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Published 14:51 19 Feb 2023 GMT
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Published 11:41 04 Feb 2023 GMT
News of UK mom Nicola Bulley's disappearance has rocked the country after she mysteriously disappeared last week.
The 45-year-old mother of two had just dropped off her daughters - aged six and nine - at school and was walking her dog Willow around St. Michael's in Wyre, Lancashire last Friday (January 27).
She had logged on to a Microsoft Teams work call that ended at 09:30AM. When her phone was later recovered the mortgage adviser was still reportedly logged on to the call.
Less than an hour prior to the start of her work call, Nicola had sent her last text.
Per The Independent, locals at a village meeting were told that she had sent a message to a friend at 08:57AM to organize a playdate for their young children.
At 10:30AM, a passerby noticed Nicola's springer spaniel running around alone and distressed around the River Wyre, as previously reported. The onlooker also discovered the dog's lead, harness, and Nicola's phone - which was still connected to her work conference call - on a bench and recognized her from the family photo on her background.
The hunt for the mother has continued since then, with specialist diving teams continuing 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.
The last known sighting of Nicola had been at 09:10AM on the day of her disappearance, with police believing her phone had been on a bench from 09:20AM. According to BBC News, detectives believe that she went missing during this 10-minute window.
The outlet also details how, following the extensive search for the missing woman, Lancashire police have revealed that its "main working hypothesis" has been that she fell into the River Wyre while on her walk, and that her disappearance is "not suspicious but a tragic case of a missing person."
Superintendent Riley told BBC News that detectives have searched through CCTV and doorbell cameras to determine that she did not leave the riverside. "We believe that Nicola was in the riverside area and remained at the riverside area [...] We remain open to any inquiries that might lead us to question that, but at this time we understand that she was by the river," the Superintendent stated.
Nicola's friend Emma White described her as "the most beautiful person," adding that she had created a loving family with her partner, Paul. "You add her and Paul together, add a little bit of magic, and they've created these two beautiful humans who just want to know where their mummy is," she said. "They are the most close-knit family. Those poor girls asking questions, 'where's mummy, how is mummy?'"
Our thoughts are with the family, friends, and colleagues of Nicola Bulley at this difficult time.
Published 11:05 03 Feb 2023 GMT
A friend of Nicola Bulley has now revealed that they were sent a text message minutes before the mother-of-two vanished.
On Friday (January 27), the 45-year-old mortgage broker dropped her two daughters off at school in St Michaels on Wyre, Lancashire, before going on a walk with the family dog.
Nicola had taken the springer spaniel named Willow along a nearby towpath next to the River Wyre from around 8:45AM while being signed into a work conference call around 9:00AM.
A passerby later found the dog wandering alone and agitated, with her harness on the floor. Meanwhile the mother's phone had been left on a bench and still logged into the call. They recognized Nicola from the picture on her device's background.
The police have deployed extensive search teams for Nicola during the past few days and have been assisted with the help of the Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service to scour the river bank by the bench with a 20-foot-long probe attached to an underwater camera.
The specialist underwater unit bore oxygen tanks and long yellow cables dressed in black, and arrived on the scene around 10:40AM in the 18 feet deep water, per The Mirror.
Speaking about the diver, an authority told the Daily Mail: "The underwater teams are performing what's known as an arc search, whereby they monitor the riverbed by moving in a side-to-side motion from bank to bank."
"As of yet nothing of significance has been found but it'll be a long, thorough process," they added.
In new developments, it has been revealed that minutes before the conference meeting - during which Nicola had switched off her camera and microphone - she texted a friend about meeting up sometime in the week with her kids.
According to the publication, a close friend of the missing woman who lives in the village said: "She booked a playdate, 8.57, she sent a text message to a friend whose mortgage she had just recently signed off on to arrange for the girls to go for tea this week."
The friend - who did not wish to be named - suggested that the message indicates that the mother-of-two had no intention of voluntarily disappearing and added: "You wouldn’t have done that if you were going to get up and go missing."
The outlet shared that the critical information was disclosed during a meeting at the village hall on Sunday (January 29) morning at around 10:30AM, before residents went their first mass organized search.
Nicola's 44-year-old partner Paul Ansell is understood to have been at the meeting.
This information also comes after Nicola's 72-year-old mother Dot told the same outlet that prior to her daughter's sudden disappearance, she had also been making plans for a spa break with her sister Louise.
"Louise had just booked Ribby Hall because they both had spa vouchers, she had just sent Nicola the night before the treatments," she said. "Louise booked it on Friday morning and sent it to Nicola but she never got back to her. They are very close."
Nicola's 73-year-old dad Ernest added she was happy with her job and had a meeting with an important client before she went missing.
"I said we better go now and Nicola came to the front door, and I gave her a kiss and told her I loved her and that was the last conversation I had with her," he shared.
The parents have said that their daughter's disappearance was out of character and disclosed that they asked police if "there is any chance" she has been abducted.
The mother-of-two's partner had previously said that the couple's six and nine-year-old daughters had "cried their eyes out" after being told that their mom was "lost" and are hoping for her safe return.
Yesterday (February 2) law enforcement identified the woman named Christine Bowman, 67, who was captured on surveillance cameras at about 8:50AM on Allotment Lane - close to where Nicola was last seen, per BBC News.
They hoped that the woman would have information to help the investigation, however, she had already spoken to officers and "doesn’t know anything," as reported by The Guardian.
Published 13:15 02 Feb 2023 GMT
A missing mother-of-two had been making plans for the future the night before she vanished while walking her dog, her parents have revealed.
Nicola Bulley, 45, had dropped her two young daughters off at school on Friday, January 27, before taking her dog Willow for a walk alongside the River Wyre in St Michael’s on Wyre.
However, less than an hour later another dogwalker found Willow wandering around on her own off-lead, raising concerns about Bulley's whereabouts.
Bulley's phone was found on a nearby bench, still connected to an active work conference call, however, she has not been seen or heard from since.
Her parents, Ernest and Dot Bulley, have now revealed that Bulley had spent the night before making plans for a spa break with her younger sister, as well as buying tickets to watch her six- and nine-year-old daughters perform in choir and gymnastics shows in recent weeks.
Her father, 73, told the Mirror that he doesn't believe Bulley's disappearance was intentional, explaining: "Her mind was great, we picked the children up the Thursday before she went missing, as we do every Thursday.
"We took them home, Nicola had had a meeting with her boss in Garstang and she said can you stay a bit later because I have an important client coming in on Zoom. We said no problem and stayed. She had done her work and she was very upbeat about getting her mortgage sorted."
He added that the pair had said goodbye at the front door, where he gave her a kiss and told her he loved her, which ended up being the last conversation the pair had.
Bulley's mother added that she has been unable to sleep since her daughter went missing, and that they worry about where she is and whether she is ok.
Her father added: "We will never stop looking. We just dread to think we will never see her again, if the worst came to the worst and she was never found, how will we deal with that for the rest of our lives?”
Bulley's partner, 44-year-old Paul Ansell, had previously revealed that the couple's daughters had "cried their eyes out" after being told that their mom was "lost" and are hoping for her safe return.
The police said in a press conference: "The police are keeping a really open mind about what could have happened but we do believe that the likelihood is that Nicola has gone missing and this is not a crime inquiry.
"We’ve mounted a really intensive operation to try to find Nicola. We’ve got a large area to search. People do go missing but, clearly, as time goes on we become more and more concerned for Nicola.
"But we’re very much hoping that we will find something to try to bring her home safe and well soon."
A body has been found in the search for Nicola Bulley - the mother of two who disappeared 23 days ago while on a dog walk.
The 45-year-old went missing on Friday, January 27, after she dropped her two daughters - aged six and nine - off at school. She then went for a walk around the River Wyre in St. Michael's on Wyre, Lancashire, with her dog Willow in tow.
At around 9:00AM Bulley - a mortgage adviser by profession - logged onto a work call via Microsoft Teams - but her microphone and the camera were turned off. It ended some 30 minutes later, with previous reports stating that she remained logged onto the call.
A passerby came across Bulley's distressed springer spaniel at 10:30AM and noticed a phone had been left on a bench beside the river. Since then a high-profile search effort for the missing woman has emerged.
Via its official Twitter account, Lancashire police revealed on Sunday, February 19, that they had found a body amid their search for Bulley, adding, though, that the body has yet to be formally identified.
Police wrote: "This morning, Sunday, 19 February, you may be aware of police activity around the river near to St Michaels. We want to provide you with an update on that activity.
"We were called today at 11:36AM to reports of a body in the River Wyre, close to Rawcliffe Road."
Police continued: "An underwater search team and specialist officers have subsequently attended the scene, entered the water, and have sadly recovered a body.
"No formal identification has yet been carried out, so we are unable to say whether this is Nicola Bulley at this time."
They added: "Procedures to identify the body are on-going. We are currently treating the death as unexplained.
"Nicola’s family have been informed of developments and our thoughts are with them at this most difficult of times. We ask that their privacy is respected."
Authorities had emphasized previously that their main hypothesis was that Bulley had fallen into the River Wyre and that this was "not suspicious but a tragic case of a missing person".
Specialist diving teams were deployed to search the River Wyre for the missing woman.
A police source told the Daily Mail earlier this month: "The underwater teams are performing what's known as an arc search, whereby they monitor the riverbed by moving in a side-to-side motion from bank to bank. As of yet nothing of significance has been found but it'll be a long, thorough process."
Anger towards the police involved in the search for Bulley has grown as the case becomes increasingly high-profile. This was particularly the case after police held a press conference in order to reiterate that there is "not a single piece of information or evidence to suggest that there is any third-party involvement" in Bulley's disappearance.
This is a breaking story. More to follow...
Published 11:38 02 Feb 2023 GMT
More details have emerged about the mother-of-two who went missing on a footpath, with her partner and parents now speaking out about her disappearance.
Nicola Bulley, 45, went missing on (January 27), with the last sighting of her on a footpath while she was walking her dog near the River Wyre in St Michael’s on Wyre, Lancashire, at around 9:15 AM, per the BBC.
The alarm about her disappearance was raised at around 10:30 AM after another dog walker noticed Nicola's brown cocker spaniel running around by itself with no owner in sight.
Questions have been raised about how the 45-year-old suddenly went missing, as her phone was found on a park bench still connected to a work conference call.
Nicola’s parents - Ernest, 73, and Dot, 72 - spoke to the Mirror where they vowed never to stop searching for their daughter. "If the worst came to the worst and she was never found, how will we deal with that for the rest of our lives?" they said.
Drones and helicopters have been drafted in to help search for the missing woman, but there has been no luck as of yet.
The Daily Mail reported that the local resident who found Nicola's dog described the canine as being dry, indicating it hadn't been in the river, but it was in an "agitated state."
Ernest revealed there is no reason to believe that the mother-of-two left of her own accord, as: "She had done her work and she was very upbeat about getting her mortgage sorted."
He also described his last interaction with his daughter: "I said we better go now and Nicola came to the front door, and I gave her a kiss and told her I loved her and that was the last conversation I had with her."
Ernest also revealed that he had a conversation with the police who are looking for his daughter, and they revealed that they don't believe that she was taken.
Nicola's partner Paul shared his heartbreak with the Daily Mail: "All we can say is we need to find her. She’s got two little girls that need their mummy home. We have got to get some good news now."
Volunteer rescue teams have searched a large abandoned house across the river, opposite the bench from where her phone was found, but they don't have the ability to go inside.
Police have also spoken to a witness who is believed to be the last person to see Nicola before she vanished. He is an unidentified man, aged around 70, white, 6ft tall, and well-built, who was walking a small white fluffy dog on a lead.
It has been five days since Nicola went missing, and Lancashire police are urging anybody with information to come forward.
Published 14:47 03 Feb 2023 GMT
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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