A new BBC documentary on the disappearance of Nicola Bulley shows how an expert diver who ran his own investigation provided “contradictory opinion” to police and was “adamant” he could find the missing mother.
Bulley, 45, vanished on 27 January, 2023, after dropping her daughters off at school and then taking her dog for a walk along the River Wyre in St Michael’s on Wyre, Lancashire.
The mortgage adviser’s phone was found by a park bench, along with the family dog, Willow, with police suspecting she had fallen into the river.
Peter Faulding, a confined space rescue and forensic search specialist, was interviewed by the media about his expertise, prompting the family to contact his private firm for help.
“I was focusing more on the fact that he’d said he’d be able to prove that she wasn’t in the water,” Bulley’s husband Paul Ansell tells the BBC’s The Search for Nicola Bulley.
“Peter was so confident, I was on tenterhooks the whole time. Peter was there because he was adamant that if she was there, he would have found her,” Bulley’s sister, Louise Cunningham says.
After spending days searching up and down the river Wyre, Faulding was convinced Bulley was not in the water, suspecting a third-party was involved. In the end, this theory was proved incorrect, as Bulley was found in the river three weeks later.
Here, Yahoo News takes a look at Peter Faulding’s career, and what he has done since Bulley’s disappearance.
On his website, Peter Faulding describes himself as a “world-leading confined space rescue and forensic search specialist”.
From the age of five, he says he explored disused mines and caves with his father, John – leading to him becoming highly skilled in tunnelling and shoring techniques.
He went on to train specialist rescue teams at the London Fire Brigade and United Kingdon’s Search and Rescue Teams in the 1990s, and was tasked to search for and safely remove environmental protesters from manmade tunnels under the proposed Newbury Bypass in 1996.
A year later, he removed anti-roads protester, “Swampy” from a network of tunnels under the proposed A30 Honiton Bypass route.
Faulding who lives with his family live on a farm in West Sussex, went on to found, rescue and “protest removal” service, Specialist Group International, and has worked as a key adviser to the Home Office “Policing of Environmental Protest” working group.
According to his website, Faulding pioneered the use of side scan sonar for forensic missing persons searches underwater, and has been brought in to help with a number of cold cases and “no body” murder investigations.
Faulding, a qualified commercial diver, helicopter and fixed-wing pilot, has also trained police search advisers and the military personnel and served for six years in the 10th Volunteer Battalion, Parachute Regiment.
Faulding’s involvement in the Nicola Bulley case caused friction with Lancashire Police as he challenged the force’s assumption that the mother-of-two had fallen into the river.
“They didn’t want to think that that had happened to Nicky, so she’s telling them what they want to hear,” senior investigating officer Detective Superintendent Becky Smith tells the documentary.
Bulley’s sister, Louise Cunningham, described how “confident” Peter was, adding: “I was on tenterhooks the whole time. Peter was there because he was adamant that if she was there he would have found her.”
After three days of searching up and down the river with no results, Faulding confidently told the media he suspected third-party involvement.
“I said that if Nicola is here, I’d find her, if Nicola was in that river, I would have found her, I can guarantee you that, and she’s not there,” he told reporters.
Listening back to the speech with a slight smile on her face, Det Supt Smith says: “That was a very bold statement to make, because she was in the river.”
On 19 February, more than three weeks after she’d been reported missing, Bulley’s body was found in the river.
In November 2023, a report into investigators handling of the case, led by the College of Policing, found Faulding had “caused challenges” to the police’s search and to “public confidence”.
“The review team considers that some of his actions created a more challenging environment for the investigation team,” it says.
“His public statements often contradicted the investigative and operational approach, leading to confusion for the public and reducing the family’s trust in the investigation and search operation.”
With police concerned about the negative attention they’d receive by limiting options to find Bulley, the force conceded and allowed Specialist Group International to help, contacting Faulding, who offered his services free of charge.
On Tuesday 7th February I found Nicola Bulley on the bottom of the River Wyre using 1800 KHz side scan sonar within six minutes from starting my search. The police dive team told me the target was nothing. Sonar targets are not created by nothing, they later changed their… pic.twitter.com/szPo456TH8
— Peter Faulding (@peter_faulding) December 12, 2023
After the report’s release, chief executive of the College of Policing, Chief Constable Andy Marsh, said: “His interactions with the media weren’t coordinated with constabulary media releases and it certainly led to complications and challenges for the force.”
Faulding claimed in a YouTube video that he in fact did find Bulley in the river six minutes into his search, but was ignored by police. In a social media post in December, he said he’d found the body using a 1800 KHz side scan sonar but that the “police dive team told me the target was nothing”.
“Sonar targets are not created by nothing, they later changed their statement to say it was a branch. The images are clear but the supporting sonar data is irrefutable and undeniable. Please see my interview in pursuit of the truth.”
Despite his clashes with police, Faulding was brought in to help with the case of missing two-year-old Xielo Maruziva, who fell into the River Soar in Aylestone, Leicesteshire in February 2024.
Faulding claimed Xielo’s family had got in touch to request his help, but that his offer of support was ignored by police, the Independent reported.
However, the paper says that after “further conversations with search specialists and Xielo’s family,” Specialist Group International was allowed to join the search effort.
Maruziva was eventually found by four workmen at a bridge near Pebble Beach in Aylestone Meadows nature reserve nearly four months after he’d fallen into the river.
The Search for Nicola Bulley will air on Thursday, 3 October at 9pm on BBC One.
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