Boyfriend of missing Sarm Heslop is now a pilot, says his ex-wife

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The boyfriend of Sarm Heslop final seen alive on his yacht has allegedly instructed pals “he can’t do the boating thing anymore” and has taken to the skies to be a pilot, his ex-wife has mentioned.

Ms Heslop, 41, vanished from her American boyfriend Ryan Bane’s 47-foot luxurious catamaran Siren Song on 8 March 2021.

The former flight attendant was final seen boarding Mr Bane’s boat, the place she had been working as a chef on Caribbean excursions, after the couple matched on Tinder eight months earlier. They had been out for dinner on the bar 420 to Center on St John, earlier than returning to the £500,000 catamaran.

In Florida, Cori Stevenson, who was married to Ryan Bane from 2008 to 2014, mentioned her coronary heart sunk when she heard the information that Ms Heslop had gone missing.

She instructed The Independent three years on from the disappearance: “He was like a dream. The perfect boyfriend. But it was all a lie. He is a total narcissist with no empathy whatsoever. He truly does not care about people.

“He was angry. But he would flip out about weird things. I was trauma-bonded to him. It was very hard to get away but I did it.”

She instantly rang US Virgin Islands police (USVIPD) to inform them of Mr Bane’s historical past with girls, how he dragged her from a truck and hit her head on the bottom, his alleged threats to kill, and his 2011 jail sentence for home abuse.

On her final contact with Mr Bane, now 46, she mentioned: “He was threatening me in the courtroom that he was going to come inside my house.

“I told him go ahead, I have a shotgun waiting for you. I actually slept with a shotgun for two years.”

After Ms Heslop’s disappearance, the ocean captain waited till 11.46am the following day to name the coastguard – a nine-hour hole which her pals and now household need him to supply a timeline for.

Mr Bane has by no means been formally interviewed by police and no forensic search of the boat, Siren Song, was ever carried out.

Police known as Mr Bane a “person of interest” within the case however didn’t get hold of a search warrant for his yacht, which is believed to have since modified possession.

He sailed off “into the sunset”, in accordance with former Metropolitan Police detective David Johnston employed by the household within the days after the disappearance, and allegedly offered the boat in Granada earlier than photos emerged of him hitting the health club in his residence state of Michigan.

Mr Bane approached the cousins of Ms Stevenson in a Planet Fitness health club in February, she mentioned, prompting them to drag out their telephones as they requested him in regards to the disappearance of Ms Heslop.

Ms Stevenson mentioned: “He has been showing up in Lake Orion where we are from.

“When he spoke to my cousin Gary, Gary looked at him and asked him questions and Ryan walked away. He didn’t say anything.

“Then I asked my cousins to take photos of him. They told me he looked different.

“A few years ago he told a mutual friend he sold the boat and said he ‘couldn’t do the boating thing anymore’, so now he is just flying being a pilot instead.”

Asked if she believed he would cooperate with Virgin Island authorities, she mentioned: “No, never. He’s never done anything wrong, just ask him.”

Ms Heslop’s mom Brenda Street, 67, has spoken of how she believes her daughter was murdered however doesn’t accuse Mr Bane of having any half in her daughter’s dying.

It has now emerged that he blocked Ms Street 48 hours after telling her he liked Ms Heslop and was doing the whole lot he might to seek out her off the coast of St John within the US Virgin Islands.

But coastguard reviews say they discovered him 9 hours intoxicated on a boat and refused entry on the recommendation of his lawyer.

Ms Stevenson mentioned she has been in common contact with Ms Heslop’s household and pals, who’re nonetheless looking for solutions on her disappearance three years on.

She added: “Anytime Brenda sends me a message, I just cry. I can’t help it. My heart breaks for her. I could never imagine what she has gone through.”

Mr Bane, who has at all times denied any wrongdoing, failed to permit a forensic search of his yacht, a US Defense Department report on the preliminary call-out states. The Virgin Islands Police Department has additionally beforehand appealed for Mr Bane to contact them to assist with the investigation.

His lawyer David Cattie, additionally employed by disgraced socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, mentioned: “Mr Bane is heartbroken over Sarm’s disappearance. We certainly understand and empathise with her mother’s pain and frustration.

“Mr Bane called 911 immediately upon waking and finding Sarm was not on board. He took his dinghy to shore to meet with VIPD that night and called the USCG the next day when no one appeared at his boat. He also had the USCG on his vessel twice following Sarm’s disappearance. Later Mr Bane and I personally took all of Sarm’s belongings to the police, including all of her electronic devices.”