NICOLA PROBE
Nicola Bulley cops ‘are looking for specific missing object in river where mum died’, forensic pathologist claims
NICOLA Bulley cops are looking for a specific missing object in the river where the mum's body was found, a forensic pathologist has claimed.
Video footage had previously shown specialist cops searching the water to try to confirm the tragic mum's cause of death.
3
3
Nicola's disappearance after her mobile was found on a bench still connected to a work conference call.
An extensive search was launched to find the mum-of-two, involving police, firefighters, mountain rescue, underwater teams, and the local community.
Nicola's body was found in the river on February 20 - three weeks after she vanished.
Police divers were recently seen combing through the water less than a mile from where Nicola, 45, was last seen on January 27.
Read More in News
And Lancashire Police confirmed coroners requested they re-search the river to get a "complete a picture" of how the mum died.
Dr Richard Shepherd, a forensic pathologist, has now said he thinks there is an item missing that police are looking for.
Dr Shepherd told : "I'm really struggling to see what they could be looking, for now, that would affect or influence the cause of death.
"When Nicola's body was found it would have been taken to the morgue and a formal post-mortem would have been carried out where it would have looked for natural diseases, any injuries, and samples would have been taken for alcohol drugs."
Most read in The Sun
He added: "They must have a reason to do it though - my guess is there is something like an artefact of some sort that they are trying to make sure to find it
"My sense is they want to be absolutely sure that something they can't quite locate isn't still in the river.
"My feeling is they are looking for something specific.
"The last thing police want after the social media interest around this is for it to come out inquest there is something missing and then it gets randomly found by the public."
An inquest into Nicola's death is to be heard on Monday, June 26 at County Hall in Preston.
Nicola was deemed a "high-risk" missing person when she vanished due to a "number of specific vulnerabilities".
Nicola's pet springer spaniel Willow was also found - but there was no trace still of the mum-of-two.
When asked if he thought the divers' latest search could be a possible reconstruction of events, Dr Shepherd said: "I think it's unlikely because once again rivers are so variable.
"Even if you get a model or a mannequin to put clothes on or a real person you couldn't possibly repeat what happened that day."
Officers scoured wooded areas, ditches, water margins and the grounds of an abandoned house.
A specialist search was also launched by dive expert Peter Faulding, who used £50,000 sonar equipment to scour the water.
He later pulled out of the hunt, saying he did not believe Nicola was in the river as she could have "stood up" if she fell in.
On Tuesday, police revealed Dr James Adeley, HM Senior Coroner for Lancashire, asked them to conduct the investigative work.
A spokesman for HM Coroner said: “The investigation will take time to complete to ensure that as complete a picture as possible of the facts concerning Ms Bulley's death is presented at the inquest.
"This will assist the family in understanding what occurred.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
"As part of this process, HM Senior Coroner has requested Lancashire Constabulary produce information gathered during the search for Ms Bulley so it can be considered as part of the investigation.”
Nicola's disappearance sparked a huge amount of speculation online with web sleuths flocking to the area she was last seen in an attempt to crack the case.
3
Topics