A witness has told police he saw two men acting suspiciously near the route that Nicola Bulley regularly walked her dog on the day before her disappearance, it has been claimed.
The witness, who did not wish to share his account publicly, said he spotted the pair outside the church in St Michael’s on Wyre and on a nearby bridge on 26 January.
A worker at a local garage said the witness gave information to police after officers asked for anyone who had been in the area around the time the mother-of-two was last seen to come forward, according to The Sun.
The paper reported that police had requested footage from St Michael’s Garage last Thursday that covered the 24 hours before Ms Bulley disappeared.
A garage worker, who did not wish to be named, said: “Two smartly dressed officers came in following up, a man and a woman.
“They wanted the CCTV from the day before Nicola vanished and to take statements of any activity we had seen from that day.
“These officers were different to the ones in uniform, they seemed very assertive.”
The worker reportedly said they knew the witness and were aware he had already gone to the police about what he saw at the local church.
“But he said he wanted to make sure they were chasing this up so I asked the officers about it and they said they were following it up,” they added.
The worker added: “Whether them collecting the CCTV from the same day is connected, I don’t know.”
He told how the witness said he saw one of the men the next day near the bridge, which is at the start of the footpath which Ms Bulley used almost daily on walks with her dog Willow.
The search for Ms Bulley enters its seventeenth day on Sunday. Lancashire Police said officers were keeping an “open mind” while continuing to appeal for information about the incident.
Police said earlier this week they had opened 500 lines of inquiry in the case and were looking to talk to more than 700 drivers seen in the local area around the time of Ms Bulley’s disappearance.
The force is continuing to search the River Wyre towards the sea at Morecambe Bay, working on one hypothesis that the 45-year-old, from Inskip, could have fallen in. Police have discounted foul play and are treating the incident as a missing person inquiry.
Her partner, Paul Ansell said he wants to keep “all options open” about her disappearance, but his “gut instinct” tells him she is not in the river.
