Lancashire Police have returned to the river where mother-of-two Nicola Bulley was found dead after she went missing while walking her dog.
Specialist teams are working at the coroner’s request, police confirmed on Tuesday, but could not comment further.
Footage posted online shows police divers wading through the River Wyre, almost two months after the 45-year-old’s body was pulled out on February 20 following an extensive search.
A member of the public alerted police to the body more than three weeks after she vanished on January 27, her phone left on a bench near the river still connected to a work call.
Senior coroner Dr James Adeley said at the inquest that remaining evidence gathered by police and the post-mortem examination require “further evaluation”, and a full inquest is likely to be held in June, once availability of a Home Office pathologist had been checked.
“This will allow time to collate the facts of the case and allow the experts involved to finalise the findings from investigations that still need to be undertaken,” the coroner said.
For weeks no evidence was found of the mortgage advisor, who had “disappeared” while walking her dog in St Michael’s on Wyre after dropping her daughters, aged six and nine, at school.
Lancashire police issued a number of appeals to the public for help.
At the time of her death, her family said in a statement: “We will never be able to comprehend what Nikki had gone through in her last moments and that will never leave us.
“We will never forget Nikki, how could we, she was the centre of our world, she was the one who made our lives so special and nothing will cast a shadow over that.”
MPs and campaign groups voiced their disapproval after the force elected to put elements of her private life into the public domain during the search.
In a press conference Lancashire Police revealed she was classed as a “high-risk” missing person “based on a number of specific vulnerabilities”.
A “full independent review” is set to be carried out by the College of Policing into Lancashire Police’s handling of the case.
Conservative PCC Andrew Snowden said the public “understandably feel that there remain questions about the handling of elements of the police investigation, how it was communicated and the decision to release personal information”.
The force said it “welcomes the independent review”, adding that it is “keen to take the opportunity to learn”.
The Coroner’s Office declined to comment.
