Underwater team pull out of Nicola Bulley search after no body found

A specialist underwater search team looking for Nicola Bulley have pulled out of the operation and believe “categorically” the 45-year-old is not in the section of the river where detectives believe she fell in.

Peter Faulding, a leading forensic search expert and chief executive of Specialist Group International, said his team have been unable to locate Bulley in the area of the River Wyre.

Bulley was last seen in St Michael’s on Wyre, near her home in Inskip, Lancashire, on the morning of 27 January. Detectives believe the mother of two fell in while walking her dog after dropping her daughters off at school, a hypothesis which her family and friends disagree with.

Related: ‘People don’t vanish’: family of missing Nicola Bulley appeal for information

Faulding, who was called in by the family and is assisting police with the search, said: “We’ve done very thorough searches all the way down to the weir. Police divers have dived it three times, extremely thoroughly.

“That area is completely negative – there is no sign of Nicola in that area. The main focus will be the police investigation down the river, which leads out to the estuary. 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.”

Faulding, whose team deployed a £55,000 side-scan sonar able to pick up objects underwater, added: “I’m totally baffled by this one, to be honest.”

He told reporters that he believes it is “unlikely” that she has been swept out to sea, adding: “My personal view is that I think it is a long way to go in a tidal river.”

On Wednesday, Bulley’s partner visited the area where police believe she fell into the River Wyre. Paul Ansell spent 10 minutes along the riverbank near the bench where his partner’s phone was discovered still connected to a work Microsoft Teams call. Ansell spoke with Faulding at the scene.

Related: Nicola Bulley: mystery of 10-minute window in which she disappeared

Lancashire constabulary say they remain “fully open-minded” over Bulley’s disappearance but their “working hypothesis” is that she fell into the river while taking her dog, Willow, for a walk.

Extensive searches have taken place along a 9 mile (15km) stretch of the River Wyre, a tidal river that ends at the sea in Fleetwood, going out to Morecambe Bay.

Police have urged the public not to “take the law into their own hands” in the search. Lancashire constabulary told amateur detectives not to abuse witnesses or attempt to break into empty or derelict buildings along the River Wyre near where she disappeared.

Supt Sally Riley, the lead investigator, said although people “may mean well, they may want to help”, police are “taking a strong line” on criminal damage and harassment.