Brenda Street is desperate for answers about what happened to missing sailor Sarm after she vanished from partner Ryan Bane’s yacht in the US Virgin Islands four years ago
The mum of missing British sailor Sarm Heslop has made an emotional plea to Donald Trump to force her daughter’s US boyfriend to be questioned.
Brenda Street is desperate for answers about what happened to Sarm after she vanished from partner Ryan Bane’s yacht in the US Virgin Islands four years ago. Ryan was the last person to see Sarm, but he has refused to co-operate with the authorities. And under US law he can remain silent.
Brenda, 69, says: “I think Trump is likely to do more than anyone else so far. I’d like him to push for the investigation to be done properly – to appeal for Bane to come forward and to order a forensic search of his yacht. It makes me very angry and disappointed that Bane has not been brought in for formal questioning. He is wandering around doing his own thing while we’ve put our lives on hold. If [Trump] could put out an appeal that’d be amazing.”
Ryan’s lawyer has confirmed that there is no fact indicating that his client did anything untoward whatsoever to Sarm. Brenda’s plea to the US president comes days after she claimed in a BBC documentary that Ryan was involved in her girl’s disappearance.
Former air hostess Sarm, 41, was living on his £500,000 yacht Siren Song off the US Virgin Island of St John when she went missing on March 8, 2021. That night, Ryan called 911 and said he had been woken to find Sarm gone and the boat’s anchor alarm sounding. He was reportedly advised to contact the US Coast Guard immediately but did not do so for nine hours.
He was later accused of obstructing Coast Guard agents who tried to board the boat. Brenda was initially in contact with Ryan but claims he later blocked her phone. She believes he would have spoken freely to the authorities if he had nothing to hide.
She said she feels “if his conscience is clear he would come forward and provide a minute-by-minute account of what happened”. She adds: “He’s the only person of interest because there was nobody else around.”
Sarm met Ryan, then 49, on dating app Tinder. After her disappearance, it emerged he had been convicted of assaulting his ex-wife. Brenda is calling for all matchmaking platforms to introduce criminal record checks, saying: “It should be standard on all dating websites. If that had been in place, he wouldn’t have been allowed on the app in the first place. And if Sarm had known, she would have upped and left.”
Despite her agony, Brenda, of Ongar, Essex, tries to remember the happy times spent with her “loving, adventurous” daughter who “lit up every room”. She says: “I think about her every day. Her birthday is two weeks before Christmas, so I always buy her a card and it sits on the side next to a photo of us both at my wedding. I also have a tipple for her on occasions, like her birthday and Christmas.
“She loved holiday time. I try to think of her in that light instead of imagining what happened to her. I still can’t get my head around how she’s never coming home. It’s still hard to believe. We just want to know where she is.”
In a statement to the BBC, Ryan’s lawyer David Cattie said his client called 911 as soon as he woke and realised Sarm was not on board and said that he did allow the US Coast Guard on his vessel twice. He added: “No one wants to say ‘Oh, my daughter slipped and fell off a boat’ or ‘She went swimming and is missing’. It is easier to have someone to blame. I think it’s a protective mechanism for the mother. She has an outlet for her frustration, for her anger. These are emotional reactions. They are not reactions based on fact because there is no fact indicating that Ryan did anything untoward whatsoever to Sarm.”