Peter Faulding: Diving expert blames cops for failure to find body in hunt for Nicola Bulley but not divers
LANCASHIRE, ENGLAND: A renowned diving expert, who had vowed to find missing Nicola Bulley, apparently is blaming the police for his team's failure to find the mother. He revealed his team was not asked by investigators to search in the area where a body has been found that police believe is the drowned Nicola Bulley. The mother of two, 45, was reportedly last seen on the morning of January 27 as she walked with her dog Willow near River Wyre.
Peter Faulding, 60, and his 'Specialist Group International' (SGI) team had scoured the River Wyre for three days but found no trace of Bulley. Now, it is feared that Bulley is in fact dead, not missing, after an unidentified body was found in the reeds by a member of the general public. The body was found around a mile from where she went missing in St Michael's on Wyre in Lancashire. Faulding said riverside and wade searches were the only way to locate the body and the Lancashire Police had conducted these searches, and not his team.
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Faulding, who is a registered specialist on the National Crime Database, noted that the SGI underwater search team was entrusted with searching the river a mile upstream from the bench where Nicola's phone was discovered. “For three days, using high-frequency side scan sonar, we thoroughly searched the riverbed and can categorically confirm that Nicola was not laying on the riverbed on the days that we searched,” the diving expert said, as quoted by Daily Mail.
Why Peter Faulding’s team failed
He continued by saying that his team searched the stretch of river for four hours on their first day and then explored upstream past the weir on the following two days. “The police underwater search teams and land search teams were searching for three full weeks and were also unable to find Nicola. Unfortunately, it was a member of the public that made a grim discovery, unconfirmed as yet to be Nicola.” Faulding added.
“'Sadly, the discovery was not found in the river but in the reeds at the side of the river which was not part of our remit as the side scan sonar does not penetrate reeds above or below the water.” The diving expert noted that the riverbank and wade search would be the only way to find the mother-of-two if the as-of-yet unidentified body truly belonged to Nicola Bulley, and his team was “not involved or tasked with that search”.
“The difference between these two search areas has caused a lot of confusion and unfair criticism towards myself and my team at Specialist Group International,” he said, while clarifying his team's purpose and search parameters during the hunt for Nicola Bulley.
Does Peter Faulding's excuse hold water?
Forceful defense in Faulding’s favor came as former Scotland Yard Superintendent Nusrit Mehtab backed him saying, "Some serious questions need to be asked about Lancashire Police's decision-making. How did they miss that? There were three searches and a private search as well." She continued by saying that “they didn't share that information with the private search about the vulnerabilities, yet they went on to share it with the wider public. They didn't seem to be able to get a grip on what was happening," reported the Daily Mail.