The family of a boy who died in a brook near where Nicola Bulley has gone missing have said they "know her family's pain".
Student Roger Jones was thrown into a fast-flowing brook that fed into the River Wyre in St Michael's on Wyre, Lancashire, back in 1978 following a motorcycle crash.
It was near the River Wyre that Nicola, 45, was last seen walking her beloved springer spaniel Willow on January 27.
Police launched an extensive search of the area and said their "main working hypothesis" was that she fell in a river but a body has not yet been found.
Nicola’s disappearance has been in headlines across the UK since late January, and the case has brought back harrowing memories of the loss of the Jones family's youngest son.
Roger's brother Don Jones, who now lives in Caton, Lancashire, said: "We feel so much for Nicola's family and friends. We know just what they must be going through”.
Roger was a pupil at the former Fulwood High School, where he was working to go to Myerscough College to study agriculture and follow his dream of becoming a farmer.
The 16-year-old had been returning home one night as a passenger on a friend's motorbike when they crashed into a car on a narrow bridge in Woodplumpton, near Preston.
The bike rider was badly injured and unconscious when emergency services arrived, and was unable to tell them he had a passenger.
It was 3am before police were alerted that someone was missing and returned to the bridge.
While a massive police search was launched, that included dog patrols, divers, and mounted police , Roger’s body was not discovered until two months later, when it washed up on a sandbank at low tide seven miles from St Michael's, the town where Nicola was last seen.
Don, a journalist for Granada TV, said that his family were “exhausted” by the time his younger brother’s body was found, adding: “It was just a case of waiting for what seemed inevitable”.
He said that the river conditions when Roger went missing 45 years ago were “pretty similar” to the conditions Nicola may have faced in the River Wyre, adding: “He was obviously swept over the weir and into the tidal part of the river.”
Don said that he and his family didn’t have to deal with social media trolls and conspiracy theorists chiming in, adding that it “must be a nightmare for [Nicola’s family] to deal with”.
He added that he and his family also had to deal with “clairvoyants and spiritualists”, which he said “proved very upsetting, especially for our mum”.
Lancashire Police renewed their appeal for dashcam footage of St Michael's on the morning of Friday January 27 when Nicola was last seen at around 9.20am.
Sixty officers are working to locate the 45-year-old mortgage advisor, with the National Crime Agency on hand to review Lancashire Police’s investigation to see if any clues slipped through the net.
Yesterday the county force again rejected suggestions that Nicola could have been a victim of crime, with detectives believing she has “most likely” fallen into the river.
