Police divers who have returned to the river where Nicola Bulley was found dead after weeks of searches are looing for a missing object, an expert says.
Nicola Bulley went missing on January 27 while walking her dog and was found dead in the river three weeks later. Last week police divers were asked to return to the scene by the coroner preparing for her inquest.
Dr Richard Shepherd, a forensic pathologist who worked on high-profile cases such as the Stephen Lawrence case and Harold Shipman's trial, told the Mirror he thinks there is an item missing that police are looking for.
Dr Shepherd said: "I'm really struggling to see what they could be looking, for now, that would affect or influence the cause of death.
"When Nicola's body was found it would have been taken to the morgue and a formal post-mortem would have been carried out where it would have looked for natural diseases, any injuries, and samples would have been taken for alcohol drugs."
An inquest into her death is to be heard on Monday, June 26 at County Hall in Preston.
He added: "They must have a reason to do it though - my guess is there is something like an artefact of some sort that they are trying to make sure to find it
"My sense is they want to be absolutely sure that something they can't quite locate isn't still in the river.
"My feeling is they are looking for something specific.
"The last thing police want after the social media interest around this is for it to come out inquest there is something missing and then it gets randomly found by the public."
He added: "I can't see what they are doing there in terms of the cause of death especially in something as changing as the river. Even if it is a house where it was kept sealed I'd still struggle to go back to find something to alter the cause of death."
HM Coroner confirmed they requested help from Lancashire Police to help produce information on the death of Nicola.
A spokesman for HM Coroner told Lancashire Post: "The investigation will take time to complete to ensure that as complete a picture as possible of the facts concerning Ms Bulley's death is presented at the inquest.
"This will assist the family in understanding what occurred.
"As part of this process, HM Senior Coroner has requested Lancashire Constabulary produce information gathered during the search for Ms Bulley so it can be considered as part of the investigation.”
To find out more about Dr Shepherd's work you can go here.
