Nicola Bulley search continues as experts say case is strange
The search for missing dog walker Nicola Bulley continues as a search expert, who joined the search on Monday, said he has not seen such an unusual case in his 20 years of work.
Peter Faulding, head of a team of underwater experts searching the River Wyre, said another stretch where she went missing would be searched.
Nicola Bulley, 45, was last seen walking her dog by the river in St Michael’s on Wyre in Lancashire 11 days ago.
Mr Faulding spoke to BBC Breakfast, saying: “It is so unusual.
“Normally when we deal with a drowning victim, they are where they go down.
“I would expect to find Nicola in the water right in front of the bench where she went down. She would not have moved, maybe two or three feet.
“This is so strange.
“In my 20-odd years of doing this, I have worked on hundreds of cases, I have never seen anything so unusual.”
His search teams are now focusing on the “key area” around the bench where her phone was found.
The forensic expert also told BBC Radio 5 Live: “This is baffling. Even the police are confused.
“The police divers would have found her that day if she had fallen in at that point.”
Search for missing Nicola Bulley
Police are now focusing their efforts on a river path, they said sightings showed her movements from the school, where she dropped her children off, along the river path and into the field.
Detectives are urging drivers or cyclists on Garstang Road to contact them.
A team of divers from SGI, headed up by Mr Faulding, searched “three or four miles” of the river on Monday until it was dark.
In an update, Lancashire Police said: “We can say with confidence that by reviewing CCTV, Nicola has not left the field during the key times via Rowanwater, either through the site itself or via the piece of land at the side.
“Also, we can say that she did not return from the fields along Allotment Lane or via the path at the rear of the Grapes pub onto Garstang Road.
“Our inquiries now focus on the river path which leads from the fields back to Garstang Road – for that we need drivers and cyclists who travelled that way on the morning of 27 January to make contact.”
Police believe Nicola may have fallen into the river but they “remain open-minded.”
The force said officers have “spoken to numerous witnesses, analysed Nicola’s mobile phone and Fitbit and searched the derelict house on the other side of the river as well as any empty caravans in the vicinity”.
Nicola Bulley had dropped her two daughters off at school and then went on her usual dog walk alongside the river.
Her phone was found on a bench still connected to a Teams call. The dog was found unharmed and dry – along with the lead and harness which were found by the bench.
