Newly released CCTV footage has brought renewed attention to the mysterious disappearance of British woman Sarm Heslop, who vanished from a luxury yacht in the US Virgin Islands more than four years ago. The video, made public on September 13, 2025, is now at the heart of a BBC documentary, Missing In Paradise: Searching For Sarm, and has reignited calls for answers from Heslop’s family and friends, as well as scrutiny of the investigation’s handling and the actions of her American boyfriend, Ryan Bane.
Heslop, originally from Southampton, Hampshire, was last seen in the early hours of March 8, 2021, after spending an evening out on the island of St John. The newly released footage, captured around 20:45 local time on March 7, shows Heslop and Bane walking hand in hand down a wooden dock, boarding a dinghy, and heading back to their yacht, the Siren Song, anchored in a nearby bay. This video, confirmed by police to be authentic, represents the last known sighting of the 41-year-old former flight attendant.
According to BBC News, the footage was recorded six hours before Bane reported Heslop missing. She left behind her passport, phone, and money, a detail that has only deepened the mystery. Despite a massive search operation involving local police and the US Coast Guard, Heslop’s body has never been found. As BBC reports, it is extremely rare for a person to go overboard in these waters and for their body never to be recovered. Commander Jan League of the US Coast Guard remarked, “In the three years I have been here, we've had people go overboard, but we've never had the body go missing.”
Heslop’s mother, Brenda Street, of Ongar in Essex, has spoken candidly about the family’s anguish. “We still haven’t been able to grieve properly. We all deserve to know what happened to her and to bring her home. It’s just so, so unfair,” she told BBC. After years of uncertainty, Street now accepts that her daughter is dead, but the hope of finding answers remains a driving force for the family.
The investigation into Heslop’s disappearance has been marked by controversy and frustration. Steven Phillip, chief of police for the US Virgin Islands, described the case as being at “a dead end.” He explained the decision to release the footage: “If anybody could look at this video and see something and say something it can help. That’s why now.” The hope is that someone, somewhere, might spot a detail that could break the case open.
One of the central issues in the investigation is the timeline provided by Bane. US Virgin Islands police commissioner Mario Brooks told BBC that there were “inconsistencies in the timing of events” given by Bane, calling the timeline “suspicious.” According to Coast Guard reports, Bane claimed the couple returned to the yacht at 22:00, but the CCTV timestamp shows them leaving the dock at 20:45. Given the short five- to ten-minute journey to the next bay, this discrepancy leaves an hour unaccounted for—a gap that has never been fully explained.
Bane, who has never been formally questioned by police, maintains that Heslop likely fell overboard or drowned while swimming. His lawyer, David Cattie, has pushed back against suggestions of wrongdoing, telling the BBC that characterizing the timeline as suspicious was “irresponsible.” Cattie further stated, “People are suggesting he had a hand in her disappearance. There’s no evidence of that at all.” He suggested that the timeline inconsistency could be a simple error, made under the stress of searching for a missing person.
However, Bane’s actions in the hours after Heslop disappeared have drawn criticism from maritime experts and law enforcement alike. After reportedly discovering Heslop was missing at 02:00, Bane contacted police but did not alert the US Coast Guard until 11:46—nine hours later. According to Cdr Jan League, “Minutes count at that point. So waiting nine hours is decreasing the possibility of finding a person in the water.” Other boat captains anchored nearby confirmed to the BBC that Bane did not alert them to the emergency, nor did he call a mayday or shout for Heslop—standard protocol in such situations.
Adding to the controversy, Bane has invoked his rights under the Fourth and Fifth Amendments of the US Constitution, blocking a forensic search of his yacht and declining to answer police questions. His lawyer explained that this was standard legal advice and insisted that Bane would return to the US Virgin Islands if required by authorities. Despite this, Bane left the islands five weeks after Heslop’s disappearance and has not returned, later attempting to sell the Siren Song.
Further scrutiny of Bane’s past has come to light through interviews with his ex-wife, Cori Stevenson. She described a violent incident in 2011 for which Bane was convicted of domestic assault, telling the BBC, “He knocked me to the ground, grabbed my hair and he smashed it [my head] in the floor, breaking my front teeth. He choked me and I passed out.” Stevenson’s account, while alarming, has not been linked by investigators to any violence against Heslop. Cattie, Bane’s lawyer, acknowledged the conviction but insisted, “There’s absolutely no indication that he ever had a violent altercation with Sarm.”
Heslop’s friends and family, unsatisfied with the progress of the investigation, are pushing for the case to be reclassified as a no-body murder investigation. They believe this would allow police to pursue more aggressive investigative tactics. David Johnston, a former Metropolitan Police officer enlisted by the family, told the BBC that if the case were in the UK, it would likely have been treated from the outset as “likely to be a missing person where there is crime involved,” and that the available evidence would have justified arresting Bane for questioning much earlier.
Despite the lack of new leads, the US Virgin Islands Police say they remain committed to finding answers. Commissioner Brooks reiterated that Bane remains the only person of interest, stating, “There was… nothing of evidentiary value that points to Sarm having contact with anyone that night, outside of Ryan.”
The story of Sarm Heslop is now reaching a wider audience through the BBC documentary, which began airing on September 17, 2025, on BBC Two and is available on BBC iPlayer. For Heslop’s family and friends, the hope is that renewed public attention will finally bring the answers they have sought for more than four years. As her mother Brenda put it, “I am stronger now and I'm going to do everything I can and I'll never give up.”
The release of the CCTV footage may not provide all the answers, but it has reignited a determination among those closest to Sarm Heslop—and the wider public—to uncover the truth of what happened on that fateful night in paradise.
