Nicola Bulley's family have spoken out about the search for their beloved family member, as the three week anniversary of the dog walker's disappearance fast approaches.
Nicola vanished without a trace January 27, after walking her dog near the River Wyre in St Michael's, Lancashire. Her phone was found on a bench nearby, still connected to a work Teams meeting, and her springer spaniel Willow was also found running loose.
Since her disappearance, Lancashire Police, diving teams, experts and members of the widespread community have been attempting to trace the steps of the 45-year-old mortgage advisor - with the search nearing it's third week.
Read more: Police identify body pulled from River Wyre as missing mum Nicola Bulley
And today, police posted a new statement on its official website which an update from Nicola's family.
The statement, reads: "Our sole focus throughout the investigation has been to find Nicola, to bring her home and to support her family through the trauma they are experiencing. The most important person in all of this is Nicola.
"As we approach the three-week anniversary of her going missing on Friday, 27 January, we remain committed to doing everything we can to find her. Nicola’s family have asked us to issue a statement from them.
"The family said: "It has now been three weeks since Nikki went missing. We, as a family, believe that the public focus has become distracted from finding Nikki, and more about speculation and rumours into her and Paul’s private life.
"As a family, we were aware beforehand that Lancashire Police, last night, released a statement with some personal details about our Nikki. Although we know that Nikki would not have wanted this, there are people out there speculating and threatening to sell stories about her. This is appalling and needs to stop.
"The police know the truth about Nikki and now the public need to focus on finding her. Due to the peri menopause Nikki suffered with significant side effects such as brain fog, restless sleep and was taking HRT to help but this was giving her intense headaches which caused Nikki to stop taking the HRT thinking that may have helped her but only ended up causing this crisis.
"The public focus has to be on finding her and not making up wild theories about her personal life. Despite what some media outlets and individuals are suggesting, we are being updated daily and receive support from our family liaison officers.
"Nikki is such a wonderful daughter, sister , partner and mother and is missed dearly - we all need you back in our lives."
It comes after yesterday Lancashire Police divulged details into Nicola's personal life, as to why she is being treated as a 'high risk' and 'vulnerable' missing person. A statement posted yesterday by the constabulary, read: "We have described how Nicola had some vulnerabilities at the time she went missing and we just wanted to expand on that a little.
“Sadly, it is clear from speaking to Paul and the family that Nicola had in the past suffered with some significant issues with alcohol which were brought on by her ongoing struggles with the menopause and that these struggles had resurfaced over recent months. This caused some real challenges for Paul and the family.
“As a result of those issues, a response car staffed by both police and health professionals attended a report of concern for welfare at Nicola’s home address on January 10th. No one has been arrested in relation to this incident, but it is being investigated.
“It is an unusual step for us to take to go into this level of detail about someone’s private life, but we felt it was important to clarify what we meant when we talked about vulnerabilities to avoid any further speculation or misinterpretation.”
Read next:
- Nicola Bulley's final three conversations before missing mum vanished shared by police
- Nicola Bulley latest as police say there is still 'no evidence' of third-party involvement
- Nicola Bulley's sister makes urgent plea as widespread search for missing mum continues
- Nicola Bulley: Former DCI says seven key questions must be answered
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