A video retracing Nicola Bulley's last known footsteps before her sudden disappearance has been released.
As previously reported, the missing mother-of-two had dropped her two daughters off at school on Friday (January 27) morning, before taking the family dog named Willow for a walk in Lancashire.
The 45-year-old mortgage adviser's disappearance was first noticed by a passerby who found the springer spaniel running alone beside the River Wyre in the village of St Michael’s on Wyre at around 10:30AM.
The onlooker also discovered the dog's lead, harness, and Nicola's phone - which was still connected to an active conference call - on a bench and recognized her from the family photo on her background.
The hunt for the mother-of-two has entered an eighth day as yesterday specialist diving teams continued their attempts to trace her by returning to the river bank by the bench with a 20-foot-long probe attached to an underwater camera.
Extensive search parties also involved drones, helicopters, and dogs, and around 10:40AM on Thursday (February 2), a specialist underwater unit carrying oxygen tanks and long yellow cables dressed in black scoured the 18 feet-deep water.
Now, the Daily Mail has released a video that examines Nicola's last known movements. It has been understood that first, she dropped her two children off at St Michael's-on-Wyre Church of England Primary School at around 8:30AM.
The outlet said that her family described the route as clockwork for the mother-of-two as she parked her car there "1000 times" as part of an everyday routine of walking the dog through the area.
It has been suggested that the pair would have diverted left and crossed Hall Lane by the primary school to start the walk. Nicola presumably would've been noticed by other dog walkers because of her dress sense.
The publication continued that around 8:50AM, Nicola and her dog would've strolled past the grounds of the Grade I St Michael's Church, which is near where she parked.
They would then walk past a side street by the church, cross over the River Wyre, and persist along a narrow footpath parallel to the river.
Apparently, Willow interacted with another dog at that time, and then around 8:50AM, the mother-of-two sent an email to her manager before logging onto a Teams call eight minutes later.
At 9:01AM, reports suggest that the duo passed through a metal gate and arrived next to the wooden bench Nicola was last spotted at. She then joined the conference call with her work colleagues, but her camera and mic had been muted.
The outlet shared that her boss Ben Pociecha, the director of Exclusively Mortgages, said there was nothing strange about her not being on the screen.
"It seems as if she was muted and didn't have her camera on. She was listening in whilst walking her dog," he said. "There were numerous parties involved in this. A lot of people attended the call. The police are investigating the call."
Now, it has been deemed possible that at 9:15AM Nicola was seen on a footpath by the River Wyre with her spaniel Willow by a potential witness. The onlooker may have been the last person to see her at around that time.
His wife told The Times: "In the field, there were about three people, including my husband. He said there was nothing unusual about her and she seemed completely normal."
"I'd often see her and say hello. I always thought she looked very nicely dressed, in her bobble hat and smart Wellington boots. It's just horrible to know she's missing," she added.
At 9:20AM, Nicola is believed to have been seen again by a pensioner in his 70s at this time. He was also in the area around half an hour later. The police said that he was a "key witness" and have since spoken to him.
Meanwhile, the conference call the mother-of-two was in ended at 9:30AM but she remained logged on. Thirty minutes later, a woman who spoke to the pensioner found Willow alone on the river bank.
A local told the Daily Mail: "I know the woman who found Willow. She said the dog was near the river bank and close to the bench that Nicola's phone was found."
Lastly, around 10:30AM, Nicola's partner Paul Ansell was informed by the primary school that his partner was missing after their dog was found alone. He then sparked an investigation by notifying law enforcement about her sudden disappearance.
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