Police investigating the disappearance of mum-of-two Nicola Bulley have confirmed that there is still no reason to suspect a third party was involved.
At a press conference today, updates were provided regarding all the progress made in the missing case. Nicola's body has still not been recovered despite detectives extending their search from the Rivery Wyre to the sea.
Lancashire Police Assistant Chief Constable Peter Lawson defended his force’s investigation into the case of the missing mother-of-two at a press conference on Wednesday.
Read more: Nicola Bulley latest updates as police hold press conference on missing mum
Setting out the details of the probe in more detail than police “normally” would, he said the scale has been “unprecedented”. Nearly 40 detectives have sifted through hundreds of hours of CCTV, dashcam footage and tip-offs from the public.
And Mr Lawson said: “There is no evidence to indicate a criminal aspect or third party involvement in Nicola’s disappearance.”
Breaking down what is already known of the events leading up to Nicola's disappearance, Superintendent Rebecca Smith explained that a number of key witnesses provers there is "no miscommunication" surrounding Nicola's movements.
Supt Smith added: "With the information we have there is not a single piece of evidence to suggest any third party involvement. We know that Nicola entered the field and made a couple of messages on her phone, one to her boss and one to her friend making a play date.
"At 9.01 we know she logged into teams. This was a perfectly normal call. She would never have a camera or microphone on. We know at this time there were a number of dog walkers. We have a number of key witnesses who know Nicola so there is no miscommunication about the identification of who was in that field.
"We have viewed an extensive area of CCTV which helped us pin down Nicola's movements and key witnesses."
The search for Nicola continues to take place after she was first reported missing on January 27 and "was graded as high risk". Supt Smith also explained that police are still working on the "hypothesis" that "Nicola went into the river", with extensive searches still taking place in the river and the surrounding landscape.
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