The search for Nicola Bulley has now reached the sea, as police were forced to issue a dispersal order to stop vigilantes from hunting for the missing mother-of-two in riverside properties.
The 45-year-old mortgage adviser disappeared on 27 January while taking her dog on a routine morning walk along the River Wyre, in the village of St Michael’s on Wyre, after dropping her daughters – aged six and nine – at school nearby.
Her mobile phone was discovered on a bench by the riverbank, still connected to a Microsoft Teams work call, with her springer spaniel running loose nearby. The ensuing search for her, now in its 13th day, has “baffled” investigators and drawn intense national attention.
While Lancashire Police have welcomed the thousands of potential leads offered up by the public, they have also urged against “distracting” and “distressing” speculation – and even reminded people not to break the law during vigilante searches for Ms Bulley in riverside properties.
In a further escalation, police have now issued two dispersal orders, after a group of men allegedly travelled from Liverpool to join the hunt and searched an abandoned house near the river.
Lancashire Constabulary said it would “not tolerate criminality, including trespass and criminal damage” and said a “number of other people were warned about their behaviour” following reports of people “filming on social media close to properties”.
“The order will remain in place for 48 hours and gives officers the power to disperse anyone committing anti-social behaviour,” the force said.
Earlier this week, private rescue team Specialist Group International joined the search at the family’s request – but announced on Wednesday that their extensive three-day search of the river using sonar and divers had yielded no sign of Ms Bulley’s body, leaving them “baffled”.
The police search for Ms Bulley has now reached the mouth of the river, near Fleetwood, and into the Irish Sea and Morecambe Bay.
Video of the scene showed speedboats combing the open waters on Thursday, some 12 miles downriver from St Michael’s on Wyre, where police suspect Ms Bulley may have fallen in while retrieving a tennis ball for her dog – a theory which friends and family have expressed doubts over.
Superintendent Sally Riley, who is leading the operation, has described the search as “unprecedented”, with 40 detectives following 500 lines of inquiry, with thousands of pieces of information coming in from the public.
The force has ruled out criminal or third-party involvement and is treating the incident as a missing person inquiry.
Police have analysed Ms Bulley’s mobile phone and Fitbit as well as searched a derelict house on the other side of the river and empty caravans in the vicinity.
Officers have also trawled through hours of CCTV footage covering several pathways and fields near the area, with a friend of Ms Bulley lamenting that the security camera which “would have seen everything” is broken.
The force has said it is a “possibility” that Ms Bulley left the riverside by one path not covered by cameras which is crossed by the main road through the village, and officers have been trying to trace dashcam footage from 700 drivers nearby at the time she disappeared, around 9.20am.
