The search for missing mum Nicola Bulley has now entered its 12th day.
Nicola, 45, had just dropped off her two children at school and was walking her dog, Willow, by the River Wyre in Lancashire before she disappeared on Friday, January 27. Her phone was left on a bench never the river and her dog was found nearby.
Police officers said they are working on the theory that the dog-walker, who has been described by friends as a strong swimmer, fell into the river, but that line of investigation has been questioned by friends and family. A specialist water search team has been working on the river for the last two days, with expert Peter Faulding saying a number of things "don't add up".
READ MORE: Expert in search for Nicola Bulley thinks phone was left as a 'decoy'
Yesterday the team trawled what they consider the "hot zone", as well several miles up and downstream, but neither they nor police specialists found any evidence of Nicola. Now, separate dive teams have since begun searching up towards Morecambe Bay, the officer overseeing the investigation revealed last night.
Lancashire Police Superintendent Sally Riley told a press briefing last night that a team of 40 detectives are working on around 500 different lines of inquiry and are identifying more than 700 drivers who travelled through the village around the time Nicola disappeared. But despite all of the efforts, there are still a number of unanswered questions.
Why is there a lack of CCTV?
There were images of Nicola shared from her own door bell camera that showed her packing up the car ready for the school run, but there is a lack of CCTV from the towpath area. The CCTV camera at a residential park on the upper field of the path had one camera not working. If it had been working it would likely have been able to pick up what happened around the bench.
Superintendent Sally Riley said: "Several exits of the riverside area have CCTV covering them or exits are locked and therefore couldn't have been passed through by Nicola. There's only a very small area onto Garstang Lane toward the A586 which is not covered by CCTV and that's why we're appealing today for dashcam footage or for people who may have been walking on Garstang Lane or driving in the area to come forward if they can."
What about the 10 minutes not accounted for?
Lancashire Police has said there are 10 minutes they cannot account for, between the last sighting of Nicola at 9.10am and 9.20am, when Nicola's phone was found on a bench still connected to the work call she was on. On Tuesday (February 7) police gave an update on timings:
- 8.26am Nicola left her home address with her children
- 8.40am Nicola dropped her children off at school
- 8.43am seen on the river path towards the gate and bench on lower field
- 8.47am someone who knows Nicola saw her with dog, and the two dogs briefly interacted
- 8.53am she sent email to her boss
- 8.59am she sent message to a friend
- 9.01am she logged onto a teams call
- 9.10am last confirmed siting of Nicola
- 9.20am Her phone was located on the bench
- 9.30am teams call ended
9.33am Nicola's phone and dog were found by a witness
Why has the area has not been sealed off?
Specialist forensic search expert Peter Faulding, who was brought in by Nicola's family and friends, raised concerns that the bench where the phone was found has not been sealed off. He has concerns that clues to the disappearance could have been lost.
He said: "People have been walking past the bench. There's no police tape up. This would normally be sealed off as a crime scene so potentially crime scene investigators can go in and see if there are any microfibres, evidence, slip marks down the bank etc and I don't believe that has actually happened here."
Police reconfirmed on Tuesday that their belief remains that "Nicola sadly fell into the river, and this is a missing person enquiry." Supt Riley said: "We believe Nicola remained in the riverside area." She added that the search was being extended out to the sea due to the nature of the river.
Why the phone was left on a bench?
When Nicola's phone was found on a bench near to where she was last seen it was still dialled in to a work call and was alongside Willow's harness. Some people have suggested that she left it there to deal with something, with the aim of coming back to it once it was over.
Mr Faulding did say that the phone may have been left behind as a 'decoy' by a 'third party' involved in the disappearance. This comes after he noted that had she fallen in the water, her dog Willow - who was found at the scene - would have caused a disturbance.
Why was the dog not more distressed and why was its harness off?
There has been much speculation about Willow the dog and whether Nicola had gone into the river to rescue her. The dog was found near the bench but was reportedly dry and not wearing her harness.
Police later said that they believe it was usual for Nicola to remove the harness from Willow. An expert added that the dog may have been calmer because “it all depends on the dog’s association with water."
Dog behaviour expert Ross McCarthy said: "Their relationship with the owner and so on, as to whether they would jump in. Some would through play or investigation and others would just mooch about on the side and some would panic at the strange situation."
How no one saw anything or heard screams?
At a press conference, Lancashire Police Supt Sally Riley said: ‘We have now identified around 700 vehicles that drove through the village on that morning on the 27th January at around 9.10am - 9.15am.
"We are in the process of speaking to all of those drivers to try and find out if they have any dashcam footage, what they saw on that day or anything else that may be of value to the police inquiry."
Mr Faulding said it "feels odd" that no one spoke of the fact that Nicola was not wearing clothes that would have absorbed water quickly. He added that there were no marks at the scene and that not one person heard screams.
Why you would have expected to have found a drowned body by now?
Speaking on Good Morning Britain, Mr Faulding said: "Bodies can get lodged in reeds and show up months later, the sonar won't go into the reeds. But then that's the idea of the divers and, as I said before, it was originally searched when she supposedly went in. He said police divers have already thoroughly searched that stretch of the river and wouldn't have missed anything. However, specialist equipment used by his team could help to "completely rule out anything".
He said: "Normally when we deal with drowning victims they go to the bottom and they will stay there for a while. The police divers have done a thorough search of that river twice and nothing was found. This is one of the most odd cases I've ever worked on. Underwater search - I'm a forensic diver as well - is a particularly difficult task. Generally, things aren't missed, they [police divers] have done it thoroughly. If anything is there, we will find it. A body will move after a time, but they searched that area and came up with nothing – that is what is weird here. We are baffled."
Why the police might not tell the public everything?
It is important to note that police often don't share all details of an investigation for investigative and operational reasons. Lancashire Police continue to appeal for witnesses and dashcam footage. Anyone with information or footage is asked to call 101, quoting log 565 of January 30. For any immediate sightings, please call 999.
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