A former police detective has explained how Nicola Bulley could have left the scene of her disappearance without being seen - saying she may have chosen to 'walk away from her life'. Mortgage adviser Nicola Bulley, 45, a mum of two vanished while walking her springer spaniel Willow in the village of St Michael’s on Wyre, Lancashire, on January 27 after dropping her daughters at school.
She has not been seen for three weeks. Police say their main hypothesis is that she went onto the river.
They say she did not leave the area as they have examined CCTV and dashcam footage with no evidence of any third-party involvement, or of Nicola leaving the scene. Her phone and dog were found at the river.
Former detective Mark Williams-Thomas told The Mirror : "If Nicola returned on the path she came on there's no CCTV. When police say they don't believe she left the area there's no certainty in that.
"She could have left on the same route she came on - I've walked the route and she could easily have disappeared up there without being seen by anybody."
He also does not believe Nicola's body could have washed out to sea from the location where she was last seen. He said: "Her body would have had to go around two bends in the river and an area in the middle of the river with undergrowth.
"And also it would have had to get over the weir and then across rocks and round a bend of 90 degrees. Had she got passed the weir chances are the tides would have brought the body back. I think she left this area in one way or another.
"She either left the area further downstream in the water - not at the bench but further downstream where the river is tidal. Or she is still in this area having moved away to move on with life. I rule out third-party involvement."
