The diving expert who lead the search for Nicola Bulley said she may have just “walked off somewhere” after police described the mother-of-two as high risk.
The dog walker vanished without trace while walking along the River Wyre in St Michael’s, Lancashire, on 27 January.
Lancashire Police detective superintendent Rebecca Smith on Wednesday revealed Ms Bulley was categorised as high-risk when she was reported missing.
She told a press conference this was due to a “number of specific vulnerabilities” identified by her partner.
But while police doubled down on the theory that she had fallen into the river, expert diver Peter Faulding said: “There’s nothing to say she hasn’t just walked off somewhere.”
Mr Faulding said it was possible for someone to just walk away from their life before re-appearing sometime later.
The search and rescue specialist said there were “well documented” cases where missing people have simply “wandered off” before turning up weeks later.
And he believes it might be difficult to rule out any “third party” involvement or other scenarios concerning her disappearance.
He added: “High-risk could be someone who has just walked off, literally.
“A lot of colleagues have dealt with all sorts of stuff where people are missing and then they turn up alive, where they have just wandered off.
“It happens with people with mental health problems and all sorts. It’s well-documented that people just walk off and are found days, or weeks later.
“Nobody knows where Nicola is at the moment.
“This whole inquiry is a bit of an open book, really. Nobody can say she’s either dead, she’s alive, or she’s in the river.”
Mr Faulding said he spoke to Ms Bulley’s partner Paul Ansell this week, saying he was “in pieces”.
He added: “I think this press conference was needed, which is good.
“The police are doing a lot of work, and to be fair, to back the police, they have got their backs up against the wall, with no information.
“I personally am not privy to the information they’ve got. But without evidence, it’s difficult to rule out any third party. It’s very difficult to rule everything out.
“All we’ve got at the moment is a phone by the river and a harness.”
Assistant chief constable Peter Lawson on Wednesday said the force had undertaken an “unprecedented amount of work” in searching for the mother-of-two.
He said this had included visiting more than 300 premises, speaking to almost 300 people and receiving roughly 1,500 pieces of information.
On Ms Bulley being deemed high risk, Detective Superintendent Rebecca Smith said: “I’m not going to go into the details of those individual vulnerabilities.
“I’ve asked you to respect the family, who are going through unimaginable pain and distress at this moment.
“But those vulnerabilities based our decision-making in terms of grading Nicola as high risk and have continued to form part of my investigation throughout.”
Mr Faulding said it remained his opinion that Ms Bulley was not in the non-tidal section of the river that he and his team had searched with sonar equipment last week.
And he believed her body wouldn’t have made it downstream and over a weir unless she had been “pushed” or “launched” into the centre of the river.
He said: “If she had fallen in, she would have landed on the rocks.
“I’ve personally been to the scene, I’ve looked at it, and that’s still my opinion.
“Unless she was pushed or launched out into the middle, where it is deep. But again, the police searched that area thoroughly that day [she went missing].”
He also reiterated his commitment to return to the scene and follow up on his search again, in tandem with the police, who he was careful not to criticise.
He said: “The police did say they were thinking of scaling down their search in the coming day. They’ve only got certain resources to attack it.
“But I’m prepared to give it one more go for the family, without hindering any police operation.
“Keep it low key, where we could assist the police, and I’ll willing to work alongside them.”
