A diving expert assisting in the search of missing mom Nicola Bulley has stated that he's "baffled" by the incident, and believes her recovered mobile phone may have been a decoy.
Bulley disappeared over a week ago on January 27 while walking her dog Willow near the River Wyre in St. Michael's On Wyre, Lancashire.
The 45-year-old had just dropped her children - aged six and nine - off at school and had logged on to a Microsoft Teams call at around 09:00 AM.
The call ended at around 09:30 AM yet Bulley's phone remained logged on. At around 10:30 AM, a passerby noticed the mortgage adviser's phone lying on a bench next to the river, and her dog running around in a distressed manner.
The UK has been rocked by news of her disappearance since it broke, as details surrounding what happened to the mom-of-two remain unclear.
In the wake of her disappearance, Lancashire police revealed that one of their working hypotheses is that Bulley had fallen into the River Wyre and that this was "not suspicious but a tragic case of a missing person".
It was also reported that specialist diving teams continued their attempts to trace Bulley by returning to the river bank by the bench with a 20-foot-long probe attached to an underwater camera last week.
However, Bulley's family and friends have rejected the Lancashire police's theory that she fell into the river and drowned, with her sister Louise Cunningham stating via 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," she added (via The Telegraph).
Forensic diving expert Peter Faulding seems to also reject the working hypothesis, telling Talk TV (via The Daily Mail) that he's "truly baffled" by the case, and doesn't believe she fell into the water - adding that if she'd drowned her body would have been recovered by now.
Faulding - founder and CEO of Dorking-based specialist diving group Specialist Group International (SGI) - and his team have been assisting in the search for Bulley. His own hypothesis is that a third party was involved and that the phone left on the bench was a decoy.
"After 25 years of doing this kind of work, after hundreds of cases, I am well and truly baffled. Normally you would expect the divers to find them easily," Faulding stated, further explaining that when a person drowns they "generally go down where they are", with search teams normally finding their 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 [...] 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," he continued.
He then added: "A body will move after a time, but they searched that area and came up with nothing - that is what is weird here. We are baffled."
Our thoughts are with the family, friends, and colleagues of Nicola Bulley at this difficult time.
