A British Woman Vanished in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Her American Boyfriend Has Stopped Cooperating.

For almost two weeks, police have been desperately searching for Sarm Heslop, a British flight attendant who vanished from a boat off the coast of the U.S. Virgin Islands.

That search, however, has become increasingly harder after her American boyfriend, 44-year-old Ryan Bane, stopped cooperating with police and barred them from searching the vessel. To make matters worse, it appears Bane has a history of domestic violence, his ex-wife said in a new interview.

Now, Heslop’s friends and family are fed up.

“We are shocked and distraught that Sarm is missing. We would like assurance that the authorities in the Virgin Islands are doing everything possible to find her and that the investigation into our beautiful and cherished daughter’s disappearance includes a comprehensive fingertip search of the boat,” her family said in a Saturday statement.

“Our daughter is a UK citizen and we ask for all of the support that the UK authorities have to offer. We will never give up looking for Sarm and we still have hope of finding her safe.”

Virgin Islands Police say Heslop, 41, was last seen on the vessel Siren Song—which is owned by Bane—on March 7 after the pair went out to dinner. Hours later, at around 2:30 a.m., Bane called authorities to report her missing.

When officers arrived at the boat, moored in Frank Bay, St. John, Bane said that the pair had sailed from St. Thomas and had gone to bed around 10 p.m. Bane explained that he was woken about four hours later to the ship’s anchor alarm, and noticed his girlfriend was gone.

But soon after officers performed an initial land search and asked Bane to contact the U.S. Coast Guard, the 44-year-old Michigan native lawyered up and barred police from his boat. The U.S. Coast Guard said it was first alerted to the incident at around 11:46 am on March 8—when Bane called to say his girlfriend may have fallen off the 47-foot catamaran.

“Soon after reporting Ms. Heslop missing, Mr. Bane acquired the services of an attorney,” a police spokesperson said in a statement. “Upon his attorney’s advice, Mr. Bane exercised his constitutional right to remain silent and denied officers’ requests to search the vessel.”