Nicola Bulley diving expert says she ‘could have been targeted or run off with lover’
The diving pro who joined efforts to find Nicola Bulley says the missing mum could have been targeted or run off with a lover.
Peter Faulding joined Nicola’s search party voluntarily and at his own expense following a direct appeal from Nicola’s partner Paul Ansell, after Lancashire Police concluded Nicola had most likely fallen into the river while walking the family dog, Willow, two weeks ago.
However, the 60-year-old search and rescue expert disagrees with the police on this theory, and has theories of his own as to Nicola’s whereabouts, and pulled Paul in to have a “blunt conversation” about Nicola’s disappearance, MailOnline reports.
READ MORE: Nicola Bulley witness reports two ‘suspicious’ men on missing mum’s dog-walking route
Speaking to Mail Online, he said: “I told him I had to be completely frank with him, and that he needed to confront all options, hard though it was. Nicola was a pretty lady, she was a creature of habit, and she could have been targeted and taken.”
(Image: PA)
Faulding also suggested Nicola could have run off with a secret “lover”, despite the lack of evidence to back this theory up.
He said: “She could have run off with a lover, she could have walked from the bench to the main road and into a car. It may seem unlikely — but everything about this case seems unlikely.
“It’s important to be upfront about these things, upsetting though it is. The cases I have worked on – you can’t rule anything out. That’s why I have been brought in.”
(Image: PA)
Faulding’s theories have made him unpopular with the official search party, with Superintendent Sally Riley distancing Faulding from the force, saying the dive expert wasn’t included in all of the case’s details, reports The Sun.
Yet, despite this, after trawling the river for three days with the hope of recovering Nicola’s body, Faulding remains skeptical of the force’s leading theory.
He said: “I’ve had some criticism, but I can hold my head high: all the high-profile cases I have worked on have been well documented.
(Image: PA)
“I’m not a daydreamer, I speak from experience because I’ve been there, I’ve done it,”
“I’ve helped countless families over the years who have lost loved ones in baffling circumstances, and I know that the ‘not knowing’ is the worst thing of all.
“If I can help with that in any way then I will.”
He adds: “‘I have this natural ability to find things.
“And if she was there, I would have found her.”
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