Police told to assume that missing Nicola was abducted
THE police probe into missing Nicola Bulley must now focus on the possibility of “foul play” and that she may have been “abducted by someone with local knowledge”, crime experts have said.
Forensic search chief Peter Faulding, who was called in by Nicola’s family to assist police divers in scouring the nearby river, also called for searches of the surrounding area.
It follows a plea by Nicola’s partner Paul Ansell for “every house, every garage, every outbuilding and the land” to be scrutinised.
The mother-of-two vanished on January 27, while walking her spaniel near the Wyre river, in the village of St Michael’s, in Lancashire.
Mr Faulding admitted he was “baffled” by the fact Nicola, 45, has not yet been found and he raised concerns that she was “a creature of habit”, walking the same route every day, and could therefore have been targeted by a stalker.
He said: “My professional opinion is, I find it hard to believe that she actually went in that river, unless she was knocked unconscious.”
He said the probe should now examine the potential she had been taken against her will and could be hidden nearby.
He said: “Any search for a missing person should immediately be tasked with the land and river within 200 metres of where the belongings were.
“The body could have been hidden. We don’t know that there is no foul play here.
“You have to keep an open mind in any investigation – is there any foul play, is there a third party involved?
“Is it an abduction and
Nicola could be alive somewhere? You just don’t know.
“People have been hidden and taken away many times, especially in the USA. People have been held against their will for months, years, on end.
“Abductors and sexually motivated stalkers are out there, unfortunately.
“If she was abducted or anything, it was probably someone with local knowledge, who
knew her movements.” Mr Ansell told Channel 5 on Friday that his and Nicola’s sister Louise’s “gut instincts” were she was not in the river.
He added that any stranger would have stood out in the fields where Nicola disappeared and the “fact that nothing has been seen or heard... I just truly believe that it’s something in the village”.
And while he “cannot fault the police” he urged them to search every nearby building and the land. “I want it all searched,” he added.
Nicola had been on her regular morning walk with dog
Willow after dropping off her young daughters at school.
The only clues were her mobile left on a bench and Willow’s harness nearby.
The Springer spaniel was found running around dry, leading investigators to assume it had not gone in the water.
The police’s main line of investigation has been that she accidentally fell into the water and, while keeping an open mind, they do not at this stage suspect foul play.
Yesterday their search continued to focus on the river Wyre downstream and out to the Irish Sea.
But ex-detective Mark Williams-thomas said that “if she’s not in the water then there has to be a suspicious third-party element”.
Mr Williams-thomas also urged the police to review their approach and be more flexible.
He said: “They’ve come up with a hypothesis and that’s what they focused on.
“We’re seeing now that it will probably run its course and we’ll get to a position where they haven’t been able to find Nicola. I just hope at that point they look round and say, ‘Maybe we got that wrong’.
“But it’s very unlikely with police forces.”
He said: “The family are clear if she’s not in the water then there has to be a suspicious third-party element.”
Speaking on Channel 5’s Vanished: Where Is Nicola Bulley? show, he added: “The police now need to start looking at the wider area.
“There are three aspects here – either the river, she walked off or someone takes her.
“These are the three hypothesis, not just the water.”