Dateline NBC - Siren Song

Episode Date: March 15, 2022

A mystery in paradise unfolds when a British woman vanishes from her boyfriend’s luxury yacht in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Andrea Canning reports.

I'm Lester Holt. Tonight on Dateline, a mystery in one of the most beautiful places on Earth. Our 911 dispatch got a call. Someone's missing. There's a woman who allegedly fell overboard and that's all we know. We sent divers out. We did aerial searches. And nothing. And nothing. It is almost like a vanishing act. Time is ticking here and there's no sight of her. It's just an overwhelming feeling.

What did that surveillance video show you? Two individuals getting on this thingy, going into the waters. The fact that no body was found is very suspicious. It's heart wrenching every day. She is an honest and truthful friend. She's got a real lust for life. How can you give up on your friend?

Where on earth is she? It's Andrea Canning from Dateline. Can we talk to you? Did you have anything to do with the disappearance of Sarm? Here's Andrea Canning with Siren Song. The U.S. Virgin Islands of St. Thomas, St. Croix, and St. John earned the nickname America's Paradise for their miles of white sandy beaches and impossibly blue water. This island's the best in the world.

Great for snorkeling, great for all water activities. It's the easternmost point of the United States. It's a beautiful tropical island. It's truly a wish-you-were-here destination. So breathtaking, it's hard to imagine something tragic happening in this idyllic place. But of course, it does. On March 8, 2021, a beautiful former flight attendant moved here for love and her dream job. Weeks later, the woman with a lust for adventure disappeared without a trace.

It is almost like a vanishing act. You know, all her personal belongings are still on the boat. No one saw anything. It's a mystery that made international headlines. For her friends back in England, the news was devastating. I just kept going, stop, stop. And then I just was on the floor, just hyperventilating, I guess.

I was just panicking. Tonight, Dateline travels to paradise to try to find out what happened to the woman named Sarm Heslop. Can the helicopter see into the water? Could it see a body from up there? And to track down the last person known to have seen her alive.

Do you have any idea where Sarm is? Our story begins off the island of St. John. Spring break 2021. Tourists were traveling again. Every hotel was sold out. Every sailboat booked. Anchored just a short distance from shore was a 47-foot luxury catamaran called Siren Song. All was quiet on a warm, starry March night, when suddenly, an unusual distress call came from the boat.

Our 911 dispatch got a call at approximately 2.35 a.m. The call was made by the boat's captain, Ryan Bain. He said his British girlfriend and first mate, Sarm Heslop, was missing from the boat they'd been living and working on. Then U.S. Virgin Islands Police Commissioner Trevor Velenorm says officers rushed to the dock near where the boat was anchored. As they approached, Ryan was in a dinghy coming toward them. So he actually leaves the boat to meet your people? Yes, so officers meet him on the dock,

and he explains that I went to sleep, and when I awoken, she was nowhere to be found. Ryan said his boat alarm had woken him up. There was an anchor alarm that alerted that the boat had shifted or moved. Does Ryan have any idea where she could be, or does he have a hunch or a theory or anything? He simply said, maybe she could have fallen off the boat. With time of the essence, the officers began searching for Sarum in the dark waters of Frank Bay. They lit the area up, looked around in the area, did not see anything.

Did he express if they had fought or if she was upset about anything that, you know, may have led her to leave on her own? No, he did not provide any information of an argument or any type of disharmony. Instead, Ryan told the officers it was an uneventful night, that he and Sarum had gone ashore around 6.30 for dinner. He identified that they had been to a restaurant. I think it was 4.20 in the center. A dive bar popular with the locals. He said they stayed at the restaurant for about an hour and a half. Did he say if they had been drinking, anything, you know, that might have impaired her judgment?

Mr. Bain indicated that they were drinking, but his emphasis was that he went to sleep, he awoken, and she was nowhere on the boat. After that brief interview, the police left without searching Ryan's boat. Officers say they told him to contact the Coast Guard, which he did later that morning. He calls Coast Guard Sector San Juan Command Center. That is the Search and Area Coordination Center. Lieutenant Commander Jan League says a team sprung into action. And they launch our 33-foot small boat. They then launch a helicopter, an MH-65 out of Puerto Rico,

and they begin an urgent marine information broadcast. Alerting the public to be on the lookout for a 41-year-old female who may have gone overboard. Coast Guard officers took us to the area where they searched. Your team pulls up to Siren Song in a boat like this? Exactly, this 33-footer. And what happens when you approach Siren Song? At that point, they just pull up alongside, they go aboard. And how is Ryan Bain reacting to the Coast Guard arriving?

He's cooperative. He shows us all of her keys, her phone, her passport. They look in the cockpit, they do a quick look down the passageways. When someone's personal belongings are still on the boat and they're nowhere to be found, is that a really bad sign? We just take it as there is somebody in the water and we begin our search accordingly. The lieutenant commander's team used something called drift analysis to help focus their search. With the good weather, we can quickly cover a lot of the area, the shoreline and the open ocean, the isolated islands like we see over there. Does it have to enter your mind as you're searching that there could have been a crime committed? No, at that point, our focus again is all search and rescue.

After a full day of searching... We started at approximately 1 o'clock and we searched until sunset. They also found nothing. Like, where could she be? That I'm honestly not sure. The Coast Guard was puzzled. If Sarm had drowned in the waters off St. John, they believed they would have found her body.

A mystery in paradise was unfolding. Where was Sarm Heslop? When we come back, the search for Sarm grows desperate and urgent. Start rounding up the troops. We're not giving up until we have some resolution. It's just really confusing as to where she is. Do you have any hope that Sarm is still alive? I try to. As darkness fell over the Caribbean waters of St. John on March 8th, 2021,

Sarm Heslop had been missing for more than 16 hours. The Coast Guard had no luck finding her and returned to their headquarters. There was no signs of anyone in distress in the water. And then the radio broadcast also did not receive any leads. Did you resume searching the next day? No, we had suspended our search and rescue, but there was local efforts. Local volunteers like Jeff Jones, who runs a boat rental business. He has extensive experience in search and rescue, but there was local efforts. Local volunteers like Jeff Jones, who runs a boat rental business. He has extensive experience in search and rescue.

When you get the call about this incident, what are you told as far as what they know, what's happened? There's a woman who allegedly fell overboard in Frank Bay, was reported missing, and at this time, that's all we know. So we'll start rounding up the troops. Jeff and other volunteers grabbed their scuba gear and high-powered drones and began searching the waters where SARM was last seen. Most likely, based on the data we have, she would have washed into Frank Bay, which we did extensive dives.

Jeff also served another role. He became the link to SARM's family and friends. I can do my best to keep them updated, to let them know that, hey, we're not giving up. Jeff also served another role. He became the link to SARM's family and friends. I can do my best to keep them updated, to let them know that, hey, we're not giving up. We still want to keep this thing going until we have some resolution. Two people desperately waiting for Jeff's updates were Vicki Moggridge-Percy and Kate Vernals, two of SARM's best friends who live thousands of miles away in England. They felt grateful for Jeff and the other volunteers. The amount of people who were out snorkeling and diving,

looking for her, it's the generosity of strangers, and it's been awesome. What do you think happened to Sarm? I don't know. It's just really confusing as to where she is. Vicky has known Sarm for years. They met working as flight attendants, and Vicky remembers all too well their first flight together,

transporting a prisoner. I was quite nervous by it, and he was trying to get his hands out of the handcuff in flight. And I was like, God, have you seen what he's doing and she was like yeah don't worry about it she wasn't phased by things Vicky describes Sarma's bold fearless a one-of-a-kind woman she's not your nine-to-five kind of wants to buy a house sat down have children she very much spontaneous kind of person but with a really deep beautiful heart and cared deeply for her friends and family. Kate, a former roommate of Sarms,

says she wasn't surprised when Sarms stumbled into sailing. One of Sarms' first adventures was one most accomplished sailors wouldn't even attempt. Friends invited her on a trip across the Atlantic. Ever the adventurer, Sarms couldn't resist the offer. She grabbed it with both hands. She made sure that she was qualified to do it. She's brave and courageous, isn't she?

So you sort of admire her. But, you know, I think I was a bit worried in the sense that, you know, you are travelling across the Atlantic. It was at the end of that trip, when Sarum arrived in Grenada, that she met Ryan Bain. They met on Tinder. I guess you don't really think about dating on the high seas. No, I don't think you do.

What do you say? Come over to my boat or I'll come over to your boat? Yeah, anything like that. No, they seemed to hit it off, which is great. Based on his profile, Ryan appeared to be the picture of success and swagger. The 44-year-old was a former finance guy who traded in his suit and tie for shorts and flip-flops. In 2015, he began chartering his luxury catamaran to tourists in the Caribbean. Sarm told Vicky what she found most attractive about Ryan was his personality. She liked his sense of humor. He made her laugh, which is really important.

She's a very, very funny girl and always making us laugh. In the beginning, her friends say the relationship was nothing serious. They'd only been dating a little while when Sarum decided to leave the Caribbean and go to Malta, where she had close friends. She left and needed to get some work. And so she prioritized that and went to Malta. And then they kept in contact and they were speaking every day. But something was calling her back to him.

Yeah, she just decided that, actually, do you know what? This is a relationship that's worth continuing. And so decided to fly back out and join him in the American Virgin Islands at that point. Her friends say the timing was perfect. Sarm needed a job, and Ryan invited her to come work on his boat. It was a chance for Sarm to pursue this budding relationship and do the things she loved most, sailing and cooking. Sarm even showed off her culinary skills on Instagram.

The clincher, though, was Ryan's dog, Hunter. She's a really big animal lover. Like, she absolutely loves dogs. So off she went to be with her new man. To her friends, all seemed well. She looked so happy in all her photographs, and when we spoke, she was really, really enjoying herself. It was like the ultimate outdoors.

It was everything from previous relationships kind of pieced together to make this what seemed like a great, great life that she was starting. She'd only been living and working on Siren's song for about two weeks. Her friends never could have anticipated the darkness headed Sarm's way. Do you have any hope that Sarm is still alive? I try to. Coming up, a crucial new clue from a single security camera. It shows Mr. Bain and Ms. Heslop getting on a dinghy and going into the waters.

You have no real confirmation that they ever made it to the boat. That's correct. This is a real mystery. It is. When Dateline continues. The story of the British woman who vanished off a sailboat in the Caribbean was making international news. Every day, a new article asked the same question.

Where was Sarm Heslop? The police had no answers. Your officers are really looking at three possible scenarios. She willingly disappeared, there was a tragic accident, or there was a crime. Absolutely. Those are the options. Her friend Vicky was certain Sarm would never just take off without telling anyone. She felt it in her bones. Something was terribly wrong. She also doesn't believe Sarm drowned. She is a good swimmer. When we train flightless cabin crew, you have to, in your clothes,

dive in a swimming pool and swim across, in your clothes, dive in a swimming pool and swim across it in your clothes to be able to pass your training. Vicky grew increasingly worried and frustrated. Because of COVID, she, Kate and the rest of Sarum's friends in England were unable to travel to the U.S. Virgin Islands to help look for her. To a certain extent, you feel a bit guilty because you can't do anything. We don't want her to think that we're not doing anything. In fact, Sarum's friends were doing a lot. It's forward thinking that's got us in this position that we're in at the moment.

So we need to maintain that. Several of them from different parts of Europe held daily Zoom meetings, brainstorming ways to keep the media and police focused on finding their friend. She would not leave her possessions, just sat on the boat. They appeared on British and American TV. We're still looking for you, Sam. We won't give up on you. And shared videos on social media pleading for help. We won't give up on you, Sam. Your group has been a force, though. I mean, keeping this in the media, you know, connecting with searchers. I mean, really keeping the story alive. We've got to get it out there.

We can't sit on it and not do anything. Meanwhile, the police were feeling the pressure. The commissioner says his team was doing everything it could to find Sarm. We spared no resources. We sent divers out, canine. We did ambulatory searches. We did aerial searches. We put flyers out. And nothing. And nothing.

As the days ticked by with no sign of Sarm, the police requested outside help. The FBI got involved in this case? So the FBI was able to assist in trying to locate any type of camera. They found one security camera pointed right at the spot where Sarm and Ryan left the island that night. It shows two individuals, Mr. Bain and Ms. Heslop, getting on a dinghy and taking off on the dinghy and going into the waters in the cruise bay. And then do you lose them from there? So you have no real confirmation

that they ever made it to the boat? That's correct. British police also got involved. We've had to go back through text messages and everything for the police here in the UK. Island police looked through Sarum's personal belongings and also searched her phone records. All dead ends. This is a real mystery that you have on your hands.

It is. When investigators spoke to the owner of the restaurant on St. John, 420 to Center, the one Sarum and Ryan went to on the night she disappeared. He said they looked perfectly happy. And when they looked into Ryan and Sarme's relationship, they found nothing concerning. Her friends agreed. They'd never met Ryan, but said it was clear from Sarme that things were going well.

So there were no smoke signals, no SOS, you know, cryptic messages from her that would lead you to believe that something was wrong? No. And since we've all come together, as in her group of friends from Spain and the UK, no one can put their finger on anything that casts any shadow of doubt over their relationship. Vicky says the night of the disappearance, she got a text from Sarma about life on the boat. She wasn't her bubbly self, but it didn't concern Vicky, at least not at the time. On that evening, she literally just sent me a text saying,

ah, in brackets, about work. What do you mean, ah? Like screaming? Yeah, but not in a screaming way, just like, ah, work, as in moaning about work. So I think it was just her complaining about work. I guess whatever that charter had been like that day, maybe it had been really busy. I don't know whether the people were difficult. Vicky never got to find out what was bothering Sarum about work. That was the last text she ever got from her.

Sarum's friends were hoping to get answers from Ryan. I want to know what he thinks happened. Did you have an argument when you got back to the boat? Were you happy? Did you fall asleep watching a film? But strangely, he'd gone quiet. And they weren't the only ones getting the silent treatment. You might remember, initially, Ryan had cooperated with authorities. But Lieutenant Commander League says Ryan's behavior quickly shifted. About 15 hours after Sum was reported missing, Coast Guard officers went back to the siren song for a second time

and brought along detectives from the Virgin Islands Police Department. They tried to talk to Ryan Bain? Yes. To no avail? No. At that point, he refused to allow the Virgin Islands Police Department to go on board. And while the Coast Guard was able to board, according to the case report, Mr. Bain was heavily intoxicated and was telling the boarding team he did not want

them on board his vessel, end quote. And at that time, he actually obstructed our post search and rescue boarding. Is it getting tense? He was very uncooperative. The Coast Guard cited Bain for obstruction of boarding and safety equipment violations. As for the police, they left the siren song frustrated, filled with unanswered questions, and no closer to finding out what happened to Sarm Heslop. Coming up, a mystery at sea and suspicions begin to swirl. If she had fallen over, would you have expected them to find the body? It's very likely that their body would be found. The fact that no body was found is very suspicious.

In the short time Sarm Heslop had been missing, locals in the U.S. Virgin Islands swapped theories about what happened to her. Scott McChane, an avid sailor and a Virgin Islands defense attorney with over 23 years of experience practicing law on the territory, thought something was off. He didn't know Sarm or her boyfriend, Ryan Bain, but he's very familiar with the water where Ryan's boat, Siren Song, was anchored. In that area that was pretty close to shore, if she had fallen over, would you have expected them to find the body? I think that if someone falls overboard and drowned, I think it's very likely that their body would be found very close by the boat. So I think the fact that nobody was found is very suspicious.

This is the big red flag for you? It is a big red flag. And authorities saw red flags of their own. Commissioner Velenor says not only would Ryan no longer speak to his officers, he also refused to allow them to search his boat for clues. That's not happening. He indicated, no, I will not allow you onto my boat. Instead, he indicated that he had an attorney. That was quick. It was very quick. From 2.30 in the morning, now it's about 4 or 5 o'clock in the afternoon. Ryan Bain has not been charged or named as a suspect in the Sarm Heslop missing person case. But he did hire a defense attorney who advised him to stop talking to police.

That didn't surprise Scott McChane. He says lawyers recommend that all the time, but it can come with a downside. You look like you've been involved in something illegal. It's that fine line of like, is it a smart thing to do, or does it make you look suspicious? The answer is, it clearly makes you look suspicious, but it prevents you from saying anything that would implicate you or result in a finding of guilty. As for Sarum's friends, Ryan's behavior only added to their questions.

If something like that had happened to me and I had found someone missing, be it in my home, I would want to do everything I can to help the police. Just let them search the boat, and if there's nothing on there, then fine, there's nothing on there, then we stop looking there, don't we? Even more alarming to Vicky and Kate, they learned Ryan didn't immediately call the Coast Guard. Far from it.

The yacht was moored here in Franks Bay, and after Ryan Bain called the police, then he reportedly took nine hours to call the Coast Guard. Why? The yacht was moored here in Frank's Bay, and after Ryan Bain called the police, then he reportedly took nine hours to call the Coast Guard. Why? If you think she's gone overboard, why did you not let the Coast Guard start searching that water earlier? James Stevens, captain of a similar catamaran to Siren Song, says Ryan's behavior that night makes no sense to him.

If you woke up in the middle of the night and your first mate or someone on your boat was missing, what would you do? I absolutely think I would have gone to the other boats. I would have been outside screaming to see if there was a voice. But James, who was moored right next to Siren Song the night Sarum disappeared, says Ryan never contacted him. So I saw his boat tucked up in pretty much this location right here. It was just the two boats? Yep. Your boat and his boat? No, it was my boat, and then there was one other that was directly behind him. He also says he heard nothing out of the ordinary that night.

No arguing woke you up? No loud noise? No sounds of a struggle? Nothing. I mean, I was 300 feet away, but not to say I would wake up, but if someone was screaming, you know, like a life-curdling scream, I would imagine I'd wake up to something like that. If there was a struggle on a boat and someone did die,

I mean, where around here do you think someone would take a body? I mean, it's 16,000 feet out there. You know, 12,000 feet, I guess, is between here and St. Croix. You put a body down to 12,000 feet and wrap it up in some anchor chain, and no, it's not going to float back up. Whatever did happen that night, James can only speculate. What he does know is that when he woke the next morning around 7 a.m., all was quiet. There was nothing here.

There was no police presence. There was nothing out of the ordinary. I just pulled up my anchor and left. In a statement, Ryan's attorney told Dateline, Mr. Bain had absolutely nothing to do with Sarum's disappearance. He spent untold hours searching for her and remains devastated that she is missing. His thoughts, as always, are with Sarum and her family during this difficult time. He added that Ryan allowed the Coast Guard on his boat

twice. And as for why he didn't call them right away, he said Ryan thought the police marine unit was on its way. Still, Ryan isn't talking to police or letting them search his boat. The police commissioner admitted to Dateline his team made a mistake by not searching it when they responded to the 911 call. Why not search the boat at that time? That was a decision that the officers made at that particular time. It wasn't the best decision. Why do you say that now? You want to make sure that every area possible is searched. The big question I think people have is why not get a search warrant and search Ryan Bain's boat? Yes. So absolutely. So we've reached out to the attorney general of the territory.

We've also reached out to the United States attorney. And to this point, we've been unsuccessful in getting search warrants for the siren song. Velenor said they were told they didn't have enough evidence to justify a search. But police were about to learn more about Ryan Bain from this woman. Turns out, this wasn't Ryan's first interaction with the law. And boy, did she have a story to tell. That man should come with a warning label. Coming up, a dark new picture of Ryan Bain. Did you think your life was in danger? Yes. I thought he was going to kill me. That poor girl had no idea who he really is.

When Dateline continues. A few days after Sarum went missing, police learned troubling information about Ryan Bain's past. They got a call from his ex-wife who told them 10 years earlier Ryan had been convicted of assaulting her. The news came as a complete shock to Sarum's friends. It was a goosebumps moment, goosebumps all over my body. It's just a sinking feeling to think that she was with somebody who had that past and she didn't know. We reached out to Ryan's ex, Corey Stevenson, who sat down for her first network TV interview. She took us back to the beginning when she first met Ryan. They went to high school together in Lake Orion, Michigan in the 90s. At that time, I really wasn't interested in knowing anything about him. It wasn't until

several years after graduating, when she ran into Ryan at a bar with friends, that she took an interest. He was a lot of fun. You know, he was funny. He really grabbed my attention. Was he handsome? He's handsome. And charming? Very charming. Very glitzy and glamour and, you know, makes you feel wonderful. At the time, Corey was a single mom with a young daughter and had a job working as a nanny. Ryan had gotten his master's degree and was working in the automotive industry. He loves to talk about his education and loves to tell everyone how educated he is.

Educated and from a well-to-do family in Michigan. They live in a nice house. They drive nice cars. Every weekend, they go on a boat, and it's a large boat. They actually have a, as Ryan would tell me, they have a small boat on the boat. It was 2007, and Corey and Ryan had been dating for about a year when he proposed. He was everything she'd wanted. Still, she had some brief moments of cold feet. There were probably only a couple of times where he kind of let the crazy slip.

And I thought, hmm. Like you saw another side of him, you're saying? Yeah. And I was like, that's a little crazy to act this way. And what would he do? Just, it was like, like the rage would just happen so fast. But I only saw it a couple of times and then he kind of like reeled it in real quick. And I think, well, everyone has bad days. Despite her reservations, a year later, Corey went through with the wedding. But she says the honeymoon period didn't last. Literally.

There was an issue on her honeymoon. Oh, wow. I wasn't expecting to be that quick. It was pretty quick. They'd been backpacking through Spain, staying in hostels. Corey says she wanted to stay one night in a nice hotel, but Ryan said no. I wasn't really saying anything, but I was kind of disappointed. Yeah. And he doesn't like that. That you were disappointed. That I was disappointed in him.

Yeah, so we got in the elevator, and he, like, freaked out, and he actually grabbed me by the shoulders and shoved me to the floor. In the elevator? In the elevator? In the elevator on our honeymoon. On your honeymoon. Yeah. The trip was ruined, and Corey told Ryan she wanted to go home. We were supposed to be there for two weeks, and we left after 10 days.

She says life got back to normal, but over time, things escalated. The longer we were together, the worse it was. In the beginning, it was little things. It was, you know, he wasn't happy about something, so he'd push or shove me. He'd throw water bottles at me. He'd hit me with water bottles. Shouldn't you be running? I knew that I had to leave. But at that point, I have no self-esteem whatsoever. Like, he's already made me feel like I can't live without him. I can't do anything without him. And at that point, I felt like I was trapped. I knew I was trapped.

He told me I was trapped. Corey says she was trapped by a master manipulator. That Ryan, in charge of their finances, didn't allow her access to their money. So out of concern for her daughter, she stayed. And then you say that things really hit rock bottom. Yeah, we'd gone to a wedding, and I was drinking, and it was, I don't even know where we were. She was the designated driver. Ryan wanted to sleep. It was before, you know, all the iPhones and things like that.

So I didn't know how to get home, and I'm asking him directions. And he just starts, you know, he just starts screaming. Basically, I mean, imagine an out-of-control five-year-old. So he's in the car, and he's kicking the dashboard. And he's kicking me. And he's kicking the steering wheel, and he's kicking the gear shifter, and screaming the whole time. And you're trying to drive.

And I'm just trying to drive to get home. So by the time we got home, he was in such a crazy rage. As soon as I put the truck in park, he literally grabbed me by my hair and dragged me out of the truck. Boom, tackles me. I'm on the ground. He actually took my head and smashed it into the floor and then like turned me over and started choking me out. Did you think your life was in danger? Yes. That's, I thought he was going to kill me. The look on his face, like, it was, I can't even explain it.

It was like nobody was home. It was like the devil behind those eyes. That's what scared me the most. So I was like, okay, this is it. She says he finally stopped after cracking her tooth and choking her to the point that she passed out. When she came to, she called 911. Did they arrest him and take him away?

They did. To jail? Mm-hmm. In 2011, Ryan pleaded guilty to assault and was sentenced to 60 days in jail. He served 21. Corey later filed for divorce and says she feared him every day until it was final.

Every night, I slept with a shotgun. It was crazy. After that, she thought she'd put Ryan Bain in her rearview mirror. Until... His name pops up. International media. Woman goes missing. I instantly feel terrible for that girl's family.

Because that poor girl had no idea who he really is. Corey has no proof, but she's convinced Ryan had something to do with Sarum's disappearance. I think he did something to her, in my opinion. This is based on your personal... Based on my experience with him. You've seen him snap before. I've seen it. I've seen the rage.

He can be completely enraged one second, I mean, completely out of control, and two seconds later he can have a smile on his face, Hey, everybody. It's so quick and so violent and so crazy. I couldn't imagine being in that small space with him. There are always two sides to a story. We heard Corey's, and now we needed to hear Ryan's. So we hopped on a boat and went looking for him.

Ryan, did you have anything to do with the disappearance of Sarm? Coming up, the boat. What secrets might it hold? There may be evidence that's fallen through the cracks. And Ryan Bain surfaces at last. We just want to ask you, do you know where Sarm is? Sarm Heslop has been missing since March 2021. Her last reported whereabouts, the luxury catamaran Siren Song.

A name from Greek mythology that describes something appealing and alluring on the surface, but underneath, deceptive and dangerous. This boat could be the key to this mystery. Mr. Bain is the key to this mystery. Would you call Ryan Bain a suspect in SARM's disappearance? He's absolutely a person of interest. Is this a classic case of no body, no crime? Yeah, I think without a body, it certainly makes proving a crime more difficult.

Regardless of what happened to SARM, local defense attorney Scott McChain believes since Ryan's not talking, this will be a tough case for police to solve. Because there's no other witnesses even close who could provide meaningful information. But not impossible. He thinks a full search of Ryan's boat is a good place to start. If there was any evidence, wouldn't it be gone by now? Even over time, there's things that are missed. There may be evidence that's stuck in cracks. There may be evidence that's fallen through the cracks. And if you tear apart that boat, there may still be something there.

He also believes there's a way for police to get a warrant. Ryan Bain has a history of domestic violence. Could they use that to try to get a warrant? Absolutely. Absolutely. Because it shows that in the past, he's had a predilection to engage in criminal activity, and you couple that with a missing body, and then I think you have what I would consider probable cause. When we asked both the U.S. Attorney and the Attorney General of the U.S. Virgin Islands about this, they said they do not comment on ongoing investigations.

We were hoping Ryan Bain might talk to us. So we traveled to Frank Bay, off the island of St. John, where we heard he was still anchored. It was three weeks after Sarum went missing, but we just missed him. Ryan was out in the open on his boat for quite some time, and then finally slipped away. If he's not under arrest and the boat hasn't been impounded, I assume he's got every right to be. Then we got a tip about where Ryan might have gone. So we chartered a boat and searched and searched.

We've been driving around the islands all day trying to find Ryan Bain. We finally located his boat here next to Hassel Island. When we pulled up, he immediately went inside. Despite repeated attempts asking him to speak with us. Ryan, it's Andrea Canning from Dateline. Can we talk to you? He wouldn't come out. So a few hours later, we tried again.

And this time... Ryan, can we talk to you? We just want to ask you, do you know where Sarum is? Do you know anything about the disappearance, Ryan? Can we just talk to you? Pardon? How are we going to hurt your dog? I'm sorry.

He wouldn't speak to me. He just kept talking about the dog, which, by the way, the dog is... Grace's dog. Your daughter's dog. Yes. So he took the dog. He did, yep. It was one of the many times I called the police on him during our divorce.

One of the officers opened the door, and the dog went running out, and he put the dog in his car. And I had a crying 13-year-old for months. She brought it up with the judge, but she says the judge didn't seem to care and instead awarded the dog to Ryan. He kept saying that the dog, you know, won't be able to swim. He's a lab. He swims all the time. Do you think that this was another form of sort of manipulation by Ryan? Yes, 100%. Trying to deflect off my question?

Yep. Corey believes she dodged a bullet with Ryan. And after years of therapy, has found her happy ending. Engaged to the man of her dreams. What is it like now to be in a truly healthy relationship? It's incredible. She fears Sarm will never have that chance. I feel bad for her family.

I feel bad that she's missing. You know, and if, God forbid, he did something to her, I want there to be justice for her. The police say they're not giving up, although one potential lead could be slipping away. Bain put his catamaran up for sale. Sarum's friends, who've been tracking the boat, say he changed the name and has since taken it off the market. They don't know if it was sold after that.

Do you think this case will ever be solved? I have optimism that we'll get a little bit more information. Someone saw or heard something that can say, this is a piece that you're missing. Or that Mr. Bain will have the consciousness to say, let me do the right thing. Let me explain to law enforcement what took place. Bain's lawyer insists his client had nothing to do with Sarum's disappearance and told Dateline he has advised local law enforcement that if Mr. Bain's presence is legally required in the territory, he will appear

voluntarily. What do you say to anyone who says your police department isn't doing enough? We have looked high and low. We've conducted as overarching an investigation as you possibly can for someone who was reported missing. And as for Sarum's tight-knit circle of friends, they have vowed to keep the pressure on and push investigators to find Sarum. A woman who came to paradise in search of adventure and love. Now, her friends just want to reflect on the person who meant the world to them. I want her to be remembered as the really positive person that she is. She's got a real lust for life.

She is an honest and truthful person. She's someone that you want on your team. She's fun to be around. She's adventurous. She's happy. And that kind of oozes out of her, and you get really caught up in the psalm moment. That's all for now. I'm Lester Holt. Thanks for joining us.