But he told BBC Breakfast today he thinks Nicola's phone - found on a bench after she went missing and still connected to a meeting - could be a "decoy" from a "third party".
He explained: “If Nicola is not in that stretch of river today my view is that there is a third party involved and this was a decoy placed by the river.
“It could have been placed as a decoy, there is not enough CCTV to cover particular areas here. The police are working hard in the background to cover everything.
“It’s so unusual, we’ve got no clear information to go on."
A former cop has slammed the police investigation into missing mother-of-two Nicola Bulley branding their decision to rule out third party involvement as 'odd' and telling detectives they should bring in another force to review the case.
Martyn Underhill, a former Police and Crime Commissioner for Dorset, hit out at police investigating the case saying they had put 'all their eggs in one basket'.
He said you could not rule out criminality or a third party being at the location within the 10 minute window unaccounted for by police in the timeline of when Ms Bulley went missing.
He added that 'there is a lot to suggest this could have been an unexpected attack or a kidnap of a lady distracted on her phone and with a dog.'
Speaking to GB News, Mr Underhill said: 'There are two golden rules in any case like this, one is to respect the golden hour.
'The first 24 hours are absolutely crucial to a case like this, and the second is to keep an open mind and to hear the police say that this is a tragic accident on what we've got in the public domain at the moment I cannot understand that statement.
And at a stroke of a pen by saying that, they are reducing the publicity, they are clearly upsetting the family who are now speaking out against them and they are putting all their eggs in one basket, which professionally I find very odd.'
The former Commissioner said Lancashire Police should call in an outside force to review, sense check and reassure the family. He said this is usually recommended after nine days in cases like Ms Bulley's.
His comments came as the diving expert drafted in to help police in the search said if he does not find Ms Bulley in the river today he believes she is not in there and that a third party is involved.
Forensic expert Peter Faulding, founder of Specialist Group International whose team joined the search yesterday, said he has never seen a case so unusual in his 20 years of working in the field. Mr Faulding said he spoken with Ms Bulley's 'distraught' partner last night to keep him updated on the search.
He said: 'I spoke to Paul last night and asked him if she had any enemies, any stalkers, the normal questions you would ask. And nothing, he said no. And she was totally normal that day when she left, nothing out the ordinary.'
He told LBC: 'It was a totally normal day, she didn't take much with her, and she's just disappeared like she's been taken by aliens.
'There are detectives working all hours trying to piece the missing parts of the jigsaw puzzle that noone - nobody knows where Nicola is.
'The river has got to be searched, police can't ignore the river, but in the background there's lots of other good work going on. This is just one part of a huge police operation.'
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Mr Faulding said: 'Normally when we deal with a drowning victim, they are where they go down.
On Monday a specialist search and rescue team called Specialist Group International (SGI) deployed a £55,000 Sonar to scan the River Wyre for the the mortgage advisor.
The search, which began downstream in a tidal stretch of river, has now moved up to near a bench where Nicola's phone and dog harness were found.
Here, The Sun Online looks at all the theories about Nicola's disappearance.
He previously told Sky News that "none of this rings right to me" and that it was "my belief is she’s not in the river at all".
He is leading a team from Specialist Group International (SGI), assisting divers from Lancashire Police.
The team, from Dorking, Surrey, are forensic experts responsible for assisting cops across the south east with underwater search operations.
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