Nicola Bulley’s partner could be seen looking forlorn and desperate as he visited the site where his she was last seen before she disappeared. Paul Ansell was seen by onlookers with his head in his hands as he looked across the river where police believe she fell in, and later spoke with the head of an investigation team.
Mr Ansell joined expert dive specialist Paul Faulding at the river in St Michael’s on Wyre, Lancashire.
Paul, who met Nicola in a pub 12 years ago, appeared emotional as he spoke with Mr Faulding, whose team had not been able to bring up any trace of Nicola on the riverbed.
They had used hi-tech sonar systems to scan the river, having volunteered their services to police last weekend.
At one point Mr Ansell could be seen waving his arms around as he talked, before Mr Faulding pointed over at something on the bank and the pair were seen staring over.
Later, the worried husband could be seen in a police incident support van with a detective.
They appeared to be in animated conversation.
Mr Faulding was certain that he would have found Ms Bulley in the river if she had fallen in, adding to LBC that he didn’t think she had fallen in.
He said “That’s just my opinion with all the drownings I’ve dealt with over the years. They normally go down and the police dive team are brilliant, they know what they’re doing, professional, they would have found her, as we would’ve done.
“We locate people quickly. That’s what I’m shocked with, that she’s disappeared.”
READ MORE: Nicola Bulley river theory row deepens as police hit back at expert [REVEAL]
Her dog Willow was found running loose without his harness on, while Ms Bulley’s phone was found on a bench.
Police said their “main working hypothesis” was that she fell in a river – but a body has never been found.
Nicola had dropped her two daughters, aged six and nine, off at school and then gone on her usual dog walk alongside the river before she disappeared.
Mr Faulding told TalkTV yesterday: “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. 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.”
Lancashire Police later made clear that the diver had not been party to all the details of their wider investigation.
