A MISSING person’s expert says there is ‘no indication’ that Nicola Bulley is in the river.
Appearing on GB News, Charlie Hedges, said: “They’ve said throughout they’ve been pursuing other lines of inquiry and that’s essential to any case like this. The normal procedure would be to have a working hypothesis based on what is the most likely thing to happen. And unfortunately, this case is a very high-profile search activity… But in the background, I’m quite confident that a lot of activity will have been taking place, looking at other options, looking at what else might happen.”
He added: “I think we need to keep our minds open to all options. The river was the most important thing to check out – that has been thoroughly searched with no outcome and no indication that she was there. So yes, I mean, nobody goes missing without a reason and understanding what’s going on in someone’s life is really, really important. All lines of action need to be followed. It may be that she just took the decision to go off. It’s not that easy to go off the grid in today’s world.
“We must think about the family in this situation and the stress they’ve been going through. We need to keep an open mind, look at all the possible options for the investigation, look for the information, and hopefully, we’ll come to a satisfactory conclusion.
“Unfortunately, the longer these things go on, the harder it is for someone to survive without any help or support. We have to look at that. But again, it shouldn’t steer us in a particular direction and we need to keep on looking and hoping and trying to find her.”
Charlie added that the decision to breach Nicola Bulley’s “personal privacy” is an issue that “needs to be looked at carefully to make sure appropriate action is taken”.
He continued: “It’s most unusual, it seems to have been driven by the huge amount of speculation on media and social media, which has been unprecedented. But unfortunately, it’s actually created a lot more adverse discussion. It certainly needs to be looked at to make sure appropriate steps are taken to make sure it was either right or it is corrected.”
Asked if he believes the crime scene has now been compromised, Charlie said: “I’ve not been part of the investigation so it’s difficult to know exactly what they know and what they don’t know and what lines of inquiry are open. They should continue to keep it in the public domain, looking at other options for search and investigation. Use a wide range of technical resources and contacts to try to find where she might be.”
