A diving expert helping in the extensive search for Nicola Bulley has revealed that he is ‘baffled’ by the incident and believes her phone may have been just a decoy.
The 45-year-old mother vanished on January 27 while taking her dog Willow out for a walk near the River Wyre in Lancashire.
According to reports, she had just dropped her daughter off at school and had logged on to a Microsoft Teams call while walking with her dog.
The conference call reportedly ended at around 9:30 am and Bulley’s phone was still connected to it when it was found.
The mobile device was found by a passerby at around 10:30 am lying on a bench by the river. Willow was also found running around without its owner.
Lancashire police said that one of their hypotheses is that the mother of two had fallen and drowned into the river, adding that this was “not suspicious but a tragic case of a missing person.”
Specialist diving teams continue to trace the missing mother by going back to the river bank with a 20ft long probe with an underwater camera attached to it.
Bulley’s heartbroken family and close friends have rejected the theory that she fell into the water and drowned, with her sister Louise Cunningham writing on Facebook: “Off the back of the latest Police media update, please can I add there is no evidence whatsoever that she has gone into the river, it’s just a theory.
“Everyone needs to keep an open mind as not all CCTV and leads have been investigated fully, the police confirmed the case is far from over.”
Forensic diving expert Peter Faulding has revealed that he is baffled by the case and said that if she drowned, her body would have been found by now as search teams “normally find bodies within five to 10 meters of where they fell in.”
“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,” he said.
“In another couple of days, I will be confident she is not in that area at all. We have the best sonar you can buy. We have scanned a huge area today (February 6) and there is nothing there.”
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