Nicola Bulley search updates: Latest as hunt for missing mother is extended to Morecambe Bay as police admit they still have no answers
- The police search for missing mother-of-two Nicola Bulley enters its 12th day
- The 45-year-old disappeared near St Michael’s on the Wyre on January 27
- The search extended to nearby Morecambe as officers search seawater
The search for missing Nicola Bulley has been extended to the notorious sands of Morecambe Bay as police admit they still have no answers 12 days on.
Despite police bringing in a civilian underwater forensics expert, divers have not yet found a body to back up officers’ main theory that the mother of two fell into a river while walking the family dog.
To the police’s obvious chagrin, the expert, Peter Faulding, said yesterday that he suspects a ‘third party’ must be involved in her mystery disappearance if his high-frequency sonar proves Ms Bulley is not in the stretch of river next to which her springer spaniel, Willow, was found running loose.
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Partner of Nicola Bulley visits scene as video shows underwater sonar search
The partner of missing mother-of-two Nicola Bulley paid an emotional visit to the last place she was seen today – as a super high-tech sonar camera scoured the riverbed in search of a potential body some 12 days after she vanished.
Paul Ansell, 44, was pictured with diving expert Peter Faulding who told the anxious father ‘she’s not here’, during a third extensive day of searching along the River Wyre in Lancashire.
The pair were joined by a senior detective and a friend of Nicola, who listened attentively as Mr Faulding explained how the water where police believe the 45-year-old drowned was particularly shallow.
Peter Faulding, leader of underwater search experts Specialist Group International (SGI), has been searching the river Wyre near Michael’s on Wyre, Lancashire, for two days after being called in by the family to help.
Mr Faulding has 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.
But Supt Sally Riley of Lancashire Police told reporters at a press conference in the village that Mr Faulding is not included in ‘all the investigation detail’.
She said: ‘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.’
Police have rejected suggestions that missing mother-of-two Nicola Bulley could have been a victim of crime.
Supt Sally Riley, of Lancashire Police, said “every single” potential suspicion or criminal suggestion that had come in, had been looked at by detectives and discounted.
She said: ‘I would like to reassure the community that nothing in this investigation so far, it has been checked out if it has come in suggesting crime, it has been checked and discounted.
‘So every single potential third party line of inquiry and potential suspicious or criminal element has been looked at and discounted.
‘It does remain our belief that Nicola sadly fell into the river and that this is a missing persons inquiry.’
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