Earlier it was suggested Nicola’s phone may have been left as a ‘decoy’
A forensic expert has suggested that if searches don’t find Nicola Bulley today, a “third party” could be involved in the disappearance of the mum-of-two.
Specialist Group International (SGI) were drafted in by Lancashire Police on Monday to help trawl the River Wyre for the 45-year-old who was last seen walking her dog in St Michael’s on Wyre at 9.10am on 27 January, having earlier dropped her daughters, aged six and nine, at school. The mortgage broker’s phone, still connected to a work call, and the dogs lead and harness were found a short time later. Police are now trying to account for a missing 10-minute period and they continue to trawl the river.
Peter Faulding, the chief executive of SGI, said Tuesday that his instincts tell him that if Nicola is not found today – as he and his team re-search the area where her phone was found – there was a “third party “ involved in her disappearance.
The expert said he is “very surprised” that Nicola has not been found in river searches. Lancashire Police’s “main working hypothesis” is that she accidentally fell into the river.
Last night, Faulding said: “After 25 years of doing this kind of work, after hundreds of cases, I am well and truly baffled.”
A forensic search expert who is looking for Nicola Bulley has said it is the "most baffling case" he has worked on.
Peter Faulding, head of a team of underwater experts searching the River Wyre in Lancashire, spoke to #BBCBreakfasthttps://t.co/bbTRsAeBOc pic.twitter.com/e6GrAzTMHn
— BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) February 7, 2023
Speaking to BBC Breakfast on Tuesday as his team set out to scan the River Wyre with sonar equipment, Faulding was asked what his “gut feeling” was after more than one week of searching has failed to find the mother-of-two.
“If Nicola is not in that stretch of river today my view is that there could be a third party and that [the phone] was a decoy placed by the river,” he said.
Faulding told Radio 4’s Today programme: “The initial area where Nicola went in, where the bench is, the police thoroughly searched that the same day, and did it again days later.
“From all my experience, I would expect a body when it goes down and drowns, to go straight down to the bottom, and remain there until the body starts to decompose and then it will start moving.”
However, he added that there is not enough of a current in the River Wyre, where police believe Nicola may have fallen in, for her to have been moved downstream on the day she disappeared.
Faulding said his team and police would focus their searches today upstream in the non-tidal section of the river, “including past the bench again, just in case”.
He said the area where Nicola’s phone was found was thoroughly searched by police divers on the day she disappeared “and they never found nothing, that’s the odd things about this, that’s what I can’t get my head around, that’s very strange.”
“If Nicola is there, we will find her today,” Faulding said.
On Monday, Faulding revealed that Nicola’s phone being left on the bench “could possibly be a decoy”.
Lanchasire Police have warned that speculation and comments on social media surrounding the case are “unhelpful to the investigation and, more importantly, hurtful for the family, who are going through agony as they wait for answers.”
Related links:
- Nicola Bulley’s phone found by the river ‘could be a decoy’, diving expert suggests
- Head of dive squad searching for Nicola Bulley believes she ‘is in the river’
- Nicola Bulley’s friend shares 11 key points to ‘set the record straight’ over disappearance
- Nicola Bulley bombshell as forensic expert brands investigation ‘a mess’
- Nicola Bulley cops probe riddle of missing dog ball amid unanswered questions
- Nicola Bulley’s sister says there is ‘no evidence whatsoever’ she fell in river
- Police believe they know what happened to Nicola Bulley
- Criminologist details 5 possible theories behind Nicola Bulley’s disappearance
- Missing mum Nicola Bulley’s final text before ‘vanishing into thin air’
- Nicola Bulley: Police release image of new witness they want to speak to in search for missing mum
- Missing mum vanished on footpath leaving dog behind and phone still connected to work call
