Nicola Bulley: Diving expert Peter Faulding says case has left him 'baffled' and he feels like he is searching for an 'invisible person'

Private underwater expert Peter Faulding, 60, spoke out after his team joined the search effort for Nicola using sonar technology in the River Wyre in Lancashire.

He says the case has left him 'baffled' and he feels like he is searching for an 'invisible person' after being drafted in by cops to help.

And he said he updated Nicola's partner Paul Ansell, who has been left 'distraught' at her disappearance.

Nicola, 45, vanished without trace, sparking a major search and rescue mission led by police, who have been assisted by the fire brigade, coast guard and the RNLI.

Police divers, sniffer dogs, drones and helicopters have also been involved in the search but they have still been unable to find the mum-of-two.

A private team of divers led by Peter, a leading confined space rescue and forensic search specialist, search the River Wyre, where police believe she fell into the water.

He and his team of divers from Specialist Group International (SGI) have joined the search and will be searching the river free of charge for the next four days.

But Peter, who has worked on a number of high-profile missing persons and “no body” murder investigations, has been left baffled by the lack of clues in the search.

However he is 'holding out hope' that she is alive and safe somewhere.

Peter said today (Tues): "I'm baffled and we're all baffled by this case because the police divers searched this area in front of the bench the same day she went missing.

"I would expect a body to be at the bottom of the river.

"In my experience, it would literally be in the river in front of the bench - that's where you would normally find it.

"It's mad and it's just very odd if I'm honest.

"But I think we need to hold out hope that she's alive somewhere as she's just disappeared off the face of the earth.

"We just don't know, we're looking for an invisible person at the moment and we've got no idea.

"I think we need to do what we can, the police are doing a great job and we're all doing a hard job."

Peter said he updated Paul, Nicola's partner and the dad of their two daughters, which left him 'distraught'.

And he called for social media users speculating on the case to 'leave the family alone'.

He said: "I had a half an hour conversation with Paul last night to update him and he's distraught.

"There's so much horrible things that have been going on, I feel so sorry for the man.

"He's getting constant flack all the time and it's not fair.

"The family just need to be left alone and everyone needs to let us do our job."

He also said that the only clues the police have about the case are her mobile phone and her dog Willow's harness, which were found minutes after she was last seen.

Peter said: "The only clue the police have got is just the mobile phone and the dog harness. That's it - there's nothing.

"I've worked on hundreds of cases and I've never seen anything like this as we would have expected to have found her by now."

His comments come after a large police presence was spotted on the Shard Bridge which crosses the River Wyre, five miles down the river from where Nicola disappeared.

One resident posted on social media: "Police presence on Shard Bridge including drones.

"Looking for something."

Another said: "Saw police an hour ago as I crossed Shard Bridge.

"Four vans are there now and the coastguard."

Nicola is white, 5ft 3ins tall, with light brown shoulder-length hair. She speaks with an Essex accent.

She was last seen wearing a long, knee-length black quilted gilet with a hood.

She had a black Engelbert Strauss coat underneath which had long sleeves and came to her waist.

She was wearing tight black jeans and had long green walking socks tucked into her jeans. She was wearing size 5 ankle length green wellington boots from Next.