Divers believe the missing phone that was allegedly owned by the missing mother Nicola Bulley could actually be a decoy.
Peter Faulding, the head of specialist dive squad, revealed this new information to TalkTV. The dive squad, which was founded by Faulding, is being utilized by Lancashire Police as they enter the 11th day of their search for Nicola.
“After 25 years of doing this kind of work, after hundreds of cases, I am well and truly baffled,” Faulding said, according to Birmingham Live.
Faulding said that people who drown usually sink to the bottom of the body of water where they were last seen. Typically, even after a few days, their bodies are located within a 5-10 meter radius of where they went under. This case, however, is particularly puzzling and has left the police with no leads to follow. In fact, Faulding stated that this is the most baffling case he has ever worked on.
The authorities have only recovered a mobile phone thus far, but they suspect it might be a decoy. Nicola Bulley, the missing mother, left her home with her two daughters, who are 6 and 9 years old, to take them to school.
According to the police, Nicola Bulley left her home at 8:26am with her two daughters and dropped them off at school, having a short conversation with another parent around 15 minutes later. She then took her dog, Willow, for a walk along the path near the River Wyre at 8:43am, and headed towards a bench in the lower field.
A dog walker who knew her saw her at around 8:50am and their pets interacted briefly before they went their separate ways. At 8:53am, Ms. Bulley sent an email to her boss, followed by a message to her friends six minutes later, then joined a Microsoft Teams call at 9:01am. The last known sighting of her was at 9:10am by a second witness.
The last known location of the missing woman’s phone was at a bench near the river at 9:20 AM. It was found by a dog walker at 9:33 AM, with her dog, Willow, nearby. The phone had been used for a Microsoft Teams call earlier and remained logged on even after the call had ended.
Now the phone is believed to be a decoy, but no other information has been provided.
At the time of her disappearance, she was wearing a black Engelbert Strauss coat, black jeans, and green wellington boots with green socks tucked into her pants. She had her hair tied up in a ponytail and was wearing a pale blue Fitbit.
Police recently released new images from Ms Bulley’s doorbell camera showing her on the day she disappeared.
The pictures show Ms Bulley wearing a long dark coat – believed to be black – and with her dog. Her blonde hair is pulled back in a ponytail.
Over a five-year period, the number of UK drowning fatalities has been reduced by half between the time frame of 1985-1989 and 2015-2019. The rate of injury per 100,000 people has gone down from 4.79 to 2.04. In the 37 years between 1983 and 2020, the UK has seen a decline in the rate of injury for 24 of those years.
