Boyfriend of woman missing in US Virgin Islands was previously arrested for domestic violence: report
Sarm Heslop was last seen on Ryan Bane's boat on March 7
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The boyfriend of a woman who went missing in the U.S. Virgin Islands two weeks ago was arrested for domestic violence in a previous marriage a decade ago, Crime Online reports.
Sarm Heslop, a 41-year-old British woman, vanished from 44-year-old Ryan Bane's boat in the U.S. Virgin Islands after the couple returned from dinner on March 7.
Bane awoke around 2:30 a.m. on March 8 and discovered that Heslop was missing from the boat, at which point he called the police to make a report.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Sarm Heslop, 41, was last seen aboard her boyfriend's boat in the U.S. Virgin Islands on March 7.
He has since acquired a lawyer and has not allowed authorities to search the boat that Heslop disappeared from.
Cori Stevenson married Bane in 2008, but the couple got divorced in 2014 after a troubled marriage. According to a police report obtained by Crime Online, Bane was charged with assaulting Stevenson in November of 2011 when the couple returned to their Michigan home from a wedding.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The police report says that Bane allegedly "grabbed [Stevenson] in the dining room, threw her to the ground, and smashed her head into the floor, chipping one of her teeth," according to Crime Online.
Bane accused Stevenson of attacking him and attempting to drag him out of the car when they arrived home, the news outlet reports.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}When Bane discovered Heslop was missing around 2:30 a.m., he "traveled to meet members of the [Virgin Islands Police Department] to give a statement regarding Sarm," according to his lawyer.
Roughly nine hours later, Bane called the Coast Guard to report Heslop missing.
"As part of the search and rescue effort, the Coast Guard went aboard the vessel to interview and gather information from the reporting source," the Coast Guard previously said in a statement to Fox News. "Later, the Coast Guard returned to the vessel to conduct a standard vessel safety check to ensure proper equipment and compliance with applicable rules and regulations for vessel type and operation."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Despite an "extensive search," the Coast Guard found no sign of Heslop in the surrounding waters or on land.
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Bane has resisted further efforts by authorities to search the boat that Heslop went missing on, frustrating her family and friends.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Given that they lived on the boat, and that she's gone missing on the boat, that's a natural place for the police to search, and I just don't understand why Ryan won't allow that to happen to find Sarm. I don't get it," Andrew Baldwin, a close friend of Heslop's, previously told Fox News.