Cops are looking into a mystery two-hour gap from Nicola Bulley vanishing until the first phone call was made to report her missing, as the search reaches its 14th day. Nicola, 45, has not been seen since around 9:10am on January 27, shortly after she dropped her children off close to their school in Lancashire, and she went on a walk with her dog Willow.
However, the first call didn't come until about 11am, leaving almost two hours between the last sighting and police starting their search. Lancashire Police have said they continue to operate on the belief that Nicola fell into the river, but no trace of the mum has been found following a mile-long search of stretch of the River Wyre by experts.
Specialist Group International chief Peter Faulding said he is "100 per cent" sure Nicola is not in the stretch of river initially suspected and he has done all he can.
Police have been forced to issue a dispersal order to one group and warned other members of the public from taking law into their own hands when getting involved in the search. Yesterday, two boats with specialist teams were seen in the sea at Morcombe Bay, as the search moved on.
It comes as Nicola's pal Emma White described the ongoing search as "torture" while appealing to anyone who may have seen something to come forward. She said a campaign highlighting her disappearance a fortnight ago will be looking to “jog” people’s memory about the day Nicola went missing.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, she said: “It is two weeks today. The local community are coming out to raise that profile, we’re trying to jog anybody’s memory. Dashcam footage of Garstang Road, which is just outside of the village of St Michael’s on Wyre, just by the bridge that you go over. It is quite a key part of the village so people would remember going over it.
"Did they see anything? We’re out with banners, we’ve got placards of Nikki’s face, we’ve got a moving eight-foot LED board with her face on it with the message ‘Bring Nikki home’. We just need Nikki home for her two beautiful little girls who need their mummy.”
There are at least three CCTV blind spots in the area where Nicola was last seen, meaning it is possible that the mum could have left the area. One is a path not covered by security cameras and leads to Garstang Road, which runs right through the village.
Cops are also trying to get dashcam footage from roughly 700 vehicles that they identified as passing along the main road through the village around about the time Nicola vanished.
Another possible blindspot is a riverside path leading from the Wyreside Farm Caravan Park through to the A586. A camera at a house is understood to have not been working at the time, but it still doesn't cover the exit.
Friends of Nicola say that the CCTV meant to cover one of the two exits from the river near the mobile home site Rowanwater, is not working. Police officers searching for Nicola may be tracking a "tatty-looking" red van which a witness said was parked close to the spot she disappeared.
Former Metropolitan Police Detective Chief Inspector Peter Kirkham has put forward seven key questions he believes need to be answered by the Lancashire Police enquiry team. Anyone with information which could assist our investigation should call Lancashire Police on 101 quoting log 0565 of January 30th. For immediate sightings please call 999.
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