Police investigating the disappearance of Nicola Bulley have to answer “serious questions” over why it took more than three weeks to find her body in the River Wyre, experts have said.
Ms Bulley, 45, was found just a mile from where she was last seen, walking her dog after dropping her two daughters off at school on 27 January.
It was on an unremarkable stretch of the river, just past a slight bend, close to where a tree had fallen on its side with branches and undergrowth partially submerged.
The same stretch of water has been searched both by police and a specialist company since the mother of two’s disappearance, with nothing being found as speculation in the case hit fever pitch and amateur sleuths travelled to St Michael’s on Wyre in their droves.
Nusrit Mehtab, a former Metropolitan Police superintendent, said an independent inquiry should scrutinise the police investigation, decision-making and “poor communication strategy”.
“Some serious questions have to be asked about Lancashire Police’s decision-making,” she told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
“They didn’t share that information with this specialist search team that they brought in about the vulnerabilities, and yet they shared that information with the wider public.”
Underwater search expert Peter Faulding, whose private company was called in by Ms Bulley’s family to help find her, found no trace of a body in the section of river they searched.
He defended his efforts in several television appearances on Monday, suggesting that the body may have not been found because it was “in the reeds”.
“The police have searched that area with sonar and divers for the last three weeks,” Mr Faulding told GB News.
“We spent four hours searching for Nicola in that strip of the river… we’ve done the best with our ability but it was not our remit to search the reeds, that was the land search teams.”
Officers announced during a press conference a week after Ms Bulley’s disappearance that they were working on the hypothesis that she was in the river, after the investigation found no trace of her leaving the area on foot, by vehicle or by any other means.
She was seen by a dog walker who knew her at around 8.50am, and Ms Bulley logged on to a work video call minutes later. The last known sighting of the mortgage adviser was at 9.10am, when she was seen by a second witness.
By 9.30am, Ms Bulley’s work call had ended, but her phone stayed connected, and approximately five minutes later another dog walker found it on a bench beside the river, with her dog Willow darting between the two.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) could not comment on whether it would investigate any potential failures in the search operation before the body is formally identified.
Lancashire Constabulary referred itself to the watchdog on Thursday, but only in relation to contact they had with Ms Bulley on 10 January – just over two weeks before her disappearance.
“We are assessing the available information to determine whether an investigation into that contact may be required and if so, who should conduct that investigation,” the IOPC said at the time.
Before the discovery of the body, Lancashire Constabulary announced an internal review of the investigation, but gave no details of the probe’s remit and scope.
Nazir Afzal, a former chief crown prosecutor, said an expedited inquiry by the IOPC was needed to “restore public confidence in policing”.
“Clearly, questions will have to be asked about why the body wasn’t located earlier, given the area where they were searching and where the body was eventually found,” he added.
Police confirmed that they were called to a report of a body in the River Wyre at shortly after 11.30am on Sunday, and that an underwater search team recovered a person.
“No formal identification has yet been carried out, so we are unable to say whether this is Nicola Bulley at this time,” a statement added.
“Procedures to identify the body are ongoing. We are currently treating the death as unexplained.
“Nicola’s family have been informed of developments and our thoughts are with them at this most difficult of times. We ask that their privacy is respected.”
The home secretary has been among those demanding answers over the case, saying she was not “wholly satisfied” with the chief constable’s response to her questions – which centred around police revealing personal details about Ms Bulley’s health – so far.
Asked if there would be an external review into the police’s handling of the case, Suella Braverman said she had raised concerns last week over the force’s disclosure of Ms Bulley’s alcohol use and experience of menopause.
“I raised those concerns with the chief constable – I wasn’t wholly satisfied, I have to say, with some of the responses I got but it is a matter for the police themselves,” she added.
“There are some investigations ongoing, looking into how the investigation has been handled and we must let that carry out its own process.
“We must just let the investigation conclude, and then we will see what the investigations and inquiries come back with.”
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, who formerly led the Crown Prosecution Service, said the investigation must get to the “absolute bottom” of what happened to Ms Bulley.
“There will be a review so if there have been mistakes along the way, the review will get to the bottom of those mistakes,” he told reporters.
“Let the investigation go its full length now, let’s have that review and then we can see whether the judgements were the right judgements.
“In my experience when I was director of public prosecutions very often where there is a review, some judgements which at the time didn’t seem particularly appropriate, are capable of being explained.”
