A forensic expert claims specialist divers searching the river close to where missing mum Nicola Bulley's body was discovered are looking for "a specific artefact".
Mum-of-two Nicola vanished while walking her dog Willow near the river in St Michael's on Wyre, Lancashire on January 27. Her disappearance made national headlines and sparked a huge search, with police, firefighters, mountain rescue, underwater teams and the local community scouring the area between the river and the coastline.
Sadly, the 47-year-old's body was found on February 19, just over a mile from where she was last seen. On April 4, specialist officers were spotted combing through the surrounding area, the Mirror reports.
Dr Richard Shepherd, a forensic pathologist who has been involved in well-known cases such as Stephen Lawrence and was called as an expert for Harold Shipman's trial, told the Mirror he believes police are searching for a missing item.
Dr Shepherd said: "I'm really struggling to see what they could be looking, for now, that would affect or influence the cause of death. When Nicola's body was found it would have been taken to the morgue and a formal post-mortem would have been carried out where it would have looked for natural diseases, any injuries, and samples would have been taken for alcohol drugs."
An inquest into her death is to be held at County Hall in Preston on Monday, June 26.
He added: "They must have a reason to do it though - my guess is there is something like an artefact of some sort that they are trying to make sure to find it. My sense is they want to be absolutely sure that something they can't quite locate isn't still in the river.
"My feeling is they are looking for something specific. The last thing police want after the social media interest around this is for it to come out inquest there is something missing and then it gets randomly found by the public."
When asked if he thought authorities could be attempting a reconstruction of events, Dr Shepherd said: "I think it's unlikely because once again rivers are so variable. Even if you get a model or a manikin to put clothes on or a real person you couldn't possibly repeat what happened that day.
"We know from years and years of people entering rivers and lakes and the sea that there is movement and there are things like reeds, and branches where a body can be held under in particular places and then something is altered and the body comes free so they wouldn't do a reconstruction in this context."
"I can't see what they are doing there in terms of the cause of death especially in something as changing as the river. Even if it is a house where it was kept sealed I'd still struggle to go back to find something to alter the cause of death
In a statement yesterday, the HM Coroner confirmed they requested the assistance of Lancashire Police to help produce information on the death of Nicola.
A spokesman for HM Coroner told Lancashire Post: "The investigation will take time to complete to ensure that as complete a picture as possible of the facts concerning Ms Bulley's death is presented at the inquest.
"This will assist the family in understanding what occurred. As part of this process, HM Senior Coroner has requested Lancashire Constabulary produce information gathered during the search for Ms Bulley so it can be considered as part of the investigation.”
A police spokesperson told the Mirror: “We can confirm this is us carrying out some work at the direction of HM Coroner."
Dr Shepherd has worked as a forensic pathologist for more than four decades after deciding to pursue the career when a friend brought a copy of Simpson’s Forensic Medicine into school. He has since written a memoir called Unnatural Causes about his time as a forensic pathologist.
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