Missing dog walker Nicola Bulley ‘could be out to sea by now’ – live updates

Nicola Bulley’s body may have been swept out to sea by now, the head of the specialist rescue team searching for her has said.

Peter Faulding told The Times that he believed Ms Bulley’s body could have reached the sea by now if she had fallen into the River Wyre, given the distance and the meandering course of the river.

Superintendent Sally Riley also told reporters: “The amount of technology that we have put into the river – clearly as time goes on, the open sea becomes much more of a possibility.”

Police would continue to search the river until they received guidance from national bodies to do otherwise, Supt Riley added.

A team of 40 detectives are working on Nicola Bulley’s case, Lancashire Police has said.

They are investigating hundreds of lines of enquiry and pieces of information, more than 1,000 of which have been submitted by members of the public, according to Superintendent Sally Riley.

Police have said they “are not starting going into houses because that’s not where the inquiry is leading us”, as they warned people against criminal entry to riverside properties in the search for Nicola Bulley.

Superintendent Sally Riley told reporters on Tuesday: “There are some properties along the riverside which are empty or derelict.

“Whilst it may be well intentioned that people think that that could be a line of inquiry, I would ask them to desist from doing that. In some cases it may be criminal if they are breaking in and causing damage or committing a burglary.”

She said officers have searched derelict riverside properties with the permission of owners.

“Because there is no criminal element yet identified, and we don’t expect there to be in this inquiry, then we’re not starting to go into houses because that’s not where the inquiry is leading us,” she added.

Police have revealed they are looking into 500 lines of inquiry.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Lancashire Police Superintendent Sally Riley said: “At the moment there are around five hundred active pieces of information and lines of enquiry that we are working on to try and find answers for Nicola’s family.”

However, they also said the scale of efforts was “normal missing persons enquiry and does not indicate there is anything suspicious to this story”.

My colleague Liam James has more details:

Last spotted at approximately 9.15am, Ms Bulley has been described by Lancashire Police as a 5 ft 3in white woman with light brown shoulder-length hair wearing a long black gilet jacket with a hood, black jeans and olive green ankle wellington boots.

The head of the specialist team helping with the search for Nicola Bulley has hit out at “heartless individuals” questioning his motives online, saying: “This is what you get for trying to help people.”

“I have no ulterior motive,” he told TalkTV at the scene. “I have given my time to many cases free of charge. We get paid to do police diving operations, okay, but I have offered my services for a whole week with April Jones. There was no media around that, I never gave any interviews for that and that’s it.

“The other one was Ellis Downes, the poor lad was left lying in the river. I came in, I found him and I done that totally free of charge for that family … I don’t need publicity, the press have come to me for this. If I don’t give information then I get slated, so I am damned if I do, I’m damned if I don’t.”

An underwater search for missing Nicola Bulley is continuing following a fresh appeal by her partner, who said her two daughters “desperately” miss her and “need her back”.

The search for Ms Bulley, 45, is entering its 12th day after she went missing on January 27 in St Michael’s on Wyre, Lancashire.

In a statement released on Monday through Lancashire Police, her partner Paul Ansell said: “I have two little girls who miss their mummy desperately and who need her back.”

After a search leader said Nicola Bulley is not in the river, Lancashire Police Superintendent Sally Riley said Peter Faulding is not included in “all the investigation detail” about the missing dog walker.

It comes after the leader of underwater search experts SGI said he believes she has not been in the river and raised the prospect of “third party” involvement in her disappearance.

Ms Riley said: “Our search has not found Nicola in the river and then a re-search in parts by SGI has found the same. That does not mean… that Nicola has not been in the river.

“In the light of other inquiries being discounted from the investigation so far… clearly our main belief is that Nicola did fall into the river.

“Clearly Mr Faulding isn’t included within all the investigation detail any more than the members of the public are that I’m briefing through these sorts of press conferences.”

Police have rejected suggestions that missing mother-of-two Nicola Bulley could have been a victim of crime.

Supt Sally Riley, of Lancashire Police, said “every single” potential suspicion or criminal suggestion that had come in, had been looked at by detectives and discounted.

She said, “I would like to reassure the community that nothing in this investigation so far, it has been checked out if it has come in suggesting crime, it has been checked and discounted.

“So every single potential third party line of inquiry and potential suspicious or criminal element has been looked at and discounted.

“It does remain our belief that Nicola sadly fell into the river and that this is a missing persons inquiry.”

Police have urged members of the public not to share conspiracy theories about the disappearance of Nicola Bulley online as they revealed they were looking into 500 lines of inquiry.

At a press conference yesterday, Lancashire Police Superintendent Sally Riley said: “At the moment there are around five hundred active pieces of information and lines of enquiry that we are working on to try and find answers for Nicola’s family.”

However, they also said the scale of efforts was that of a “normal missing persons enquiry and does not indicate there is anything suspicious to this story”.
But she urged people not to speculate on what happened as theories circulating online were hurtful to the family.

She said: “This is particularly hurtful to her family, to her children, to her partner Paul, her parents, her sister and her friends. It is not helpful to them it’s distressing and distracting for the police enquiry.”