Police are set to look into a two-hour window on the day Nicola Bulley went missing as the search for the mum-of-two enters its 15th day. Officers are also reportedly investigating the first call made to the police, with the 45-year-old said to have disappeared around 9.10am on January 27 - though the first call didn't come until 11am.
Ms Bulley was last seen walking her dog, Willow, along the River Wyre near the village of St Michael's, Lancashire, after dropping her two daughters off at school. Lancashire Police believe she accidentally fell into the River Wyre and drowned.
However, following intensive underwater searches by experts across a mile-long stretch of the river, there is yet to be any trace of the mortgage advisor. On Thursday (Feb 9), police extended their hunt to the sea as dive specialists began combing through Morecambe Bay, as reported by Coventry Live.
READ MORE: Police 'stop group searching abandoned house' near to where missing Nicola Bulley was last seen
Pictures from the area show two officers on board a dinghy on the water as a orange rescue boat could be seen doing sweeps of the river off Knott End-on-Sea, at the mouth of the bay, around 10 miles from where the mum was last seen. The mum's phone was left on a bench near to the River Wyre, still connected to a work call. While her dog, Willow, was running around without a harness.
It comes as police are reportedly looking into a fresh lead regarding a 'tatty red van' that was seen by a witness in the village on the same day Ms Bully vanished. The vehicle is said to be a Renault, outside a barn in St Michael's on Wyre - near to River Wyre in Lancashire, where Nicola Bulley was last at.
According to the Mirror, the witness contacted Lancashire Police to report a suspicious "red van" parked in the village. Speaking to The Times, the 55-year-old witness, who had not been named, said she was heading towards a cake shop when she spotted the "tatty red van" located "outside a barn on Hall Lane".
She said: "I didn’t think anything at the time, but when I saw Nicola had gone missing, I called 101 and spoke to an operator. I contacted the police again on Friday and spoke to a police officer. It could have been a Renault van."
On Friday (Feb 10), Nicola's friend, Emma White, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The local community are coming out again today to just raise that profile, trying to jog anybody’s memory, dashcam footage of Garstang Road, which is just outside of the village of St Michael’s on Wyre, just by the bridge that you go over. It is quite a key part of the village so people would remember going over it. Did they see anything?
“We’re out with banners, we’ve got placards of Nikki’s face, we’ve got a moving eight-foot LED board with her face on it with the message ‘Bring Nikki home’. We just need Nikki home for her two beautiful little girls who need their mummy.”
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