Police investigating Nicola Bulley's disappearance are probing a two-hour gap between her going missing and the first call to police. The mother-of-two, 45, vanished while walking her dog along the River Wyre near the village of St Michael's, Lancashire, at around 9.10am on January 27 but the first call did not come until 11am.
Lancashire Police is working under the hypothesis that she slipped into the water and drowned, but despite combing a mile-long stretch of the river, no trace of the mortgage adviser has yet been found. As the search enters a 14th day on Friday, police have moved to the sea to begin trawling Morecambe Bay.
The Daily Mail reports that three blind spots have been identified surrounding the area Ms Bulley went missing after police admitted she could have left the area via a path not covered by cameras. Despite working under the hypothesis that she slipped into the water, police admitted that it is possible she left the area by one path not covered by CCTV cameras. The path in question leads to Garstang Road, which runs through the village, and is therefore a blind spot.
Officers have been attempting to trace dashcam footage from 700 drivers who passed along the route at the time of her disappearance. Aside from the river itself, there are only two other exits from the area, one of which is covered by CCTV.
Friends of the missing mother have claimed that CCTV covering the other exit, close to mobile home site Rowanwater, is not working. This camera would have covered the fields to the south of where Ms Bulley was last seen.
After reviewing other CCTV footage from within the mobile home site, police are confident that Nicola did not leave the field near the river via Rowanwater itself. Another blind spot is a riverside path leading from the Wyreside Farm Caravan Park through to the A586. A camera at a house close to the path is also understood to have not been working at the time, but did not cover the exit regardless.
It comes as police today moved the focus of their search towards the sea, with boats trawling Morecambe Bay. It has also emerged investigators could be trying to trace a 'tatty' red van parked near to where the mother-of-two vanished two weeks ago, after a witness reported it to police on two occasions.
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