A security company is patrolling the area where Nicola Bulley went missing after large numbers of "TikTokers and YouTubers" swarmed to the village.
A local security firm was asked by members of the community in St Michael's-on-Wyre to provide "reassurance" following reports of visitors trespassing in people's gardens and filming their properties. There has been a continued wave of public interest in the disappearance of the 45-year-old mum-of-two who went missing while walking her dog Willow on Friday, January 27.
Investigations into the missing woman have so far proved unsuccessful. A private diving company, led by Peter Faulding, completed a three-day search of the area earlier this week.
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Mr Faulding told Paul Ansell, Nicola's partner, that she had not been found. Mr Faulding appeared on Channel 5 on Friday, February 10 and said he wants to keep "all options open" about her disappearance, but his "gut instinct" tells him she is not in the river.
Friends of Nicola previously said the members of the public coming to the area were making them "feel unsafe". Spencer Sutcliffe, who owns the security firm patrolling the area, said visitors were trespassing on private property and entering an old house which overlooks the River Wyre.
He told LancsLive: "We went there [to the house] and the owner was actually camping in his car to stop people coming on. People shouldn't have to live like this. The village is under enough stress as it is, with the situation and poor Nicola, with what has happened to her, whatever has happened to her.
"Everyone's in limbo about that, plus we've got the added hassle of all these people coming to the area. There's an older generation that live in St Michael's, so a lot of people are not on social media. They're wondering who these people are, what they're doing walking around with their phones, filming the properties, going in through their gardens. It's causing a lot of stress and alarm for the residents."
Lancashire Police previously issued a dispersal order granting officers additional powers to order people away from the area. The ECHO reported earlier this week how a group of men had travelled from Liverpool to help with the search before being ordered away.
Laura Lord is one of the admins of the village Facebook group and contacted Spencer "as a last resort" to help with the members of the public. She said: "You don't understand it and you can't reason with it, but people are going to come and they're going to want to see the bench or the river walk, but coming under the cover of darkness and effectively causing criminal damage and making an absolute nuisance of themselves.
"You're detracting from the investigation as a whole. We as a community support everything and anything anyone has asked of us in relation to Nicola. We don't want anything to be taken away from that, but these goons are doing it."
Spencer said his company has started their own social media account to speak to the "TikTok generation". He said: "That's the only way we can get through to them. We've asked them not to come to the local area, let the people live in peace, let the family do what they need to do, let the police do their job, and let's all try and help the community as one."
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