or would they get involved for reasons to do with the case itself? I ask only as (which may be entirely unrelated) the investigation of Lucy Schumann's disappearance from the same island in unusual circumstances (eg. backpack found on cliff path) got very little attention and has since been closed, unresolved. Curious given the resemblance between the two women, not dissimilar similar age too.

Again, I appreciate this is extremely speculative and is only IMO.

For anyone interested, there is a WS thread for the LS case.

Edited to correct typos.

I think it's the circumstances of a case itself that leads to FBI involvement, certainly not public pressure.

IMO, local LE will have collected enough evidence to show a) there likely was a very serious crime committed and b) they'll be unlikely to solve it using their tools and experience.

In the other case you linked, I don't believe there was ever evidence of a crime, it didn't involve LE at all. IMO, that is likely because there was information left by the victim or by the circumstances that ruled out foul play. For family privacy, this information is never shared with the newsmedia.

 

[Kitkat28]

Bane’s confidante told DailyMail.com that he had already consented to two searches of Siren Song before he sought legal advice.

‘When they wanted to search a third time he was like, listen, I want you to search for her but she’s not on the boat,’ the friend said. ‘And that got spun into him denying a request to search the boat which wasn’t really the case.
American boyfriend of missing Sarm Heslop is seen on yacht drinking beer | Daily Mail Online

RB consented to two searches? That's the first I've heard about that.

I’ve never been on a yacht, but I’m imagining one to be a pretty finite space. I mean, it’s not like searching a building with nooks and crannies, attics and cellars, false walls or hidden rooms. You look at the plan of the boat, you search every inch of it, done. It seems odd that they think they may have missed something.

 

[Satchie]

I’ve never been on a yacht, but I’m imagining one to be a pretty finite space. I mean, it’s not like searching a building with nooks and crannies, attics and cellars, false walls or hidden rooms. You look at the plan of the boat, you search every inch of it, done. It seems odd that they think they may have missed something.

There is looking for objects, or there is looking for evidence using luminol and fingerprint testing, and so forth.

There is also searching the dinghy in the same way, and examining people for physical evidence like scratches.

 

[ApparentlyInDenial]

I’ve never been on a yacht, but I’m imagining one to be a pretty finite space. I mean, it’s not like searching a building with nooks and crannies, attics and cellars, false walls or hidden rooms. You look at the plan of the boat, you search every inch of it, done. It seems odd that they think they may have missed something.

They won’t have used forensic methods though...

 

[MsMarple]

I’ve never been on a yacht, but I’m imagining one to be a pretty finite space. I mean, it’s not like searching a building with nooks and crannies, attics and cellars, false walls or hidden rooms. You look at the plan of the boat, you search every inch of it, done. It seems odd that they think they may have missed something.

The Coast Guard is unlikely to bring a forensics team onboard for a thorough search.

IF that statement by RB's friend is true and someone searched the boat twice then why hasn't that been published before? It seems to me that his lawyer would have said something about a second search.

Weird. Who conducted the second search? Also from that article:

‘He told me they went out, they went to bed, the alarm went off and woke him up and she was gone,’ Bane’s friend told DailyMail.com.

‘He went out on his dinghy and was screaming for her, and trying to find her and yelling her name.
[end]

Yet the man on the boat moored nearby clearly said he and his occupants didn't see or hear anything that night. And in fact he said he was surprised that RB *didn't* raise the alarm.

David Woody was in a group whose boat was moored 100ft from Siren Song, and was surprised Ryan didn’t ask them for help to find Sarm after he woke up alone.

‘I would be trying to find out if (anyone) saw or heard anything,’ Mr Woody said. ‘He could have spoken from his boat to our boat, or motored the dinghy.’
Police have STILL not searched yacht moored in a Caribbean bay where Sarm Heslop went missing | Daily Mail Online

Information seems to be getting muddier rather than clearer as time goes on.

The one fact that's undeniable and unchangeable: Sarm has now been missing for 2 1/2 weeks with no ID or money. I hope the FBI gets to the bottom of her disappearance as USVIPD seems disinterested. MOO.