A specialist search diver has said that it's unlikely missing Nicola Bulley will be found in the river and that it's 'impossible' for her to be in the sea as the search continues 11 days after the mum disappeared.
Diving group Specialist Group International (SGI) have been carrying out thorough searches of 'large areas' of water in the River Wye after being brought in by police this week.
Founder Peter Faulding, who was pictured yesterday while operating the firm's high-tech side scan sonar from a boat, told GB News it is 'unlikely' Nicola will be found in the water, the Mirror reports. He said: "We've been using the high frequency side scan sonar in this stretch today and it's so detailed I can even see every stone of it.
"She's not in this stretch. We also sonar-ed on the other side down yesterday in the tidal river. Now if you take a football on a tidal river…when the tide goes out the the ball will go down the stream and then as soon as the tide turns it will come back in again.
"It'll end up back at the same place. For Nicola to get out to the sea would be impossible, literally, it is such a long way.” Mr Faulding confessed there are many confusing elements to the 45-year-old's disappearance and prior to joining the search yesterday said he expected SGI's equipment to find Nicola within an hour if she was in the river.
He said all police have to go on right now is Nicola's phone which was found lying on a bench overlooking the river where investigators thought she may have fallen in. The mum went missing while on a walk with her dog, Willow and the spaniel was later found wandering around alone without her harness and lead on.
Speaking to TalkTV yesterday, Mr Faulding said: "After 25 years of doing this kind of work, after hundreds of cases, I am well and truly baffled. When people drown they generally go down where they are.
"We normally find them within five to ten metres of where they went down even after a few days. This is the most baffling case that I have ever worked on.
"The police have nothing to go on. All they have is a mobile phone at the moment and they said it could possibly be a decoy."
Nicola had dropped her two daughters at school in St Michaels on Wyre on the morning of January 27 before she took the family dog for a walk she took regularly along the river towpath. She was last seen at around 9:10am that day by a witness and was logged into a work conference call just after the hour.
At 9:33am another dog walker found her phone discarded on a bench close to the river and her dog Willow was found looking 'distressed' nearby. Police subsequently launched a major search operation, which is now entering its 12th day.
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