Drivers asked for help in search for missing dog walker
Lancashire Constabulary seeks dashcam footage as specialist underwater search team scours river
POLICE searching for missing dog walker Nicola Bulley will contact specific drivers who may have dashcam footage that could help explain what happened to her.
Lancashire Constabulary said last night that while the belief remained that Ms Bulley fell into the River Wyre, inquiries would now focus on the exit from the river path where the 45-yearold may have been walking and which is not covered by CCTV.
The path leads from fields back to Garstang Road in St Michael’s on Wyre, and police will be sending letters to drivers who travelled along it on the morning of Jan 27, when Ms Bulley disappeared. Police also released new CCTV footage from the family’s doorbell camera , showing Ms Bulley walking to her car from her house on the morning she went missing.
Ms Bulley’s partner, Paul Ansell, also pleaded for anyone with information to come forward. “It’s been 10 days now since Nicola went missing and I have two little girls who miss their mummy desperately and who need her back,” he said yesterday. Ms Bulley’s partner also thanked the specialist underwater search team that joined police in their hunt for Ms Bulley yesterday morning.
Specialist Group International have pledged they will find the missing mother-of-two if she is in the river.
The independent team, which was contacted by Ms Bulley’s family to help with the investigation, uses specialist side-scan sonar technology, said to be the “best in the world”, which can scan 20 metres under the water in any direction. A member of the search team said the group was made up of former special forces soldiers, police officers, critical care nurses and firefighters.
Peter Faulding, the head of SGI and who is leading the independent search team, said he believed the 45-year-old was in the river “based on the evidence that we have got at the moment”.
“If we can’t find her in the next three or four days in this river, if she’s not here, then I’m confident that she’s not in this stretch of river,” he said.
Ms Bulley was last seen on the morning of Jan 27 at around 9.20am on the upper field by the river off Garstang Road, where she had taken her spaniel, Willow, for a walk after dropping her two children at the local school in St Michael’s on Wyre.
Police say they are now confident having reviewed CCTV that Ms Bulley did not leave the fields near to the river where she went missing. “Our enquiries now focus on the river path which leads from the fields back to Garstang Road – for that we need drivers and cyclists who travelled that way on the morning of Jan 27 to make contact,” they said they said in a statement yesterday. “We will be making contact with drivers, who we believe were travelling down Garstang Road that morning via letter.”
Anyone who receives a letter has been urged to get in touch using the dedicated email Nicolabulleyinvestigation@lancashire.police.uk.
Det Supt Rebecca Smith added: “I would ask that anyone who was driving/cycling through St Michael’s last Friday morning and who has dashcam footage to get in touch with us if they haven’t already done so.
“I would also ask fishermen who may have been in the area at the time to make contact if you feel you can assist.”
‘I would ask that anyone who was driving or cycling through St Michael’s and who has dashcam footage to get in touch’