Partner of missing Nicola Bulley 'extremely distraught' as private diving team ... trends now

Police have released a new CCTV image of missing mother Nicola Bulley - as her partner tells of how their two daughters 'miss their mummy desperately'.

Paul Ansell today released a heartbreaking statement saying the two young girls 'need her back' following her disappearance in St Michael's on Wyre, Lancashire, on January 27. 

He said: 'It’s been ten days now since Nicola went missing and I have two little girls who miss their mummy desperately and who need her back. 

'This has been such a tough time for the girls especially but also for me and all of Nicola’s family and friends, as well as the wider community and I want to thank them for their love and support. 

'We are also really grateful to Peter and his team from SGI for coming up and helping support the work of Lancashire Police as they continue their investigation. If anyone has any information which could help find Nicola, I urge them to get in touch with the police and help us provide the answers we all so badly need.'

Detective Superintendent Rebecca Smith, of Lancashire Police, added: 'The team working on this investigation are completely dedicated and determined to find Nicola.

'As a mother myself, I can't even begin to imagine what her two children are going through.

'Please be reassured that our sole focus is Nicola and that we are doing everything we can to find her.

'It is not possible to provide every piece of information to the public because to do so would detract from the investigation, but I'd like to thank everyone who has assisted us so far and for the support provided to Nicola's family at this extremely difficult time. They are being supported and updated throughout.'

It comes after forensic expert Peter Faulding, founder Specialist Group International, and his team of divers have joined police today in the desperate search for Nicola Bulley, 45. 

Mr Faulding said the high-tech sonar used by his firm was capable of seeing 'every stick and stone lying on the riverbed' and is convinced the result of the search would allow police to confirm or deny 'if Nicola is actually in this river'.

The expert said he had spoken to Ms Bulley's partner Mr Ansell earlier and told the BBC: 'I mean, Paul's extremely distraught. I've just spoken to him just now where we're staying.

'And you know, my thoughts go out to the family and friends. It's a very difficult time.'

It comes after Mr Ansell doubled down on comments from Ms Bulley's friends and other relatives warning police have very little basis for their theory that she fell in the river.

He said there was 'no evidence yet to suggest any scenario over another and all options must be kept wide open'.  

Mr Faulding said today: 'I'm used to dealing with, you know, families of drowning victims. It's a horrible thing to be going through not knowing where your loved one is.'

He said if they have not found Ms Bulley after three or four days of searching, then she must not be in that stretch of river. 

The specialist said his teams would be working their hardest and the hunt would most likely go on into the darkness this evening.  

He has brought in 'high-spec' sonar equipment worth around £55,000 that has a 'very high hit rate' and can 'find people within the hour'.

Police say their primary theory is that the 45-year-old mother-of-two – who disappeared while walking her dog near the River Wyre in Lancashire more than a week ago – slipped or fell into the river, but they have found no evidence of this. 

Mr Faulding told The Mirror: 'If Nicola is in there, we will find her. If she's there, our sonar will pick her up straight away. I will see a body on the bottom. We are dealing with about ten drownings every summer. We always locate within the hour. It's that quick, it's that good.'

He said he thinks Ms Bulley would not have gone far if she did fall in due to the shallow depth, but the shock of the cold water could have 'taken her breath away'. 

However, he believes she could have been able to get herself out and that she would not be dragged down. 

'Normally people would scream out and I don't know if there was other people in the area but you'd scream out, you'd flap around and the dog would normally maybe stay with the owner. There's something, in my opinion, not quite right here,' he added. 

A friend of the missing mother said this morning she hopes specialist underwater teams will uncover nothing – because then it rules out the police's theory she fell into the river.

Emma White said they were pleased Mr Faulding's team are assisting police – but are keeping everything crossed they don't find anything. 

She told ITV's Good Morning Britain: 'We hope they uncover nothing, like the police have done for the last ten days, and we hope Nicola is not in that river.'

Ms White said she believes Mr Faulding's equipment is more sophisticated than the kit police have. 

'Peter's here, working with Lancashire Police, and we just have to have everything crossed that the search continues and Nicola is not in that river,' she said. 

'We don't want to undermine all the work police have done but when you get that glimmer of hope and you look at what the company does, his records and what he has achieved then you think we need to get this expert here – and we can't thank you enough for bringing the team down.'

Ms White, who has known Ms Bulley for ten years, said the police theory that she fell into the Wyre 'is based on a theory, with no actual evidence to support it'.

She told Radio 4's Today programme: 'The hypothesis is based on limited information – I've said before it's a theory, and we sadly can't base life on a theory.'

She thanked the public for their support and kindness shown towards Ms Bulley's family, and said at the core of their rescue campaign are 'two little girls who want their mummy'.

Mr Faulding, speaking from his helicopter en route to the scene this morning, said: 'We are having a briefing at 8.30am, and then going to the location to set up. They are getting a briefing at a farmhouse and then they'll move to the scene.

'We are working closely with the police to provide extra support. We are going to be using a high-frequency side scan sonar. That's going to be used to search down the river, past the weir.

'That will give us a crystal clear image of anything on the river bed. It shows every rock and every stone.

'On a straight river, we can do about ten miles of river a day. But this is a very windy, changeable river, up and down in depth. So we will do the best we can.'

He added: 'I'm confident with my expertise over 20 odd years that if she is there, I will find her with that sonar. I will be operating that sonar.'

Mr Faulding, who will also survey the route of the river by helicopter, earlier told Sky News: 'We're assisting with our dive team. We carry out all the underwater operations in the south east for the police anyway, but we're bringing a particularly high-spec piece of equipment, 1,800-kilohertz specialist side-scan sonar.

'Each year we deal with a lot of drownings and we locate them extremely quickly. The difference with this sonar is that it's very, very high frequency.

 'It's about £55,000 and it scans the river and I can see every stick and stone lying on the river bed. We've got a very high hit rate with this.'

He added: 'Our sonar is probably a bit more superior but I've got a lot of specialist search expertise and I've worked on hundreds of these cases and we always generally find people within the hour in lakes etc.'

It comes as a former detective described Lancashire Police's decision to publicly reveal its belief that Nicola fell into a river as 'extremely unusual and concerning'.

Martyn Underhill, who was a senior officer in the police probe of the abduction and murder of Sarah Payne in West Sussex, told The Times that there are several possibilities as to what may have taken place in the vital ten-minute window identified by police.

He also warned that detectives are risking 'boxing themselves into a theory'.

Mr Underhill added: 'If the public is told that they think it's a terrible accident, it risks people switching off. It can deter someone coming forward with crucial evidence.

'Coming out with such a definitive narrative publicly will make it hard to row back if the circumstances change. And they've offended the family and friends at the same time. It is really bizarre.' 

Poignant footage earlier emerged of Ms Bulley's young daughter spotting search teams looking for her missing mother.

The six-second video shared by friends showed daughter Sophia, six, pointing towards a search team and saying: 'Them helicopters, they're looking for mummy.'

Meanwhile, friends say Ms Bulley's two daughters attended a school disco on Friday evening as part of efforts among parents to 'keep things as normal as possible' for the children.

It comes as reports say Ms Bulley was due to watch one of her children perform in a show this weekend which went ahead without her. 

Jill Peck, who attended a vigil to light candles at St Michael's Church on Sunday, told Sky News: 'If something was in the diary, it's been kept in the diary. They are aware that something is happening but we're trying to keep it away from the school.

'They just desperately want her home and that is all they are asking all the time, 'where is she and is she coming home?''.'

The girls' school is said to have told pupils of the situation and teachers have put on yoga sessions to help them stay calm and relaxed. 

Meanwhile, pictures from cameras at Ms Bulley's home, showing her on her driveway just hours before she vanished, have been released by a friend as part of the desperate search to find her.

The mother, 45, can be seen in a long jacket, leggings and walking boots with her hair tied in a pony tail prior to driving her two daughters to school in St Michael's on Wyre on January 27.

Friends of the couple have urged members of the public to stop making 'disgusting accusations' at her partner Paul Ansell and say images from the cameras at their home show why he has never been a suspect.

They also said he is suffering 'hurt and pain', but is 'completely focusing' on their two daughters.  

Mr Faulding also said yesterday that he believes it is unlikely that Ms Bulley fell into the river, as the police believe. 

The forensics expert told GBNews: 'The amount of searching that's gone on in this river, I would have thought she would have been found by now. Normally when a person drowns, if they are left a number of days they don't move very far.

'This is not a fast tidal river. So I would have expected her to be found by the police divers by now... It's as clear as that. And you know, none of this rings right to me. My belief is she's not in not in the river at all.'

Mr Faulding said that not enough factors added up in his opinion, suggesting that Ms Bulley's phone could have been left on the bench as a 'decoy'. 

He continued: 'I personally think this phone could be a decoy.

'We dealt with a drowning a couple of years ago where a gentleman went into a river and Ripley, his dog, was screaming by the riverbank when we got there.

'When we arrived it was howling, and literally pointing exactly where he was. He stayed with his owner.

'The phone on the bench, I mean, you have to ask, normally someone would have a phone in their hand especially if they were walking around.'