A diving expert looking for Nicola Bulley has said his team will pull out as there’s ‘no sign’ the missing mum is in the stretch of river police believe she is.
Peter Faulding, a specialist called in by the family, said his team couldn’t find the 45-year-old who vanished more than a week ago.
Lancashire Police believe Nicola accidentally fell into the River Wyre while walking her dog on the morning of January 27.
Faulding said today: ‘We’ve done very thorough searches all the way down to the weir. Police divers have dived it three times, extremely thoroughly.
‘That area is completely negative – there is no sign of Nicola in that area. The main focus will be the police investigation down the river, which leads out to the estuary.
‘If Nicola was in that river I would have found her – I guarantee you that – and she’s not in that section of the river.’
Faulding said he will call off his underwater search team from the Specialist Group International (SGI) later today after searching a small patch of the river once more.
He said Nicola’s partner, Paul Ansell, who was visiting the riverbank, is ‘extremely obviously upset’.
‘He wanted to go and see where the original entry point was again, and the water’s a bit lower than it was originally when Nicola went missing,’ he said.
‘And he’s, he’s clear that, well all the family are clearly distraught like anyone will be. And it’s just, it’s not a nice place to be.
‘And I’m just trying to explain what work we’re doing. And give him some confidence that Nicola is not in that river over there.
‘Normally we find them, this is an unusual situation. And hopefully, Nicola will appear somewhere or pop up somewhere, I don’t know.
‘I’m totally baffled by this one, to be honest,’ he said, adding that drowning victims tend to sink to the bottom and, if there’s a current, drift only a few metres away.
The SGI team had been searching for the last three days, combing through ‘large areas’ of the river to find the mother-of-two.
She went missing near the village of St Michael’s on Wyre after dropping her kids off during the morning school run.
Police have now redrawn their focus on 10 miles of river downstream of the beach, where the River Wyre spills out into Morecambe Bay.
Nicola’s family have expressed uncertainty over the force’s working theory that she tripped into the river, however.
Paul said in a statement shared by police on Monday: ‘It’s been 10 days now since Nicola went missing and I have two little girls who miss their mummy desperately and who need her back.
‘This has been such a tough time for the girls especially but also for me and all of Nicola’s family and friends, as well as the wider community and I want to thank them for their love and support.’
Timeline of Nicola's known movements
8.26am- Nicola leaves her home address with her children
8.40am- Nicola drops the children off at school and has a brief conversation with another parent.
8.43am – Nicola walked along the path by the River Wyre towards the gate/bench into the lower field, having dropped her children off at school
8:47am (approximately) – A dog-walker – somebody who knows Nicola – saw her walking around the lower field with her dog. Their two dogs interacted briefly before the witness left the field via the river path
8.53am – She sent an email to her boss
8.59 am- She sent message to a friend
9.01am – She logged into a Teams call
9.10am (approximately) – A witness – somebody who knows Nicola – saw her on the upper field walking her dog, Willow. Work is ongoing today to establish exactly what time this was.
9.20- Her phone was back in the area of the bench
9.30am – The Teams call ended but Nicola stayed logged on
9.33am (approximately) – Nicola’s mobile phone and Willow were found at a bench by the river by another dog-walker.
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