A leading forensic expert has questioned whether key evidence in the disappearance of 45-year-old mum Nicola Bulley was left “as a decoy”.
The 45-year-old mum-of-two was walking her dog when she went missing on Friday, January 27, near the River Wyre in Lancashire.
She had dropped her children off at school that morning before taking the family pup, Willow, on a walk.
READ MORE: 'Key witness' in Nicola Bulley disappearance seen on CCTV urged to come forward
Ms Bulley, whose phone was found at the scene of her disappearance and logged into a work conference, is now believed to have approached the river.
Her phone was found on a bench which, forensic search specialist Peter Faulding claims, could have made it a “decoy”, as reported by the Express.
Urging the police to “look into it”, he told Sky News: “Normally when we scan a river, we can scan about 10 miles a day. This is not really a fast-moving tidal it's quite slow and quite narrow so quite straightforward to search - the police divers are doing a great job but they can only search a small section at a time.
“But I believe from the news reports that sonar has been brought in, but sonar is only as good as the operator using it and the frequency.
“I would be looking at the evidence we've got - I've worked on cases where there was a shoe left on the river and it was left as a decoy.
“We don't know if this (the phone) has been left by a third party or Nicola as a decoy to drag all the resources down to the river edge.
“I'd be looking at how that got there in the first place.
“I would run our sonar along the river and I would see every part of that river and you could quickly confirm or deny any anomalies in that river.”
The search is now in its ninth day, with police claiming it is possible she fell into the river.
However, the investigation and search is still ongoing.
The Daily Star has contacted Lancashire Police for an update.
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