Lancashire police believe missing mum Nicola Bulley 'fell into river'

Video report by Granada Reports correspondent Elaine Willcox

Police investigating the disappearance of mum-of-two Nicola Bulley say their main working hypothesis is that she fell into the River Wyre, and that this is "a tragic case of a missing person".

Lancashire Police say it's dedicating an "unprecedented" number of resources to finding her.

  • Superintendent Sally Riley said Lancashire police believe Nicola fell into the River Wyre

The 45-year-old has not been seen since Friday 27 January after walking along a footpath in the town of Wyre.

What we know so far about the disappearance of Nicola Bulley

Superintendent Sally Riley said: "Her family are in real agony while she is missing.

"The time we are particularly interested in is 09:10am when she was last seen and 09:20 am when Nicola's phone was believed to be on the bench."

"At 9.20am police believe her phone was on a bench while connected to a work Teams meeting, which ended 10 minutes later.

Nicola was believed to be wearing:

  • Ankle-length black quilted gilet jacket

  • A black Engelbert Strauss waist-length coat worn underneath the gilet

  • Tight-fitting black jeans

  • Long green walking socks tucked into her jeans

  • Ankle-length green Next wellies

  • A necklace

  • A pale blue Fitbit.

Ms Riley added: “It’s really important that the public pay heed to those very specific clothing descriptions please, because factual sightings of those items would be very useful to us.”

She added: "We can eliminate Nicola leaving the riverside area. We are open to any enquires that may question that but we understand is that she was by the river.

"Our main hypothesis is that Nicola has fallen into the river and there is no third party involved.

"We have only a ten minute window where we cannot account for Nicola's movements.

"We have searched a number of locations along the riverbank, from where Nicola went missing, up to the sea.

"We have not still found her. We have searched a 1km open ground search from where she went missing to no avail.

"We have undertaken numerous house to house enquiries, using ring door bell footage. They have spoken to a number of key witnesses.

"All this has picked up a really rich picture of data to build up a timeline of Nicola's last whereabouts."

Our correspondent Elaine Willcox says the mood has changed in the small village after spending the day there before the police update.

Police locate 'potential witness' in search for missing mother

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