A SEARCH and rescue expert is hunting for places where missing mum-of-two Nicola Bulley could be buried.

Peter Faulding, who has worked on a series of high-profile missing person cases, plans to scour the area close to where the 45-year-old vanished for possible "deposition sites".

He said he decided to launch his own "low-key" search after having a "frank" conversation with Nicola's partner Paul and friend Heather Gibbons.

It has been 18 days since the mortgage adviser disappeared and cops are no closer to finding her.

Forensic expert Faulding, who has located scores of bodies, sometimes when police have failed to, told The Express: "I was frank with Paul and Heather the other day because we need to consider possible deposition sites, we don't know.

"I'm not saying the police aren't doing that and what I don't want to do is interfere with the police operation.

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"My investigation will be low key. I will just be looking around for possible deposition sites."

Nicola vanished while out walking her dog in St Michaels on Wyre, Lancashire, on January 27.

She had dropped her two daughters off at school then joined a work call just after 9am while strolling along the River Wyre.

The mum was last seen in a field with her Springer Spaniel Willow at 9.10am.

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Her phone, which was still connected to the Teams meeting, the pup, its lead and harness were found around 25 minutes later, but there was no sign of Nicola.

Detectives quickly said they suspected she may have accidentally fallen into the water and drowned.

Approaching three weeks on and this remains their hypothesis, though they insist they are "open" to all possibilities.

Faulding joined the hunt with his private underwater search team Specialist Group International (SGI) but dropped out after several days after finding no trace of Nicola.

This prompted him to claim a third party could be involved and to suggest her phone could have been placed on a bench next to the river as a "decoy".

Faulding, who thinks detectives were too quick to declare Nicola was in the River Wyre, described the case as "truly baffling" because everyone involved, including cops, have "nothing to go on".

Among the details being probed by police as part of the investigation are reports of two men trying to hide their faces near Nicola's dog-walking route the day before she went missing.

A local said the pair were carrying fishing rods and appeared to be wearing hats or hoods.

The witness said: "It was very strange. It made me uneasy."

WHERE IS SHE?

He spotted one of the men again the following day but didn't think much of it until he heard the news of Nicola's disappearance.

On reflection, he said, it was odd that they didn't appear to be carrying a tackle or bait box and were wrapped up warm when the weather was mild.

Cops are also trawling through CCTV from the area and trying to trace the owner of a shabby-looking red van spotted outside a barn on the morning Nicola vanished.

Tree surgeon Denis Rowlandson, 47, said of the vehicle: "It was a shabby looking van, an older model, the kind you can live or work in.

"I don’t know anybody with a red van who should be parked outside that barn or near the entrance.

"There’s no reason to be there at all without my permission."

And officers are said to be compiling a list of all registered sex offenders in the area, according to a former Scotland Yard detective.

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Anyone with information is asked to call 101, quoting log 473 of January 27.

For immediate sightings, call 999.

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