A friend of missing Nicola Bulley said nothing about her disappearance was "making sense", as she worried about her being gone for so long.
Mum of two Ms Bulley was last seen walking her dog 12 days ago by the river in St Michael's on Wyre in Lancashire.
Her friend Heather Gibbons said the 45-year-old's family was "appreciative of all the police have done" but no-one would know what happened "until we have some evidence".
Speaking on the riverbank, Ms Gibbons said speculation on social media about the disappearance had been "hard" for the family to deal with.
She added that the number of visitors arriving in the area had made it feel like a "tourist spot".
She told reporters: "Up to a certain level, we understand it's human nature, it's natural for everyone to have speculation, because the truth is in this, nothing is making sense."
She added that while the "turnout for the search" had been "amazing... we have noticed it does feel like some people have come to maybe use it as more like a tourist spot".
"The truth is if we look at it factually, no-one knows [what has happened] until we have some evidence.
"I know that the family are massively appreciative of all the police have done [and] we feel we have got the best of the best on that water.
"Hopefully it will be a completion, one way or the other, and if they find nothing, then maybe it's time to start looking down other avenues."
Nicola's phone was found on a bench by the waterside and was still connected to a work call.
Her dog Willow was running loose.
Police launched an extensive search of the area and said their "main working hypothesis" was that she fell in a river but a body has never been found.
And search expert Peter Faulding, who has years of experience in similar cases, believes she is not in the river after his team did a sonar sweep yesterday.
Ms Bulley had dropped her two daughters, aged six and nine, off at school and then gone on her usual dog walk alongside the river before she disappeared.
