On the night of 7 March 2021, Sarm Heslop disappeared from Siren Song, a luxury charter yacht in the Caribbean where she was living with her boyfriend, Ryan Bane. She hasn’t been seen since and her body has never been found.
Now in a new BBC documentary series Missing in Paradise: Searching for Sarm (3×30’), journalist Tir Dhondy investigates the circumstances around her disappearance: did she vanish of her own accord? Was there a terrible accident? Or has something more sinister happened?
Tir Dhondy said: “Sarm’s possessions including her passport, wallet and phone were still onboard the catamaran when she vanished. There are so many unanswered questions about her disappearance. I’ve tested the theories and the timeline to understand the facts in this missing person case that has left a family devastated.”
Over three episodes Tir retraces Sarm’s steps whilst also interviewing the police who led the investigation, the coastguard and possible witnesses. Featuring testimony from the people closest to Sarm, friends and family describe the nightmare they have faced since she went missing and have been fighting for answers about what happened that night ever since.
Sarm Heslop was in a relationship with Ryan Bane, a US citizen, and had been staying and working with him on his catamaran Siren Song. They were moored off the US Virgin Islands in the Caribbean. They had gone to a bar on the island of St John on the evening of 7th March. He reported her missing from his catamaran around 02:30 local time on the 8th March and told police she may have fallen overboard during the night.
It was around noon that day that Ryan informed the coastguard about her disappearance who then began a search and rescue operation. The police say they instructed Ryan to call the coastguard immediately to report Sarm missing but Ryan says he believed the police would be contacting them.
The coastguard conducted a limited safety check of the catamaran. However when they returned to the boat later that day, on advice from his lawyer Ryan didn’t allow them to do a full forensic search and refused questioning by the police, invoking his US Amendment rights. For the first time, Tir gets to question Ryan’s account of what happened through his lawyer David Cattie. Bane denies any wrongdoing and maintains that Sarm had a tragic accident whilst he was sleeping.
Tir investigates the possibility that Sarm fell overboard and what could have happened to her body and if it could have drifted outside of the coastguard’s search area. She also hears from a reporter who covered the case – she tells Tir there are around 40 missing persons cases on the islands some dating back many years.
In the documentary Tir hears serious concerns about the US Virgin Island’s Police Department investigation. For the first time, police release CCTV footage of Sarm’s movements on the night she disappeared which is exclusively shown in the documentary.
Five weeks after Sarm went missing, Bane sailed away from the US Virgin Islands on Siren Song and has never returned. As part of the investigation, Tir looks into what happened to Siren Song which Bane says he sold after her disappearance.
Missing in Paradise: Searching for Sarm is a BBC Current Affairs documentary series for BBC Two and BBC Three. It is Directed by Alexander Nott and the Executive Producer is Sarah Waldron. The commissioners are Nasfim Haque for BBC Three, and Joanna Carr for BBC Current Affairs.
Missing in Paradise: Searching for Sarm will air on BBC Two at 10pm on Wednesday 17 September, Thursday 18 September and Friday 19 September. All three episodes will be available on BBC iPlayer from 6am on Wednesday 17 September.
Missing in Paradise: Searching for Sarm will also be shown on BBC Three from 9pm on Monday 22 September.
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