Police have issued an update on missing mum Nicola Bulley as the search enters the 13th day. The mortgage adviser was last seen while walking her dog, Willow, on Friday, January 27, in the Lancashire village of St Michaels on Wyre.
Several underwater searches have been carried out in the river next to the bench where her phone was found, but no traces of Nicola have been found. Willow was also found near the bench, but was dry so investigators don't think she had been in the water. There appear to be no real clues as to what has happened. On Wednesday night, water search expert Peter Faulding said his team was ending his search and that they had found "no sign of Nicola". You can follow live updates on the search for Nicola here.
On Thursday, February 9, Lancashire Police issued an update on their search announcing that a dispersal order had been issued for the area of her disappearance and urged people to stay away. It comes after family friends said the area was becoming a "tourist spot" as people try to take the case into their own hands.
Read more: Nicola Bulley search area becoming 'morbid tourist destination', locals claim
The force also confirmed that the search has now moved further downstream where the river meets the sea as search teams were seen on the coastline at Morecambe Bay. In an update on their website, Lancashire Police said: "We can confirm a dispersal order was issued around 8.40pm yesterday (Wednesday, February 8) in St Michael’s on Wyre. This followed reports of individuals – from outside the area of St Michael’s - filming on social media close to properties. The order will remain in place for 48 hours and gives officers the power to disperse anyone committing anti-social behaviour. Two dispersal notices were issued, and a number of other people were warned about their behaviour. We hope that will give people some reassurance that we will not tolerate criminality, including trespass and criminal damage.
"We are also aware of a number of grossly offensive comments being made on social media and elsewhere. We are looking into these and will not hesitate to take action where appropriate. Our investigation to the disappearance of Nicola Bulley is continuing and we continue to search areas of the River Wyre and surrounding area. People may have seen less police activity today than previously in the area of the river above the weir but that is not because we have stepped down our searches, it is because the focus of the search has moved further downstream into the area of the river which becomes tidal and then out towards the sea. Anyone with information which could assist our investigation should call us on 101 quoting log 0565 of January 30th. For immediate sightings please call 999."
Nicola - known as Nikki - left her daughters aged six and nine at school before heading to the towpath overlooking the River Wyre. She had been on a work conference call and her phone was still logged into that call when it was discovered on a bench along the towpath. Her microphone and camera had been turned off for the call. But the police were clear in a press conference held on Tuesday, February 7, that they still believe Nicola fell into the water. They also said they are "fully open" to new information about the case.
Lancashire Police superintendent Sally Riley said thousands of pieces of information had been received from members of the public, with a team of 40 detectives working on the case. She said: "This is normal in a missing person inquiry and does not indicate that there is any suspicious element to this story. The inquiry team remains fully open-minded to any information that may indicate where Nicola is or what happened to her."
A specialist water search team had been working on the river with water search expert Peter Faulding saying a number of things don't add up — you can read about those here.
However, on Wednesday evening the specialist team who had been called in by Nicola's family and were working alongside Lancashire Police pulled out of the search, saying they felt they had done all they could. Mr Faulding said his team "categorically" do not think the missing woman is in the section of the river where detectives believe she fell in.
He said: “We’ve done very thorough searches all the way down to the weir. Police divers have dived it three times, extremely thoroughly. That area is completely negative – there is no sign of Nicola in that area. The main focus will be the police investigation down the river, which leads out to the estuary. If Nicola was in that river I would have found her – I guarantee you that – and she’s not in that section of the river.”
Read next:
- Inside bedroom of teenager whose parents let her die on blood-stained sheets infested with maggots
- Nicola Bulley investigation: The six unanswered questions
- Police reject suggestions Nicola Bulley could have been a victim of crime
- Seven things dive expert Peter Faulding says don't add up
- The major stratospheric warming the Met Office says will affect UK weather in late February
- Headteacher 'shot by husband before he killed daughter then himself'
