A specialist search diver has said Nicola Bulley is unlikely to be found in river and impossible for her to be in the sea as the mum remains missing 11 days after vanishing.
Diving group Specialist Group International (SGI) have been searching "large areas" of water in the River Wye after being drafted in by police this week.
Founder Peter Faulding, who was yesterday pictured operating the firm's high-tech side scan sonar from a boat, spoke to GB News saying it is "unlikely" she will be found in the water.
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 previously admitted there are many confusing elements, and prior to joining the search yesterday told the Mirror he expected SGI's equipment to find Nicola in under an hour if she was in fact in the river.
He said all the police have to go on right now is Nicola's phone, which was left on a bench overlooking where investigators suggest she may have fallen in.
Her dog was found wandering alone nearby, with her harness and lead removed.
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 and then took springer spaniel Willow for a walk along a river towpath.
She was seen for a final time by a witness at around 9.10am, having logged into a work conference call at just after the hour.
At 9.33am another dog walker found her phone on a bench, with a distressed Willow nearby.
Police subsequently launched a major search operation, which is now entering its 12th day.
