The detective investigating Nicola Bulley's disappearance - Rebecca Smith - has been praised for her no-nonsense approach to the 'distracting' myths surrounding what happened to the mum.
In a press conference earlier today, Lancashire Police updated the public about the ongoing search for the mum-of-two, who vanished 19 days ago, while walking her dog.
Speaking at Lancashire Police HQ, detectives said they have no evidence a crime has been committed, while seeking to combat disinformation surrounding the search.
Nicola, 45, disappeared while walking her springer spaniel Willow in the village of St Michael's on Wyre, Lancashire on January 27.
Detailing the force's efforts, senior investigating officer Detective Supt Rebecca Smith said: "As soon as she was reported missing, following the information that was provided to the police by her partner Paul, and based on a number of specific vulnerabilities that we were made aware of, Nicola was graded as high-risk.
"That is normal in a missing person investigation with the information we were in possession of. As any senior investigating officer does, you form a number of hypotheses, that is scenarios which are possible from the information to hand.
"Those hypotheses included the one that she possibly could have gone into the river, that there could have been third-party involvement and lastly, that she could have left the area voluntarily.
"Those hypotheses have remained in place throughout, are reviewed regularly.
"At the initial stages based on the information I received, I made it clear that it was my working hypothesis at that time based with all the facts that the main hypothesis I was working on at that time was that Nicola had gone in the river.
"I hope with all my heart that we find Nicola Bulley alive more than anything."
Detective Supt Rebecca Smith also said her officers were being "inundated with false information, accusations and rumours", which are "distracting" them from finding her, as she went through her decision-making process in detail.
Addressing two 'persistent myths', she added: "The derelict house which is across the other side of the river has been searched three times, with the permission of the owner, and Nicola is not in there.
"The red van, we're really grateful to members of the public for ringing into the inquiry, we wouldn't have got this far without everyone's help.
"But it's also really obvious that we are being inundated with false information, accusations and rumours which is distracting us from our work."
She also said reports of a red van in the area on the morning of Ms Bulley's disappearance are not being treated as suspicious.
In response, social media users have praised Ms Smith for her strong takedown of conspiracies and myths.
"I thought Det Supt Rebecca Smith came across very well and spoke from the heart as opposed to robotic pre planned response," read a Tweet posted this afternoon.
Another Twitter user wrote: "I thought that was a really good, clear, thorough press conference from D Supt Rebecca Smith, which got tone right throughout."
A different user thought: "The Nicola Bulley press conference by @LancsPolic is an exemplar for how to do these things. It must be so frustrating that they have had to do this because of the immense speculation but being so open (and yet still protecting her privacy re vulnerabilities) is exactly right."
Meanwhile, someone else suggested: "You could almost (quite rightly) hear the anger in the detective's voice at the #NicolaBulley press conference having to justify her investigation, the extensive enquiries undertaken, and having to dismiss all the Twitter Sleuths hypothesis."
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