Nicola Bulley diving expert reveals why they didn’t find body in their river search

A forensic diving expert brought in to assist with the Nicola Bulley search has said that he was ‘not tasked with searching the reeds’ where a body was retrieved from the river, on Sunday February 19th.

Peter Faulding was brought in with his team Specialist Group International (SIG) to help police look for Ms Bulley 10 days after she had gone missing while out walking her dog along the River Wyre, in Lancashire on January 27th.

Speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Mr Faulding said he and his team were given the task of clearing the river and no body was found in the river during the search. Mr Faulding said: “Our search was not in the reeds, our main focus was above the bench area.

“I can hand on heart say we did our best, but she was not on the river bed, we would have seen her clearly.”

Divers from SIG ended their search after they concluded that Ms Bulley was ‘categorically not’ in the stretch of river where police believed she fell in, on Wednesday February 8th. 

Speaking to ITV Granada Reports that day he said: “We’ve done very thorough searches all the way down to the weir. Police divers have dived it three times, extremely thoroughly.

“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.”

A body was pulled from the River Wyre on Sunday after two dog walkers spotted something in the reeds and alerted police at approximately 11.35am. It has not yet been confirmed if the body is that of Ms Bulley and a formal identification process which could take ‘days’ is currently underway.

Meanwhile, Ms Bulley’s partner Paul Ansell has spoken of the family’s ‘agony’ while they await the results of the tests. The investigation into the 45-year-old mother-of-two’s disappearance has attracted widespread speculation as well as criticism of Lancashire Police force’s response.

Lancashire officers came under fire after making Ms Bulley’s struggles public. In a press conference held on Wednesday February 15th they revealed that the mortgage advisor was considered a ‘high risk’ missing person with ‘specific vulnerabilities’ after information they were given by Mr Ansell.

In the meeting they refused to elaborate as to what those ‘vulnerabilities’ were but shortly afterwards, police released a statement via social media revealing that Ms Bulley struggled with ‘significant alcohol issues’ due to ‘suffering with the menopause’. They added that she had stopped taking her HRT medication.

A public backlash and interventions from both the Government and shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper followed, with Lancashire Police confirming a date has been set for an internal review into the investigation.

A police spokeswoman said: “A review of the investigation is diarised and will be conducted by our head of crime Detective Chief Superintendent Pauline Stables.”