A diving expert says Nicola Bulley's family "need closure" - but his team are now pulling out of the search adding that they "have done the job we came here to do".
The missing mum's partner Paul Ansell was pictured at the search scene on the River Wyre alongside underwater forensic chief Peter Faulding today. Mr Faulding's independent Specialist Group International (SGI) firm were drafted in to aid Lancashire Police divers with their high-tech sonar equipment earlier this week.
However, he told the Mirror this afternoon they have completed searching the area of river from where the 45-year-old's phone was found - and where investigators theorise she likely fell in on January 27. Mr Faulding said: "We’ve done our job and we’ve cleared the areas that we were tasked with by Lancashire Police and we are happy that there is nothing in that water."
However, that does not mean Nicola did not go into the water, Mr Faulding emphasised, with different search teams expanding out towards the estuary and sea at Morecambe.
He said on the eve of beginning their efforts on Sunday that he was confident if she had fallen in by the bench and drowned, her body would have been snagged within 500 metres.
Mr Faulding continued: "Along with our searches and the police dive searches along that particular stretch of river from the weir up to the caravan park we are 100 percent confident that Nicola is not in that stretch of water.
"Going down river, we’ve searched an area to a bridge. We could not find anything at all in that stretch of water after many long hours.
"We’re doing this long days, and the police search continues to search the river down to the sea."
Asked how Paul was today, Mr Faulding said he's "clearly upset". He added: "He was stunned, really. He just wants to know where his partner is. He’s an upset man.
"The family just wanted to come up and talk to me and see progress and how we’d done and Paul wanted to go up to the bench again to see the area.
"I walked up with Paul and explained to him this is where we’ve searched and I told Paul that we’d cleared from the weir up to about another mile up river, a long way up the river."
He said Nicola's family was "grateful" for the work SGI did - which they offered completely free of charge - but "it's difficult".
He added: "They just want to know where Nicola is. They are all upset…they haven’t got any answers and no one’s got any answers to give them.
"All I can say, we’ve given them the answers they need to know from the river, I suppose. I’m glad we never found Nicola, we got no body and that’s good. If she’s alive, I don't know.
"It would be nice for the family to get some closure, some form of closure somehow."
Mr Faulding said he now plans to go back home to Surrey tomorrow. He continued: "I’m going home tomorrow, I’ve only had three hours sleep last night, I’m extremely tired.
He explained it is one of the most "baffling" cases he's ever dealt with. He said: "This has totally, totally blown my mind out, really. It’s really baffling."
Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond - sign up to our daily newsletter here .
