The mother of a woman who vanished without a trace four years ago said that she will ‘never give up’ fighting for answers – as previously unseen footage of her final moments on land have been released.

Former flight attendant Sarm Heslop, 41, described as ‘adventurous’ and a ‘free spirit’ by those closest to her, has not been seen since her boyfriend Ryan Bane discovered her missing from his £500,000 catamaran Siren Song in March 2021. She left her passport, phone and money behind. 

He has said he was awoken up by the anchor alarm going off at 2am that day, at which point he first noticed his girlfriend was no longer onboard after they’d spent an evening out on one of the US Virgin Islands, St John. He reported her missing to the police just half an hour later. 

No suspects are wanted in connection with her disappearance and Ryan has never been questioned by police after pleading his fourth and fifth US amendment rights. The missing person case remains open but the police investigation is now filed as a ‘cold case’. 

However Sarm’s mother Brenda Street and her close friends have not given up hope – and appeared on BBC Breakfast on Saturday morning to vouch their continued efforts.

They promised to keep shedding a light on her disappearance until they can find out the truth about what happened on that fateful evening.

‘What am I going to do without her?’ Brenda shared. ‘I am stronger now, I know I’m crying now but I am stronger now and I am going to do everything I can, I will never give up. I’ll never give up.’ 

Commissioner Mario Brooks of the US Virgin Islands’ police department also appeared on the show’s segment and urged Ryan to cooperate with detectives.

‘You were the last person to have contact with her,’ he told the programme. ‘What is so secretive that you can’t tell us? What? You loved her, that’s your girlfriend, you lived with her on the vessel.

‘She goes missing and all of a sudden, you get silent. You sell the boat, basically come off radar.’ 

In response to the Commissioner’s comments, Ryan’s lawyer said that his client has not been charged or had a warrant issued and that if his presence is required in the US Virgin Islands, he will return voluntarily. 

Sarm’s close friends also said they want to keep searching for answers so they can ‘lay her to rest’.

They spoke to Charlie Stayt and Naga Munchetty in the studio ahead of the release of the BBC2 documentary, Missing in Paradise: Searching for Sarm, which airs over three nights this week. 

‘There’s no peace for her family, her friends,’ Zan Lawther shared. ‘So we want to know what happened to her.’

‘No-one wants to stop [looking] because that feeling of stopping is giving in and letting the unknown truth win as if it’s just going to disappear,’ Kate Vernalls added.

‘I don’t think anyone would do that if their loved one went missing. For us, there is always that want to keep going.’

She noted that the investigation has been ‘really challenging’ for Sarm’s loved ones as the case is being handled more than 4,000 miles away from home – in the US Virgin Islands. 

‘You’re almost blindfolded because you don’t know where to turn next,’ she continued.

‘For the past four and a half years we’ve tried to open as many doors as possible and do our own research and investigation and keep the story out there in the hope that another door will open. 

‘But ultimately, more doors close than open so it is incredibly frustrating.’

Speaking about her missing friend, Kate said that Sarm would often stay in touch via social media, WhatsApp and send voice notes and pictures of her adventures.

‘She wanted to share with everybody what was happening, wherever she was, so communication was really frequent,’ she said. ‘Different styles of communication with different friends but you wouldn’t go a week without hearing from her.

‘[Sarm] wanted adventure, she didn’t want the every day nine to five, she wanted to travel a lot and every opportunity that came along, she would think about it, but inevitably she would do it because she wanted to make sure she was getting the most out of her life and grabbing it with both hands.’

Sarm, who was described as a strong swimmer, had left her home in Southampton in 2019 to sail across the Atlantic and live her dream life in the US Virgin Islands.

In 2020, she matched with Ryan, an American boat captain from Michigan, on a dating app and the pair embarked upon a long distance romance after she was offered work in Malta. 

Upon her return to US Virgin Islands in 2021, she became a cook for guests onboard Siren Song. But things took a dark turn after the couple completed their first charter together. 

The couple went out for the evening on the island of St John on March 7, 2021, with Ryan claiming they were back on the yacht at 10pm. He then said he was woken up by the sound of an anchor alarm at 2am on March 8, and found that the ‘love of his life’ was no longer onboard the vessel. 

Police have now released previously unseen CCTV footage of Sarm’s last movements on land. This comes years after her friends and family put pressure on the force to circulate it in the hopes it would bring new information on the case. 

In the new documentary, Stephen Philip, Chief of Police for the US Virgin Islands, showed the missing Brit’s last recorded moments on land, in the lively Caribbean town of Cruz Bay. 

The CCTV video showed Sarm and Ryan walking on a path near the town’s dinghy dock, with his arm on her lower back as the pair stroll along the pier. 

The couple had spent the evening at a bar named ‘420 to Center’, just a two-minute walk away. 

Sarm can be seen wearing what appears to be a monochrome patterned dress or a top with a matching skirt or shorts, whereas Ryan appeared to sport a short-sleeved patterned white shirt with shorts and flip flops. 

In the clip, Ryan got onto his dinghy first while Sarm waited on the wooden walkway, before following her boyfriend onto the small boat. They made the short journey from Cruz Bay back to Siren Song, which was anchored in the next bay along, Frank Bay. 

Sarm was described by police following her disappearance as a 5ft 8″ Caucasian female of slim build. She has a bright coloured tattoo on her left shoulder featuring a seahorse, bird, butterfly and a pink flower.  

Praising the footage’s ‘huge’ importance, her friend Zan, added: ‘If she had been gone missing here, the CCTV would’ve been released immediately as part of the search for her.

‘Lots of people would’ve seen [them], maybe noticed [something], maybe someone will remember something.’

Kate also shed some light on the difficulties they’ve faced on securing Sarm’s last recorded sighting. 

‘At the beginning we were told there was no CCTV, right back in the early days, and then through the grapevine, which a lot of this has been, we hear there was CCTV footage,’ she explained.

‘As Zan said, we were asked for years for the CCTV footage to be released because we’ve been brought up in this country where that gets shown, you want it out there so people might recognise something.’  

When asked in the documentary why the islands’ police department had finally decided to release the video publicly, Chief of Police Philip remarked: ‘We are at a dead end, if anybody could look at this video and see something and say something, it could help. We are at a dead end road and we need help.’  

Ryan originally told police at the time that the pair arrived back at the boat at 10pm, however, the CCTV footage of them leaving the area is timestamped at 8.45pm.

The trip back to Siren Song in the dinghy would have taken them approximately ten minutes, meaning the pair would’ve got back to the boat at 8.55pm, leaving an hour and five minutes unaccounted for, according to the BBC. 

Widespread searches for the British citizen have turned up nothing in the past four-and-a-half years and despite the mysterious circumstances of her disappearance, police never searched Ryan’s boat.  

A private investigator hired by Sarm’s family, David Johnston, says her boyfriend replaced the freezer on their catamaran after she disappeared in 2021.

‘We know he went to Grenada afterwards and had the freezer replaced on the boat. Why?’ he told Fox News last year. ‘We know he had other parts of the forecabin replaced. Why?’

Local police failed to get a search warrant for his catamaran, Siren Song, before Ryan sailed it out of their jurisdiction. 

In the early hours of March 8, 2021, he had called police from his £500,000 yacht to report Heslop missing. The call was not recorded. 

He then met with police who took a statement and told him to call the Coast Guard, but did not do so until nine hours later – a decision the police commissioner for the territory later said meant crucial hours were lost in their search.

Ryan has since refused requests to co-operate with authorities. Under US law he is classified as ‘a person of interest’ as he was the last person to see Sarm. 

However, he is not classified as a suspect and officers need to show a ‘probable cause’ for a search warrant.

Coast Guard officers asked if they could search the 47ft vessel when they arrived on March 8.  Ryan, who was heavily drunk according to agents, blocked the doorway and became uncooperative, invoking his right to silence after. He was handed a citation, which does not result in a criminal record.

Lawyers representing Ryan had previously said he was ‘devastated’ over the disappearance of his girlfriend. 

Elsewhere Sarm’s mother has also told The People newspaper that she believes her daughter was murdered. 

Speaking to the outlet last year, she shared: ‘I don’t believe Sarm just went missing. I believe she was murdered. I want justice for her.’

After years without answers, the parent added she felt ‘let down’ by police on the Caribbean tourist hotspot and ‘hatred’ for Bane, whom she accuses of not doing enough to help find her daughter. 

Brenda, who has previously travelled to the island as part of the search for her daughter, also told the outlet: ‘There’s too many things that don’t make sense and don’t add up.

‘When we went to the island, people wouldn’t speak to us about Sarm and on the posters asking for information someone had gone round and scrubbed out the number to call.’

She is calling on Ryan to provide the police with everything he knows about her daughter’s disappearance. 

In the new documentary, she can also be seen speaking about the loss of her daughter from her home in Hampshire. Breaking down, she says: ‘What am I going to do without her? I am stronger now and I’m going to do everything I can. I’ll never give up.’ 

His lawyer, David Cattie, said in a statement to the newspaper: ‘Mr Bane is heartbroken over Sarm’s disappearance. 

‘We certainly understand and empathize with her mother’s pain and frustration.’

Missing in Paradise: Searching for Sarm will air on BBC Two at 10pm on September 17th, 18th and 19th