The family of Nicola Bulley have released a new and painful statement describing how some people have "threatened to sell" stories to the press about her personal life.
Today marks three weeks since the 45-year-old mum of two vanished while walking her dog, Willow, by the River Wyre in Lancashire. Lancashire Police specialists have searched miles of riverbed and widened the search to Morecambe Bay, but no trace of Nicola, known as Nikki to her family, has emerged.
This week detectives revealed she had been considered a "high-risk" missing person due to "specific vulnerabilities", which the force last night clarified related to alcohol issues.
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Today, police released a new statement from Nicola's family expanding more on the medical issues she faced before her disappearance. They said: "It has now been three weeks since Nikki went missing. We, as a family, believe that the public focus has become distracted from finding Nikki, and more about speculation and rumours into her private life.
"As a family, we were aware that Lancashire Police, last night, released a statement with some personal details. Although we know that Nikki would not have wanted this, there are people out there threatening to sell stories about her. This is appalling and needs to stop.
"The police know the truth about Nikki and now the public need to focus on finding her. Due to the peri menopause Nikki suffered with significant side effects such as brain fog, restless sleep and was taking HRT to help but this was giving her intense headaches which caused Nikki to stop taking the HRT, thinking that may have helped her but only ended up causing this crisis.
"The public focus has to be on finding her and not making up wild theories about her personal life.
"Despite what some media outlets and individuals are suggesting, we are being updated daily and receive support from our family liaison officers.
"Nikki is such a wonderful daughter, sister , partner and mother and is missed dearly - we all need you back in our lives.
"Nikki, we hope you are reading this and know that we love you so much and your girls want a cuddle. We all need you home. You can reach out to us, or you can contact MissingPeople.org.uk. Don’t be scared, we all love you so very much."
Lancashire Police have said their "working hypothesis" is that Nicola somehow fell into the River Wyre during a "10-minute window" between 9.10am and 09:20am on January 27. Her partner, Paul Ansell, has previously said he does not believe she fell into the water.
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