Police investigating Nicola Bulley's death have released a statement explaining why they have carried out a new river search after what they described as "misinformed speculation" from the public.
The mum-of-two went missing on January 27 this year, while out walking her dog, sparking a high-profile search. Her body was found in the water on February 19. Police divers returned to the same area of the River Wyre on Tuesday, April 11, under instruction from HM Coroner, reports the Mirror.
A spokesperson from Lancashire Police said on Friday: “There has been misinformed speculation over the past few days relating to police activity in the River Wyre.
"As previously stated, police divers were acting under instruction of HM Senior Coroner and had been asked to assess the riverbanks in the vicinity of where Nicola Bulley went missing.
"They had not been tasked either to perform any further searches within the river or along the banks or to locate any articles. This activity is to assist with the coronial process.”
A diving team was seen in the water not far from a weir on Tuesday. The area is downstream from a bench where police believe Ms Bulley had entered the river in St Michael’s on Wyre, Lancashire.
She vanished while dog-walking, after dropping her daughters, aged six and nine, at school, sparking a huge search operation and intense media and public interest.
Helicopters, drones and specialist search teams were all used during the course of the search. Her body was found in the river 23 days after she went missing, around a mile downstream from the bench. Police divers were again spotted in the River Wyre on April 4, and a brief clip was uploaded to YouTube.
The huge amount of online discussion during the police search for Nicola led to criticism of so-called vigilante 'TikTok detectives' speculating about her death. They created issues for police by their unwelcome presence around the river and surrounding village, also irritating the local community.
Due to the intense interest, videos uploaded to social media with tags relating to Nicola's disappearance received large numbers of views, however many spread conspiracy theories or misleading information.
Some of the videos showed people filming themselves digging up woodland in the days after she went missing, while others were reported to have gone into gardens and peared into the windows of nearby houses.
An inquest into Ms Bulley’s death is to be held on June 26.
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