Found Deceased UK - Nicola Bulley Last Seen Walking Dog Near River - St Michaels on Wyre (Lancashire) #10

[Coach]

The team meeting started at 9am and she joined it at 9:01

One minute late?

Exactly, it’s no big deal joining a Teams meeting one minute late.

 

[Tanzanite]

I also feel that the most reasonable explanation is the river. I do however wonder what her state of mind was like and what things were like the evening before. The night before was not mentioned in the documentary.

I've seen this reported, rather than watching the relevant section of interview myself, but didn't PA say they'd watched a bit of TV then headed to bed at different times?

 

[jk1874]

Exactly, it’s no big deal joining a Teams meeting one minute late.

1 minute is good for most meetings! Connection issues, casual approach to online meetings and generally being able to slip in means meetings are less rigid.
We don't know what type of call it was, it may have been training with 100 other mortgage advisers?

 

[mrjitty]

My basic problem with any abduction/attack scenario is usually NB would be found quite close by.

Removal by vehicle is really not the norm e.g. Libby Squire or Sarah Everard are highly unusual cases. But especially here she is last seen in a field, so how would she get to where a vehicle can access unless abducted by force over some distance - but again that is highly unusual for an adult in the UK ...

 

[jk1874]

Exactly, it’s no big deal joining a Teams meeting one minute late.

1 minute is good for most meetings! Connection issues, casual approach to online meetings and generally being able to slip in means meetings are less rigid.
We don't know what type of call it was, it may have been training with 100 other mortgage advisers?

 

[EvaP]

Quite an old fashioned view. Most modern parents I know absolutely share things equally.

Lol out of the two mums in my office both constantly corroborate my view.

 

[Cluella DeVille]

I was just looking at NB's Strava maps and she does seem to have previously spent significant time at the bench area. On her last recorded walk on the app on 7 Nov she appears to have moved backwards and forwards and in loops between the bench and water. Map shows lots of squiggles (moving around), right next to the river.

Attached is a wider view and a zoomed in view.

And we can only guess the police may have assessed the same data to have some basis on which to take the stance that they have, that she has been known to approach the waters edge and probably did this time? If they have secured that information for the day in question it could explain the persistence in their beliefs

 

[PremierKissov]

I still feel that the most likely explanation is the one Lancs police still believe in - that Nicola fell in to the river.

Far too much is being made by the media - prompted by a certain widely quoted "expert" - of the failure to find a body. But just a quick Google of some fairly recent cases shows that it's not at all unusual for a body to remain undiscovered in a river for two or three months.

Just last week, Russell Tomlinson was found in the River Weaver in Cheshire over two months after he fell in. Police divers had failed to find him. He was found about a mile from where he was last seen.

In 2020, Mark Maclay fell in to the River Wey at Farnham. Police divers and Peter Faulding's team failed to find him. He was eventually found over three months later, just a few hundred metres from where it was believed he had fallen in.

In 2017, Mary Yap fell in to the River Teme near Worcester. Specialist Group International spent several days looking for her, including a sonar search. They found nothing. She was eventually found seven weeks later, about ten miles downstream from where it is believed she fell in.

So clearly it is not at all unusual for a body in a river to evade professional searchers. The fact that no body has been found yet proves nothing. Yet if you read the papers, you'd think it was impossible that she is still in that river.

It's easy to see why the police are sceptical about the other two possibilities (abduction & choosing to go missing). This happened in the middle of a fairly small area (about 0.2 square kilometres) completely bounded by a river and a busy A road. The area has a steady trickle of dog walkers and others, and all exists are either covered by CCTV or (in the case of the river path exit on to the A586) would be nigh on impossible for an abductor to remove a woman from the scene without being seen.

So despite some of the ridiculous criticism of the police, it seems to me that they are simply applying Occam's Razor here - a fall in the river is by far the most plausible explanation.

 

[Cuko]

Another question is whose dog is it ?

I mean who originally chose to have a dog in the household?

This can make a big difference to someone's attitude towards a dog. Not everyone likes dogs. Some will just tolerate them.

My sister has a Spaniel which her ex husband decided to get for their daughter who lives with him. My sister dislikes dogs but as it is for the daughter she will tolerate caring for the dog now and then. She really does not like the dog though. It is a strong dislike. The dog knows this.

So in the case of the MP was she a dog lover or was she walking the dog out of duty for the family.

This could make a difference to the behaviour of the dog and the MP.

Somewhere up thread there are several links to the Sky News interview with NB’s parents and sister. Her father states that NB loves Willow the dog, and adds, “She would do anything for that animal.”

 

[content_calling]

Red Van - 2021 though
Dropped pin

53°52'25.2"N 2°48'22.8"W

maps.app.goo.gl

 

[PremierKissov]

He definitely crossed the boundaries on a number of occasions imo. Would love to be a fly on the wall at Lancs Police headquarters.

Lancs Police could not have been any clearer in yesterday's update that they find all this speculation by "so-called experts" to be very unhelpful and they want it to stop. The media (e.g. Channel 5) have chosen to ignore this.

 

[IspyWithMyBigEye]

If she was where she was last spotted. Dog out of sight no witnesses around looking at the upper field quite well hidden in parts. Yes not sure about 10 seconds but it wouldnt take long would it? Easily abduct and be out of sight in that area in less than a minute imo

It’s a 5/10 minute walk to the nearest exit.

How could anyone abduct a woman who’d be struggling and screaming with her dog follo and barking in broad daylight? There were people scattered everywhere!

Sound travels and people would have heard.

There would also have been signs left of a struggle.

That hypothesis has no cred IMO.

 

[Bluesleuth66]

A lot of assumptions here. I attend lots of online calls where I have my camera off, muted and I'm never required to say a word. If it's more training based or a national conference then you wouldn't need to contribute automatically.

Yes. I said "If..."

 

[Coach]

I've seen this reported, rather than watching the relevant section of interview myself, but didn't PA say they'd watched a bit of TV then headed to bed at different times?

I must have missed that part as I don’t recall the night before being mentioned but it could have been.

 

[russeverton]

<modsnip: Quoted post was removed> It's a high profile case media are all over him . What's the harm in updating people on his findings. It's more than the police are doing. So hes a good guy and hes media friendly? Dont see how that inherits the nonsensical jibes hes getting constantly on here.

 

[mrjitty]

maybe we should explore this claim, see how plausible it would be, based on what we know? ( Plausible as opposed to theoretically possible)

Mark Willaims Thomas again:
Top cop says Nicola Bulley could have been abducted in '10-second window'

Top cop says Nicola Bulley could have been abducted in '10-second window'

Mark Williams-Thomas reckons Nicola Bulley could have been 'gone in 10 seconds' if an 'offender' or 'plan' was present in the 'window of opportunity' when the mum-of-two was out of sight

www.dailystar.co.uk

I don't really feel like he adds anything here that Police have not said.

There is at least 10 mins where she can be taken away, before the first witness arrives.

Obviously that is enough time. But it just seems highly unlikely to me. Normally with that kind of attack, she will be remain somewhere close by - she is an adult as a opposed to a child and can put up significant resistance.

If she was incapacitated, it seems again highly unlikely someone is going to carry her off to a vehicle, in an area where people are frequently wandering around?

 

[Just-a-random-girl]

My basic problem with any abduction/attack scenario is usually NB would be found quite close by.

Removal by vehicle is really not the norm e.g. Libby Squire or Sarah Everard are highly unusual cases. But especially here she is last seen in a field, so how would she get to where a vehicle can access unless abducted by force over some distance - but again that is highly unusual for an adult in the UK ...

See Lindsay Birbeck and wheelie bin.

The more I look at this case, the more I believe it to be a tragic accident falling into the river. However, it is *feasible* that something happened to her at the bench or on one of the fields and she was moved afterwards (e.g. like Lindsay Birbeck).

And on the attack factor, an attack could also end up with someone in the water (e.g. like Libby Squire). The car took Libby from a residential road to a field but they moved across the field on *foot* and ended up at the back at the riverbank. The whole thing took minutes.

 

[Coach]

1 minute is good for most meetings! Connection issues, casual approach to online meetings and generally being able to slip in means meetings are less rigid.
We don't know what type of call it was, it may have been training with 100 other mortgage advisers?

I agree. There are many Teams meetings where depending on the content (updates/training/lecture etc) where the majority of attendees will not need to speak. One minute late is excellent as I have been in online meetings myself where many are a lot more late than one minute.

 

[PeteG85]

Back to the Police Timeline

Timeline



8.26am- Nicola leaves her home address with her children

8.40am- Nicola drops the children off at school and has a brief conversation with another parent.

8.43am – Nicola walked along the path by the River Wyre towards the gate/bench into the lower field, having dropped her children off at school

8:47am (approximately) - A dog-walker – somebody who knows Nicola – saw her walking around the lower field with her dog. Their two dogs interacted briefly before the witness left the field via the river path

8.53am – She sent an email to her boss

8.59 am- She sent message to a friend

9.01am – She logged into a Teams call

9.10am (approximately) – A witness – somebody who knows Nicola – saw her on the upper field walking her dog, Willow. Work is ongoing today to establish exactly what time this was.

9.20- Her phone was back in the area of the bench

9.30am – The Teams call ended but Nicola stayed logged on

9.33am (approximately) – Nicola’s mobile phone and Willow were found at a bench by the river by another dog-walker.


We can pretty much guarantee that NB logged into her Teams call at 9.01am
The next sighting was approx 9.10 but therefore could have been earlier (or later)
the point being 'approximately' according to official timeline.

This sighting could have been 9.02 or 9am etc, it also could be as far as is in the timeline,made by the same person who saw NB at approximately 8.47am

There are no other sightings of NB by anyone else at all
The next entry in the timeline is that the phone is in the bench area at 9.20, not NB, just the phone.

Next, we have the whole issue of where the phone harness and dog were found and by whom, originally the phone was found on the floor and placed on the bench by the female non dog walker, then by a male dog walker. The male dog walker doesn't imo seem to figure recently.

Depending how accurate the tracking information is ( if there is any) or can be regarding the phone placement, the phone may have been on the floor in that area from 9.20, it is as far as information that is known to the public, possible that the phone was still on the floor until the time just before PA was handed it. which is after 11am?

Also, apart from the witness report of tying Willow up at approximately 9.33, we in the Public domain have no reports of the dog being seen tied up or running loose at all.
Was Willow even in the bench area until PA arrived?

If (and this is only for the purposes of trying to make sense of the bench/phone/dog/harness situation) the 9.33 witness statement was incorrect and subsequently discounted, there is no sighting of NB from anyone apart from possibly one dog walker who 'knew Nicola' and potentially saw her twice over the period of their walks. There would be no reports of the dog, the phone, the harness being anywhere near the bench (apart from the Police placing the phone at the bench area at 9.20, hopefully by GPS tracking or similar), so in essence, the phone may have been in the bench area but there would be absolutely nothing to place NB or the dog at that location from before 8.47 until after 11am.

According to that timeline, one witness statement controls the whole narrative as to the hypothesis of what happened to NB imo

 

[Lincoln34]

I agree. There are many Teams meetings where depending on the content (updates/training/lecture etc) where the majority of attendees will not need to speak. One minute late is excellent as I have been in online meetings myself where many are a lot more late than one minute.

My head of department scowls if anyone is even one minute late. Feels it is unprofessional and disrespectful. Maybe NB works in a more relaxed environment. She did text a friend shortly before for play date.