Nicola Bulley: Top murder detective speaks out on…

Nicola Bulley: Top murder detective speaks out on investigation saying there has been 'crucial mistakes'

A leading murder detective has claimed the police searching for missing mum Nicola Bulley have made a number of crucial mistakes.

The search for the 45-year-old mortgage adviser has entered a third week after she suddenly vanished 17 days ago while walking her dog near the river in St Michael's on Wyre in Lancashire. Lancashire Police launched a massive search and were seen combing the river bank, utilising diving teams, search dogs, drones and boats.

Now, the Mirror has reported that former Met Police detective chief inspector, Simon Harding, believes that the police have harmed the search by sticking with their "hypothesis" that the dog walker fell into the river.

However, his opinion comes as a retired detective claimed that police are right to explore the theory that mum fell into the river based on three factors.

Lancashire Police have kept the public informed on its investigation throughout and said it is continuing to investigate 'all possible leads'.

In its last statement on Friday, the force said: "Based on all the work we have done up to now our belief remains that Nicola may have fallen into the river for some reason, but we are continuing to investigate all possible leads, and this involves viewing CCTV, Dashcam footage and speaking to people who are providing us with information."

Writing in the Sunday Times, Mr Harding questioned why Lancashire Police didn't instantly recognise her disappearance to be wildly out of character and also questioned why there was no cordon put in place around where Miss Bulley went missing.

Mr Harding wrote in the Sunday Times: "It is now crystal clear that those closest to the investigation, her family and close friends, simply do not believe the hypothesis put to them."

He added: "The police settled on a tragic accident and made their thinking public within days, but to say this to the family and media, you must be 100 percent certain."

His interview comes as a retired detective claimed that police have been right to explore the theory that Nicola fell into the river.

Julie Mackay, a retired Detective Superintendent who previously solved a 32-year-old murder, told the Mirror that she backs the police's working hypothesis based on three factors:

No new information has given them a reason to think otherwise.
It is unlikely to be criminal based on the time she disappeared.
The winter conditions would make it harder to find her

She said: "I still believe she's gone in that river - today when you look at the last two weeks and review it, nothing has changed."

Meanwhile, Nicola Bulley's partner, Paul Ansell, told Channel 5's Dan Walker that he believes a local was behind the disappearance of Nicola and that the discovery of her phone on a bench could be just a 'decoy'. However, he praised the police for how they are conducting the search.

“I have to categorically say I cannot fault the police in any of this, they have been incredible, and the relationship that we have working on this is still very, very strong, it’s very good," he told Channel 5.