Missing mother-of-two Nicola Bulley had “in the past suffered with some significant issues with alcohol” which had “resurfaced over recent months”, Lancashire Police have said. Senior officers said earlier today that she was “vulnerable” and classed by police as a “high-risk” missing person immediately after her partner reported her disappearance, but they did not elaborate - until they issued a further statement this evening.
A police search involving specialist officers was launched within an hour of her partner Paul Ansell speaking to officers, and she was deemed “high-risk” based on the information he had given them about the mother-of-two, aged 45. Detective Superintendent Rebecca Smith, the lead investigator for Lancashire Police in the case, told reporters at a packed press conference at force HQ this morning: “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.
“It’s normal in any missing person investigation that you obviously gather as much information at an early stage about the person in question, which is no different, and we did that with Paul.
