Police have rejected suggestions that missing mother-of-two Nicola Bulley have been a victim of crime. Officers investigating her disappearance have also asked people not to break into empty or derelict riverside properties to look for her.
Earlier on Tuesday (February 7) Supt Sally Riley, of Lancashire Police, said “every single” potential suspicion or criminal suggestion that had come in, had been looked at by detectives and discounted. She moved to reassure the community that nothing in the investigation so far suggested a suspicious or criminal element, reports PA.
She added: “It does remain our belief that Nicola sadly fell into the river and that this is a missing persons inquiry.”
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Police think mortgage adviser Ms Bulley tragically fell into the water while walking her dog along the River Wyre in St Michael’s on Wyre. The incident happened after she dropped her daughters off at school
The National Crime Agency had also looked at the investigation by Lancashire Police and had also failed to identify any other suspicious line of inquiry, Supt Riley said. The officer spoke after suggestions Ms Bulley’s phone, still on a work call and left on a bench overlooking the river, could be a “decoy” and questions being raised about gaps in CCTV coverage of the area where she vanished from.
The lead and harness for Willow, her springer spaniel dog, was also left on or close to the bench. The reassurance came after police asked people not to break into riverside properties to search for Ms Bulley.
In a press conference on Tuesday, Lancashire Constabulary warned members of the public not to “take the law into their own hands” and not to direct online abuse at people connected to the investigation.
Supt Riley added: “We will not tolerate online abuse of anyone, including innocent witnesses, members of the family and friends, of local businesses, or of criminal damage or burglary. We will be taking a strong line on that, as you would expect.”
“There are some properties along the riverside which are empty or derelict. Whilst it may be well intentioned that people think that that could be a line of inquiry, I would ask them to desist from doing that.
“In some cases it may be criminal if they are breaking in and causing damage or committing a burglary.”
She said officers have searched derelict riverside properties with the permission of owners.
“Because there is no criminal element yet identified, and we don’t expect there to be in this inquiry, then we’re not starting to go into houses because that’s not where the inquiry is leading us,” she added.
Ms Riley also urged the public to avoid “distressing” speculation about what might have happened to Ms Bulley.
“We would ask that people in the wider community, particularly on social media and online, do not speculate as to what may have happened to Nicola,” she told reporters at the press conference.
“This is particularly hurtful to her family, to her children, to her partner Paul, to her parents, her sister and her friends because it is not helpful to them, it is distressing and it is distracting for the police inquiry.
“Nor is it helpful if people, particularly if they have come from outside of the area, take it upon themselves to take the law into their own hands by trying to, for example, break into empty property.
“They may mean well, they may want to help. But they can help in thinking back if they were in the area to what information they may have of relevance to the police and holding the family in their thoughts.”
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