Investigators are reportedly now searching the coastline in the quest to find missing mum-of-two Nicola Bulley. Two boats with specialist police teams have been searching the sea at Morecambe Bay, Sky News reports.
This was before they headed upstream, on either side of the River Wyre. It's now almost two weeks since Ms Bulley, 45, went missing. She had been walking her dog in St Michael's on Wyre, Lancashire, on January 27.
It's reported police are focusing on the mouth of the river, with officers suggesting there's more of a possibility in finding Ms Bulley in the open sea. Sky News also reports that divers have been deployed to search parts of the 15km stretch of river from the bench, where Ms Bulley's phone and dog were found, to the bay.
Friends and family have rejected the police's theory Ms Bulley fell into the river. A specialist search unit also pulled out of the investigation, saying Ms Bulley was not in the area of the river where it was thought she had entered.
It comes as a friend of Ms Bulley shared information about a house by the river which people had wrongly described as 'abandoned'. Heather Gibbons shared several facts in an effort to rebuff online rumours and stop people trying to search the property.
A group, believed to have travelled to Lancashire from the Liverpool area, reportedly tried to search the building for the missing mortgage advisor. Police were said to have issued a dispersal order on Wednesday evening (February 8).
LancsLive reports Ms Gibbons shared four facts about the building, saying it was not abandoned and had been searched thoroughly by the police. Ms Gibbons said it is 'owned by a lovely family' who 'would do anything they can to help in the search for Nikki' and stressed that they have 'never refused entry to the police or told them they need a warrant to search'.
In a press conference on Tuesday (February 7), Superintendent Sally Riley said: "There are some properties along the riverside which are empty or derelict. Whilst it may be well intentioned that people think that that could be a line of inquiry, I would ask them to desist from doing that. In some cases it may be criminal if they are breaking in and causing damage or committing a burglary."
She said officers have searched derelict riverside properties with the permission of owners. She added: "Because there is no criminal element yet identified, and we don't expect there to be in this inquiry, then we're not starting to go into houses because that's not where the inquiry is leading us."
Read next:
Nicola Bulley could have used path with no CCTV as search expert’s river hunt ends
Nicola Bulley police reject suggestion she is victim of crime
Nicola Bulley case is 'most baffling' in 25 years, says specialist diver
Police 'stop group searching abandoned house' near to where missing Nicola Bulley was last seen
