Found Deceased UK - Nicola Bulley Last Seen Walking Dog Near River - St Michaels on Wyre (Lancashire) #6

[markoid]

INTERVIEW WITH PETER FAULDING

6TH FEBRUARY

Faulding - We've got a specialist bit of kit, high frequency side scan sonar which we've got a very high hit rate. I was the first to bring it into the UK, in 1999, and to have pioneered the use of it over here, so I can find anything with that and if Nicola is here, I'm happy that we will find her, if she is in the river.

Reporter - What's your search plan? Obviously, there's a weir on the way here. Do you search from the bench to the weir first? Do you go from the weir downwards?

Faulding - We've been tasked by Lancashire Police, we're working closely with them, so we're going to be coming down from the weir and we're going down towards the estuary, but it's a fair stretch of river and we'll be looking at the bottom. It is deep in places, shallow in places, so it's not so much of a challenge, it's more of a slower process. Normally we can cover about 10 miles of river a day with a sonar but this is quite a windy river. But it's not that wide, it's not that fast moving, so it should be quite straightforward.

Reporter - Do you worry that if the police theory is correct, as it stands at the moment, she went into the water - Do you worry that her body could have gone into the sea?

Faulding - I think it's a bit of a long stretch to go to the sea. From my experience, normally drowning victims go in and they're normally within 200/300 metres or very near where they went in, so I don't think she would have gone a long way. The river is not in flood, from the first time I've seen it today. If we had storms and there was lots of flood water then I would expect in the high flow for a body to get carried but once a drowning victim goes to the bottom they tend to stay on the bottom for 7 or 8 days and they, sort of, just move slowly along the bottom. That again... if it's flooded, that's different, but it's not.

Reporter - Do you believe that she is in the river? I think you might have cast some doubt on that.

Faulding - Well, I think the police - they're doing the right thing. The clear evidence is - the phone was by the river, the dog harness was by the river, so I think that's their only clue at the moment and we've got to be able to eliminate this river. So we can either confirm or deny what's in here today.

Reporter - In terms of those conversations with police, you say you're working with them closely - How confident do you think the police feel that that's what's happened, that she's gone in the river?

Faulding - I believe.. the police I believe, I think, that she's in here and obviously that's where the evidence is actually pointing us at the moment. The police are doing a great job. It's a big task for Lancashire police to do. This is a particularly long stretch of river to search and we just bring that backup resource to work closely with them, at this instant.

Reporter - We understand that Paul (Nicola's partner) called you personally. What can you tell us about that conversation you had with him?

Faulding - Well, Paul called me the other day to.. we spoke and he was then speaking to Lancashire Police to bring us in. That afternoon there was bit of miscommunication but they agreed to bring us in, because we do the police diving anyway for the whole of the South East. So we're a well known police operational team and we bring that expertise and we've got a very good working relationship with Lancashire Police at the moment.

Reporter - Was it difficult talking to Paul?

Faulding - Paul is extremely distraught. I've just spoken to him, just now, where we're staying and my thoughts go out to the family and friends. It's a very difficult time. I'm used to dealing with families of drowning victims, it's a horrible thing to be going through, not knowing where your loved one is and that's the.. if anyone puts them in his mind, it's is a horrible thing. You don't know where your mind is.

Reporter - If Nicola isn't found are you confident to say that she isn't in the River?

Faulding - Yes. If we can't find her in the next three or four days in this river, if she's not here, then I'm confident she's not in this stretch of river. I'd be very confident of that.

Reporter - How long are you expecting to be here today?

Faulding - I don't know how long we're going to be here. We'll probably be up here, operationally, probably for the next three or four days working. We'll do what we can for the family and to assist Lancashire Police as well so...

Reporter - And how often do you get requests like you have from Paul?

Faulding - We get a request a fair amount from families when they can't find loved ones.

Reporter - How often do you commit to them like this?

Faulding - It's very difficult operationally sometimes. We help occasionally with requests but it's very very difficult because we're an operational team, but this week we've got a free'ish diary so I could put resources up here and we are not charging. To make it clear we are not charging the police or the family for this operation and the family have actually, kindly accommodated us with some friends. So that's made our life a lot easier to be fair.

Reporter - And do you believe that she is in this water?

Faulding - I do believe she's in here, from the evidence we've got at the moment. I mean, that is what everything is pointing to the river at the moment. And there's no, there doesn't seem to be a third party involved.

Interesting point '...from the evidence we've got at the moment.'

Putting together Peter Faulding's change of view (now she's likely in the river?), and the fact that SGI started their search below the weir (counter to what PF had said that drowning victims are usually found near to where they went in)... It seems likely that PF has been given more information from the police, and I am thinking it might be Fitbit data.

I think it is Fitbit data too. Could conceivably of pushed step data (arms moving) and heart rate to the phone before becoming out of range. Potentiallly...

 

[supersleuth123]

Interesting point '...from the evidence we've got at the moment.'


I think it is Fitbit data too. Could conceivably of pushed step data (arms moving) and heart rate to the phone before becoming out of range. Potentiallly...

I do also wonder whether it's possible to get data directly from Fitbit, either from their servers or somehow remotely off the Fitbit, without it needing to have synced to the phone. Not 100% certain though.

 

[EyeSpyU]

Willow would have followed her had she gone to the caravan park…and would definitely have barked furiously had she been attacked. She certainly would have hung around the bench.

I need to reply to my own post here because for some reason when I type here it’s so slow and then comes out wrong. I don’t have this problem anywhere else - just on here. Is there a glitch on here?

I can’t edit my post, either. I did write that Willow would NOT have stayed at the bench had NB gone off.

 

[GTB72]

Video of her route that morning.

Don't know is the answer. But I think someone up thread posted her route according to her Strava account. Can't for the life of me remember who.

Nicola's Strava reveals details of route after mum vanished on walk

MISSING Nicola Bulley’s Strava details have revealed details of her regular two-mile walk where she vanished a week ago. The mum-of-two, 45, regularly tracked her movements on the fitness app…

www.thesun.co.uk

Some info re regular route

 

[Noseyjosey]

But if NB fell in the river, providing she didn’t get caught up in strong weeds or suchlike, she could be in the sea by now.

Absolutely

 

[kittythehare]

Nicola Bulley's partner Paul Ansell reveals heartbreak as new CCTV still released

Mother-of-two Nicola Bulley went missing in Lancashire on the morning of Friday 27 January while walking her dog. Independent group Specialist Group International has joined the search of the River Wyre, where police believe she fell in.

news.sky.com

 

[LastSeenWearing]

I'm wondering how these vague blurry photos, showing more or less nothing, are relevant...? What am I missing here...?

Maybe it's to jog the memory of any drivers or cyclists to show what she looked like on the day rather than general photos of her as police need dash cam footage

 

[Auntie Cipation]

I do also wonder whether it's possible to get data directly from Fitbit, either from their servers or somehow remotely off the Fitbit, without it needing to have synced to the phone. Not 100% certain though.

Only if they had the fitbit itself. MOO

 

[Belleville]

he high flow for a body to get carried but once a drowning victim goes to the bottom they tend to stay on the bottom for 7 or 8 days and they, sort of, just move slowly along the bottom. That again... if it's flooded, that's different, but it's not.

Moves slowly for first 7/8 days. They then resurface, wonder if they move faster then.

 

[PeggyHenry]

Ok so she starts off on walk at 8.43am after dropping her two children off at school.
7 mins later meets another dog walker who then leaves Nicola via river path.
8.53 and she sends an email to her boss at Exclusively Mortgages. <modsnip> Must have taken her at least 1 min to type it up? So she has been pretty busy for the duration of the walk so far.
7 mins later she dials into the Teams work meeting.
I wonder who out there might know she is going to be on her headphones listening in to a meeting … out on a dog walk. It does, after all, make her pretty vulnerable. And I’m not trying to point any fingers at family members who are accounted for, as we know.

 

[Blamhappy]

INTERVIEW WITH PETER FAULDING

6TH FEBRUARY

Faulding - We've got a specialist bit of kit, high frequency side scan sonar which we've got a very high hit rate. I was the first to bring it into the UK, in 1999, and to have pioneered the use of it over here, so I can find anything with that and if Nicola is here, I'm happy that we will find her, if she is in the river.

Reporter - What's your search plan? Obviously, there's a weir on the way here. Do you search from the bench to the weir first? Do you go from the weir downwards?

Faulding - We've been tasked by Lancashire Police, we're working closely with them, so we're going to be coming down from the weir and we're going down towards the estuary, but it's a fair stretch of river and we'll be looking at the bottom. It is deep in places, shallow in places, so it's not so much of a challenge, it's more of a slower process. Normally we can cover about 10 miles of river a day with a sonar but this is quite a windy river. But it's not that wide, it's not that fast moving, so it should be quite straightforward.

Reporter - Do you worry that if the police theory is correct, as it stands at the moment, she went into the water - Do you worry that her body could have gone into the sea?

Faulding - I think it's a bit of a long stretch to go to the sea. From my experience, normally drowning victims go in and they're normally within 200/300 metres or very near where they went in, so I don't think she would have gone a long way. The river is not in flood, from the first time I've seen it today. If we had storms and there was lots of flood water then I would expect in the high flow for a body to get carried but once a drowning victim goes to the bottom they tend to stay on the bottom for 7 or 8 days and they, sort of, just move slowly along the bottom. That again... if it's flooded, that's different, but it's not.

Reporter - Do you believe that she is in the river? I think you might have cast some doubt on that.

Faulding - Well, I think the police - they're doing the right thing. The clear evidence is - the phone was by the river, the dog harness was by the river, so I think that's their only clue at the moment and we've got to be able to eliminate this river. So we can either confirm or deny what's in here today.

Reporter - In terms of those conversations with police, you say you're working with them closely - How confident do you think the police feel that that's what's happened, that she's gone in the river?

Faulding - I believe.. the police I believe, I think, that she's in here and obviously that's where the evidence is actually pointing us at the moment. The police are doing a great job. It's a big task for Lancashire police to do. This is a particularly long stretch of river to search and we just bring that backup resource to work closely with them, at this instant.

Reporter - We understand that Paul (Nicola's partner) called you personally. What can you tell us about that conversation you had with him?

Faulding - Well, Paul called me the other day to.. we spoke and he was then speaking to Lancashire Police to bring us in. That afternoon there was bit of miscommunication but they agreed to bring us in, because we do the police diving anyway for the whole of the South East. So we're a well known police operational team and we bring that expertise and we've got a very good working relationship with Lancashire Police at the moment.

Reporter - Was it difficult talking to Paul?

Faulding - Paul is extremely distraught. I've just spoken to him, just now, where we're staying and my thoughts go out to the family and friends. It's a very difficult time. I'm used to dealing with families of drowning victims, it's a horrible thing to be going through, not knowing where your loved one is and that's the.. if anyone puts them in his mind, it's is a horrible thing. You don't know where your mind is.

Reporter - If Nicola isn't found are you confident to say that she isn't in the River?

Faulding - Yes. If we can't find her in the next three or four days in this river, if she's not here, then I'm confident she's not in this stretch of river. I'd be very confident of that.

Reporter - How long are you expecting to be here today?

Faulding - I don't know how long we're going to be here. We'll probably be up here, operationally, probably for the next three or four days working. We'll do what we can for the family and to assist Lancashire Police as well so...

Reporter - And how often do you get requests like you have from Paul?

Faulding - We get a request a fair amount from families when they can't find loved ones.

Reporter - How often do you commit to them like this?

Faulding - It's very difficult operationally sometimes. We help occasionally with requests but it's very very difficult because we're an operational team, but this week we've got a free'ish diary so I could put resources up here and we are not charging. To make it clear we are not charging the police or the family for this operation and the family have actually, kindly accommodated us with some friends. So that's made our life a lot easier to be fair.

Reporter - And do you believe that she is in this water?

Faulding - I do believe she's in here, from the evidence we've got at the moment. I mean, that is what everything is pointing to the river at the moment. And there's no, there doesn't seem to be a third party involved.

I have to say, I feel much better reading this than I had before. He comes across well here and inspires confidence. Good on him and good luck to him.

 

[Officer Dibble]

3 hours ago GB news interviewed a former Crime Comissioner. Worth a watch. He says the police should call in an outside force to review the case.

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[EyeSpyU]

I saw that too, but can't for the life of me, find it now.

Thank you.

I’m glad I’m not the only one who saw that interview. When I have some spare time I may try and find it.

 

[cottonweaver]

They didn't start searching with divers until day 3 or 4.
People in wetsuits wading in pulling a dinghy isn't quite the same if a body is underwater.

if you were a LE lead officer would you decide to start looking for a dead submerged body on day 1 or day 2?

 

[markoid]

I do also wonder whether it's possible to get data directly from Fitbit, either from their servers or somehow remotely off the Fitbit, without it needing to have synced to the phone. Not 100% certain though.

Not sure about Fitbit. For my Garmin watch to sync with my phone, I just open the Garmin app on my phone. It will sync via Bluetooth (range?) and automatically via WiFi if in range.

 

[Deleted member 320164]

It was ON the bench as clarified in presser questions here

Reporter - How was the phone known to be on the bench at 9:20 exactly?

Superintendent - Through telephony enquiries that we've done, relative to the phone itself, rather than through a witness.

Found Deceased - UK - Nicola Bulley Last Seen Walking Dog Near River - St Michaels on Wyre (Lancashire) #6

#MISSING | Have you seen Nicola Bulley, who has gone missing from home in Inskip? Nicola, 45, was last seen at around 9.15am today (Friday, January 27th) on the footpath by the river off Garstang Road in St Michael’s on Wyre. She is described as white, 5ft 3ins tall, with light brown...

www.websleuths.com

Phone signal can‘t put phone on a bench. My phone and iPad think I’m in the flat next door.

It depends what you think the emphasis in the question is: “how can you be sure… 9.20 exactly?“ or “how can you be sure.. on the bench?”

I think the SI is answering how they know NB arrived at that area at 9.20 - from the phone signal; not how they know it was on the bench specifically.

The latest update compounds the ambiguity with ”at” so it’s still not clear.

 

[kittythehare]

Phone signal can‘t put phone on a bench. My phone and iPad think I’m in the flat next door.

It depends what you think the emphasis in the question is: “how can you be sure… 9.20 exactly?“ or “how can you be sure.. on the bench?”

I think the SI is answering how they know NB arrived at that area at 9.20 - from the phone signal; not how they know it was on the bench specifically.

The latest update compounds the ambiguity with ”at” so it’s still not clear.

It is to me but suit yourself.

 

[Leannaf2721]

I'm new here but having been reading through the post about NB. IMO NB was probably never sitting on the bench. Her family have said it was usual for them to remove harness at the gate and put back on at the gate. If I was on a work call and needed to put my dogs harness back on I would need both hands. I would therefore put the phone down on the bench so I could still hear the call. Finding the harness between the bench and river on the floor may be where she was standing and calling Willow back over to put the harness on. This is when something out of the ordinary must have happened:

1. NB had some kind of medical situation which made her lose balance and she fell in the river
2. NB was crouching down with the harness or standing and lost balance and slipped into the river
3 Willow wouldn't come over to put harness on so NB went down to fetch her and again lost balance and fell in river
4 A third party was somehow involved at this point and something sinister happened to NB when distracted.

There doesn't appear to be any real evidence for any scenario; signs of a struggle, slip marks on riverbank. It is literally like she vanished.

On news reports the river does not look particularly fast flowing at the moment, however the angling map does call that spot 'deep hole' which is quite concerning if she did fall in at the point by the bench.

But was the harness not on the bench?

 

[kittythehare]

Which is around here I believe, the same path she entered on. See attached pic. IMO.

I'm not sure, I'm useless at this.. If we could see it on Google Earth maybe?

 

[JeremyBentham]

Interesting point '...from the evidence we've got at the moment.'


I think it is Fitbit data too. Could conceivably of pushed step data (arms moving) and heart rate to the phone before becoming out of range. Potentiallly...

So the search started further down from the weir due to possible Fitbit data? Makes sense. But what if the watch came off her wrist earlier, and she is still in fact closer to the weir. Conceivable the watch would travel much further and faster on its own.

I guess they’ll do the search and we’ll see.