A private search expert has said if his team cannot locate Nicola Bulley in the river then she is not there and he would not rule out "third-party involvement" in her disappearance.
Ms Bulley, 45, went missing on January 27 in St Michael's on Wyre, Lancashire. Police think mortgage adviser Ms Bulley, after dropping her daughters off at school, tragically fell into the water while walking her dog along the River Wyre.
However, Peter Faulding, leader of underwater search experts Specialist Group International (SGI), said he is "very surprised" that she has not been found in river searches. Mr Faulding has been searching the river for three days after being called in by the family to help.
READ MORE: Police issue warning to people trying to find Nicola Bulley
He said if his team does not find her in the water using his sonar equipment then he believes she has not been in the river and raised "third party" involvement in the disappearance. Mr Faulding has also expressed doubts about the police theory that Ms Bulley fell into the river.
The mobile phone on the bench
According to WalesOnline, the forensic expert says that "the only thing the police have to go on" is the mobile phone on the bench, and he has raised the possibility that it could have been left there as a decoy. The phone was found still logged on to a work Teams call that Ms Bulley had appeared to be listening in to. The camera and microphone had both been switched off.
Mr Faulding said police had searched the immediate area of the bench on two occasions, and his team revisited the area on Tuesday. He said police divers have already thoroughly searched that stretch of the river and wouldn't have missed anything.
Speaking on Good Morning Britain on Tuesday, he said: "I personally think, if I rule this stretch of river out today where we are working, I don't think she is here and there is probably a third party involved."
During an interview on BBC Breakfast yesterday morning, Mr Faulding shared the his theory that Ms Bulley's phone could have been used as a decoy. There has also been an issue with the CCTV that would have covered the area not working. He said: "If Nicola is not in that stretch of river today my view is that there is a third party involved and this was a decoy placed by the river. It could have been placed as a decoy there is not enough CCTV to cover particular areas here. The police are working hard in the background to cover everything."
He added: "The phone on the bench, I mean, you have to ask, normally someone would have a phone in their hand especially if they were walking around."
Nicola's dog, Willow, and why it was not more distressed
There has been much speculation about Willow the dog and whether Ms Bulley had gone into the river to rescue her. The dog was found near the bench but was reportedly dry and not wearing her harness.
Mr Faulding told GB News earlier this week: "We dealt with a drowning a couple of years ago where a gentleman went into a river and Ripley, his dog, was screaming by the riverbank when we got there. When we arrived it was howling, and literally pointing exactly where he was. He stayed with his owner."
No-one heard anything
He also said it '"feels odd" that no one spoke of the fact that Ms Bulley was not wearing clothes that would have absorbed water quickly, there were no marks at the scene and that not one person heard screams. A number of witnesses who police wanted to speak to have been traced, but no further information about what could have happened has been gleaned.
The area has not been sealed off
Mr Faulding has also raised concerns that the bench where the phone was found has not been sealed off. He has concerns that clues to the disappearance could have been lost. He said: "People have been walking past the bench. There's no police tape up. This would normally be sealed off as a crime scene so potentially crime scene investigators can go in and see if there are any microfibres, evidence, slip marks down the bank etc and I don't believe that has actually happened here."
Nothing found in the search so far
The police have said they are working on the theory that Ms Bulley went into the river. The specialist team spent most of Monday searching an area of the river downstream from the bench, in the tidal section of the river.
Mr Faulding told BBC Breakfast: "On Tuesday, we are focusing on the area upstream from the weir (that is a bit further down the river) which is non-tidal and going about a mile upstream. This includes the area where the phone was found on the bench. I must state this area was searched on the day by police divers. These are very professional divers and they didn't find anything and that is the odd thing about this. That is what I can't get my head around. It is very strange."
Why you would have expected to have found a drowned body by now
Speaking on Good Morning Britain, Mr Faulding said: "Bodies can get lodged in reeds and show up months later, the sonar won't go into the reeds. But then that's the idea of the divers and, as I said before, it was originally searched when she supposedly went in. He said police divers have already thoroughly searched that stretch of the river and wouldn't have missed anything. However, specialist equipment used by his team could help to "completely rule out anything".
He said: "Normally when we deal with drowning victims they go to the bottom and they will stay there for a while. The police divers have done a thorough search of that river twice and nothing was found. This is one of the most odd cases I've ever worked on. Underwater search - I'm a forensic diver as well - is a particularly difficult task. Generally, things aren't missed, they [police divers] have done it thoroughly. If anything is there, we will find it. A body will move after a time, but they searched that area and came up with nothing – that is what is weird here. We are baffled."
Why Nicola couldn't be in a different part of the river
When asked if Ms Bulley could be in a different part of the river, Mr Faulding said: "Unless someone's put her in a different part of the river somewhere or she's fallen in somewhere.... It is a very short stretch. On a normal river we can scan ten miles a day for a body and locate it very quickly."
It is important to note that police often don't share all details of an investigation for investigative and operational reasons. Lancashire Police continue to appeal for witnesses and dashcam footage. Anyone with information or footage is asked to call 101, quoting log 565 of January 30. For any immediate sightings, please call 999.
What police have said about Mr Faulding's comments:
Superintendent Sally Riley told reporters at a press conference in the village that Mr Faulding is not included in "all the investigation detail".
She added: "Our search has not found Nicola in the river and then a re-search in parts by SGI has found the same. That does not mean... that Nicola has not been in the river. In the light of other inquiries being discounted from the investigation so far... clearly our main belief is that Nicola did fall into the river.
"Clearly Mr Faulding isn't included within all the investigation detail any more than the members of the public are that I'm briefing through these sorts of press conferences."
READ NEXT:
14 Liverpool politicians had parking fines cancelled through council 'back door'
Fallen cocaine kingpin tells court he has no money for lawyers
Mum's fury as kids' school dinners 'taken from plates' over debt
