CCTV released exclusively to the BBC shows the last recorded sighting of 41-year-old Sarm Heslop before she was reported missing in March 2021. Her disappearance remains unsolved. minotaur fight store | minotaurfightstore

Cruz Bay, US Virgin Islands — New CCTV footage, obtained by the BBC and published for the first time, records the final confirmed sighting of British woman Sarm Heslop on the night she disappeared from a luxury charter catamaran in March 2021.

The clip shows Heslop and her then-partner, US boat captain Ryan Bane, walking hand-in-hand along a wooden dock after an evening at a bar on St John. They board a dinghy and motor into the darkness toward a nearby bay where Bane’s catamaran, Siren Song, was anchored. Six hours later, Heslop was reported missing and feared lost at sea. Her body has never been found.

Heslop, 41 and originally from Southampton, had been living and working at sea since leaving the UK in 2019. Friends describe her as a “free spirit” who sailed across the Atlantic and later took a job as a chef on charter yachts. She completed her first charter aboard Siren Song on 7 March 2021 — the same night she vanished, leaving behind her passport, phone and money.

Police in the US Virgin Islands and the US Coast Guard launched a substantial search operation. Boats and a helicopter scoured the waters around the yacht’s anchorage, but no trace of Heslop was recovered. The investigation remains open; the case is currently classified as a missing-person inquiry.

Timeline questions and a missing hour

The CCTV’s timestamp — which local police say they have verified — records the couple leaving the Cruz Bay dinghy dock at 20:45 local time. According to the island’s geography and typical dinghy travel times, the pair should have returned to the yacht by around 21:00. In his account to authorities, however, Bane indicated the couple returned to the yacht at about 22:00. Bane later told police he discovered Heslop missing at around 02:00.

US Virgin Islands police commissioner Mario Brooks has described the timeline as “suspicious” and has said Bane remains the principal person of interest because there is no evidence indicating Heslop was in contact with anyone else that night. Bane has not been charged; his lawyer, David Cattie, has repeatedly argued there is no evidence tying his client to any wrongdoing.

Cattie told the BBC that Bane believes Heslop may have become disoriented while swimming or struck her head and fallen overboard. He also said any timeline discrepancies could be attributable to the stress of the situation and imperfect recollection. Bane has declined to answer detailed police questioning, invoking his Fifth Amendment rights, and has asserted Fourth Amendment protections to resist forensic searches of his yacht.

Criticism of the early response

The investigation has drawn criticism from Heslop’s family and some policing experts over how the disappearance was handled in the hours after she was first reported missing. According to US Coast Guard statements cited in the BBC reporting, Bane first gave a brief statement to police shortly after arriving ashore at 02:44. The BBC found that the coastguard search did not begin until roughly 11 hours after a missing-person report was made to police.

Cdr Jan League of the US Coast Guard emphasized the importance of immediate action in overboard cases. “Minutes count at that point,” she said, noting that waiting to notify the coastguard reduces the chances of finding someone in the water.

Fellow captains anchored nearby told the BBC that they were not alerted that night, nor were they contacted the following morning — actions they said would be expected under standard maritime practice. Bane’s lawyer has acknowledged his client did not take every step “you would say a boat captain is absolutely supposed to do,” but maintained this does not equate to criminal culpability.

Allegations and background

As the investigation continued, the BBC traced aspects of Bane’s past. An ex-wife recounted incidents of domestic violence for which Bane received a 60-day sentence and later divorced in 2014. Cattie acknowledged the prior conviction but said there is “absolutely no indication” Bane was violent toward Heslop.

Heslop’s family — led by her mother, Brenda — have campaigned for renewed scrutiny and for the case to be reclassified as a homicide investigation without a body, which would open wider investigative powers. They say the uncertainty has made it impossible to grieve properly.

“If somebody could look at this video and see something and say something, it can help,” Commissioner Phillip, the islands’ chief of police, told the BBC when handing over the CCTV. The police have said they remain committed to pursuing any viable leads.

Ongoing questions

Former Metropolitan Police officer David Johnston, assisting the family, has argued that elements of the case would have prompted more immediate criminal investigation had the disappearance occurred in the UK. Investigators, family and friends continue to press for answers about the unexplained gap in the timeline and the decision-making in the critical hours after Heslop was first reported missing.

A BBC Three documentary, Missing in Paradise: Searching for Sarm, which includes the newly released footage, explores the circumstances of Heslop’s disappearance and the subsequent investigation.

For now, Sarm Heslop’s fate remains unresolved. Her family say they will not stop seeking the truth. “We still haven’t been able to grieve properly,” Brenda Heslop said. “We all deserve to know what happened to her and to bring her home.”