Police investigating the disappearance of Nicola Bulley say they remain 'fully open-minded' as to what happened to her, but still believe she fell in the river. The 45-year-old mum-of-two has not been seen since walking her dog along the River Wyre in Lancashire after dropping her children off at school on January 27.
A huge underwater search of the river is continuing. At a press conference on Tuesday afternoon Supt Sally Riley said their extensive inquiries have 'so far not found anything of note'.
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She added: "Throughout this investigation… we remain fully open to any information that is credible and factual to try and trace Nicola and bring answers for her family but it does remain our belief that Nicola sadly fell into the river and that this is a missing persons inquiry.
"Any information that comes in that indicates otherwise is being checked out all the time and negated as each inquiry comes up. We're not closed in any way to any particular line of inquiry and we remain genuinely open to that.
"All these extensive inquiries however have so far not found anything of note."
The force has been working with the Coastguard, Lancashire Fire and Rescue and underwater search experts Specialist Group International (SGI) to search the river and riverbank using sonar, pole cameras and underwater drones. Supt Riley said police are now speaking to more than 700 drivers who travelled through the town of St Michael's on Wyre around the time Ms Bulley went missing.
She said: “We have now identified around 700 vehicles that drove through the village on that morning on the 27th January at around 9.10am, 9.15am. We are in the process of speaking to all of those drivers to try and find out if they have any dashcam footage, what they saw on that day or anything else that may be of value to the police inquiry."
Ms Riley said thousands of pieces of information had been received from members of the public, with a team of 40 detectives currently investigating approximately 500 different lines of inquiry.
She said: "This is normal in a missing person inquiry and does not indicate that there is any suspicious element to this story. The inquiry team remains fully open-minded to any information that may indicate where Nicola is or what happened to her."
Speaking earlier family friend Heather Gibbons 'nothing is making sense' as the search entered its 12th day. Ms Gibbons said speculation, rife on social media, about the disappearance, was 'hard' for the family to take and a stream of visitors, members of the public arriving from far and wide, some bringing children and taking selfies, had made the area feel like a 'tourist spot'.
She said: "I think it's incredibly hard, but 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. The turnout for the search has been amazing, it has been incredible.
"But we have noticed it does feel like some people have come to maybe use it as more like a tourist spot, to do their own personal social media things which in some ways we see and understand but it is hard, there’s a lot of people around as it is, so yes, if you are here to join the search, we are really appreciative. The truth is if we look at it factually, no-one knows until we have some evidence."
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