An expert dive squad claims that they will find Nicola Bulley 'in minutes' if she is in a river. Peter Faulding, founder of Specialist Group International, has offered his services to the police for free in the search for the missing mum.
The 45-year-old disappeared on a dog walk in Lancashire last month and is yet to be found. Following her walk on January 27, in St Michaels on Wyre, the mother's springer spaniel, Willow, was found wandering alone.
The Mirror reports that the pet was discovered near a bench where her owner's phone had been left, overlooking the water. The police are still unable so far to find a conclusive explanation of what happened to her.
After reportedly rejecting help from a specialist diver team, they have now been called in to help the investigation by Lancashire Police. Surrey-based SGI, which normally charges around £4,000 a day, will be launching its ‘top of the market’ 18,000khz side scan sonar later this morning.
Mr Faulding believes if Nicola went into the river and drowned she would have likely got "snagged" within around 500 metres of the point of entry. He said: “If Nicola is in there, we will find her.
"If she’s there, our sonar will pick her up straight away. I will see a body on the bottom.
"We are dealing with about 10 drownings every summer. We always locate within the hour.
"It’s that quick, it’s that good. Nicola wouldn’t have gone far if she was in this river because it’s got shallows and she would get lodged.
"There’s no way she would have gone out to the estuary. The river’s not in flood, it’s benign.”
Mr Faulding says that if the missing woman fell into the river and was conscious, cold water shock could have “taken her breath away” and her energy would have been sapped meaning she would eventually drown. He added that it would then take a few days for a body to resurface as it decomposes, unless it is caught on something.
However, the diving expert says if she was fit and healthy and a reasonable swimmer, she could have pulled herself out, if not at the point of entry further down the bank. Mr Faulding added: "She wouldn’t have been dragged down, no way.
"There is apparently quite a deep pool in the middle there. She wouldn’t have been swept away, the clothing she was wearing, it wasn’t heavy wool so it wouldn’t absorb water so quickly as normal clothing."
Mr Faulding claims the police likely do have similar sonar but it probably isn't as powerful as his team's and they likely don't have the same level of expertise and personnel to focus on using it. He added: "The sonar will highlight every stick and stone on the bottom.
"It’s as good as that. As I tow it along I get a picture on the screen in front of me.
"The sound wave gets sent across the river bed and then that data gets picked up and comes back and is analysed by the computer, and I can actually measure how long a target is. We can then put a diver in to confirm that target."
However, despite their upcoming efforts, Mr Faulding is not convinced Nicola is in the water. He said: “She could have potentially floated and also there were no screams heard or anything.
“Normally people would scream out and I don’t know if there was other people in the area but you’d scream out, you’d flap around and the dog would normally maybe stay with the owner. There’s something, in my opinion, not quite right here.”
Mr Faulding says if Nicola has drowned and her body was carried further down the river, his team can cover around 10 miles a day with the sonar.
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