Found Deceased UK - Nicola Bulley Last Seen Walking Dog Near River - St Michaels on Wyre (Lancashire) #4

[EvaP]

If she’s in that water and we won’t know until the body floats up or the SAR detects and recovers, we will still never know how or when, only that the one witness can never tell their other owner. I trip on tree roots all the time whilst walking the river banks, or stumble down a hole, mercifully I’m walking flat areas round here and not steep sided river areas. I do what she did - ear buds in, go on mute, off camera, holding phone ready to go off mute if needing to speak, whilst walking the dog somewhere quiet so traffic can’t be heard. It’s called multi tasking and she’s probably done it many times. I’m so sorry for her poor family and the loyal little Willow who never strayed that day and drew attention to their owner’s plight. It’s just awful.

 

[karakuchi]

Can I just add, being in the UK, she may have just thrown a stick for the dog.
Every time I take my friend's Lab on a walk, she picks up a stick for the duration of the walk, then it stays when we leave.
Much easier than carrying a ball.

 

[infinit]

It did show it earlier on Sky news from an ariel shot but I havent got footage or a link im afraid.

No worries

Just curious as to
a) If it'd likely trap a body from going over
b) If it would act almost like a dam and cause the river upstream to become heavily silted which could make the depth deceptive and cause issues trying to get out.

 

[PineTreeSleuther]

Even ankle ones that are kinda slip on?

If the boots from the photo upthread were the green ankle boots that she was wearing, they are not that dissimilar to the ones I wear for daily sea swimming. Perhaps a little heavier at the bottom, but elastic gripping at the ankle stops them from filling with water. They’d stay on in the water, I think, but I don’t think they’d fill up with water and weigh you down.

Do we have a definitive answer on the depth where she is most likely fallen in? Even with cold water shock, it’s hard to drown in water that you can stand up in. Unless there has been some injury, for eg a medical emergency that has caused the fall.

 

[PandaMarch]

At 0.4 (ish) meters the water going over the weir would be very shallow, just my two cents.

well the police are describing the river as tidal. It seems at least parts are, and as others have said, it's a long stretch, low visibility. The police have said they have to re-search sections as it's tidal. She could be stuck or have moved around. It's pretty clear its not an easy task

 

[Taskforce88]

Perhaps preliminary data recovered so far from the Fitbit shows activity in the river giving the police some confidence to state the river theory which they will solidify over the next day or so?

 

[kittythehare]

It's really confusing me kitty!

I know. my brain fried too because I'm emotionally engaged and even though the presser was powerfully cathartic and gentler than the sun I'm still very sad but I'm grateful through it.. because it was a massive gift.

From my own experience of search you'd need at least a doctorate to work out the math.. so many factors all had to combine for this outcome.

We might never know why or how she entered the water.
That is a fact. There are a million different possibilities and combinations.

The dog not entering the water is a huge one for me.
I can find no explanation for it. Just none. Unless she was injured but if she was that would have been reported.

Some people follow crime for entertainment.
I don't.
A lot of people on Ws dont.
It's what makes it different.
It's about love or it's about nothing.

There's a price for love and grief is the currency.
And there is invariably grief and it's very painful.
But it's okay too.
Cathartic.
You end up growing up a lot on this site even while spittin' and cussin'..fightin' and shoutin'



That has been my experience in any case.

Namaste.

 

[Tyzer]

Have the police said if the undergrowth around the bank and rivers edge was disturbed as would surely happen if NB fell in?

If her wearable device pinged her movements to the phone as it happened then they must have the exact timings and locations.

 

[mrjitty]

MOO! Hi I've been lurking because, this lady is the same age as me, her kids are the same age as mine, I'm a similar height and build, and my closest relative lives in Abbeystead. I want to cry everyday.

I understand the working theory of falling in the river, but we do a duck race on a much bigger and faster river than the Wyre every year. The ducks never make it to the end without poking. They sink, they get caught in reeds, they get beached on banks. I am finding it so hard to believe after a week of intense searching (and police, not amateurs looking for ducks) they haven't found ANYTHING. No hair, no shoe, not her car keys or rubbish from her pocket...not even the "ball"? I understand its tidal further down, but there's a weir and at least one island between the spot and the sea, and its not the Thames, its barely waist deep.

I have been watching with increased unease the timeline as well, as others have said, if you found a dog and a phone on a bench by a river, wouldn't you phone 999? It all seems a bit fluid, I'm not saying suspicious at all, I just think I won't be surprised if we find the phone and dog were found *advertiser censored* later than stated.

Finally today they said she was wearing a fitbit, and if I understood rightly the timeline and maps come from the phone details not witnesses. So I am presuming she never left the field according to her data line, as I believe you can reasonably track fitbits? But they are waterproof to like 50m so you can swim with them, so surely they would see her floating down the river?

The whole thing is so very very odd.

Fitbit generally syncs to your phone via bluetooth so I presume the device is no longer connected. This could be one clue if is was connected to the phone - when it actually disconnected.

They might be able to learn something from detailed analysis of the bluetooth logs on her phone (if they have access to it)

Not all fitbit have onboard GPS - so again, we'd need to know what device it was, how often it syncs to the phone etc.

 

[Grouse]

Not disagreeing and value your response - just finding it hard to understand it's as simple and easy as being stated, plus reports and theories have all been difficult to follow this week - wellies weigh a person down, gilet is heavy, gilet is light...where's the wellies anyway? And Fitbit? They'd come off surely?

When I was about 15 I was pushed into a river about 4 or 5 foot deep, fully clothed, in winter time (nothing sinister, with a group of friends being a bit stupid) and I didn't have any difficulty getting out on my own, so I was initially doubtful about the river theory here.

But taking on board in the presser what they said about shallow in some parts but not in others, and also a particular post up thread by the angler who said he'd seen other anglers struggle to get upright when they fell in two foot of water, I have changed my mind.

Can easily see a fitbit coming off, my wife's did and was lost.

 

[ScotiaG]

The phone being on the bench is important because this suggests she left the bench quickly for some reason, the obvious one being to sort the dog out - but the dog was not wet so couldn’t have been in major trouble - and if the dog was involved it is surprising that it would not have gone into the water to try to save Nicola.

This is the most puzzling aspect for me. I assumed this was one of many similar tragic incidents where a devoted owner had drowned whilst trying to rescue their struggling dog from the water. But the dog wasn't in the water.
There is still hope she has gone missing by her own volition - it happens (from people simply wanting space, to the far more elaborate cases like the canoe guy...).

 

[Ruthbullock]

Looking at the muddy banks of the river and knowing she was wearing next wellingtons- one misplaced footstep and there will have been no traction. Unfortunately she wasn’t wearing decent wellingtons or walking boots- the grip on the boots she was wearing will have sadly been nill.

 

[Edinlass]

Have the police said if the undergrowth around the bank and rivers edge was disturbed as would surely happen if NB fell in?

If her wearable device pinged her movements to the phone as it happened then they must have the exact timings and locations.

Not from what we have been told, no sign of disturbance.

I feel if the fitbit had sent info to the phone in question they really wouldn’t have 10 minutes unaccounted for. That’s assuming she had the phone with her that syncs to the fitbit, if she never I’m not so sure it would still sync data. Basically the fitbit may sync to her personal mobile but she may have only had her work mobile out on the walk. Jmo

 

[msmarple99]

This is the most puzzling aspect for me. I assumed this was one of many similar tragic incidents where a devoted owner had drowned whilst trying to rescue their struggling dog from the water. But the dog wasn't in the water.
There is still hope she has gone missing by her own volition - it happens (from people simply wanting space, to the far more elaborate cases like the canoe guy...).

Has someone speculated of abduction by someone in a canoe? Haven't seen this

 

[supersleuth123]

Thank you.

Have there been any pictures of the weir? Would be curious as to what it looks like. Isn't very visible on Google Maps.

Here it is. I'm sure it looks different at different river heights.

 

[Taskforce88]

<modsnip - quoted post removed>

They stated initially no evidence that NB fell into the river.

"Police divers are concentrating their search efforts on the stretch of river close to the bench – see our video above – but have yet to find any evidence to suggest she might have entered the water."

https://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/news/crime/lancashire-police-cordon-off-riverside-where-missing-mum-nicola-bulley-was-last-seen-4011864

Today that has changed. So they might have data to be confident that NB did go into the river.

 

[Sarahaddison14]

I’ve read depths on this thread for the bit right by the bench of 18 inches to 18 feet! I don’t know if we have had a definitive answer - seemed yesterday that a video showed a diver submerged enough in the water there that he couldn’t be seen, so looked like at least 1m. I think the depth is variable along that stretch.

Personally I find it really hard to believe she fell in and still suspect foul play. The lack of marks / anything being recovered despite such a rapid search just feels wrong to me.

Could the lack of marks be due to the fact that the ground was frosted? It was still quite early. What is the weather forecast for the area that morning? As anyone looked into this? JMO

 

[themagiceye]

Whilst i want to believe the sentiments of the press conference, i am struggling to shake off the feeling that there is something about this case which simply doesn't feel right. Tragic accidents happen all the time, but there is usually something (evidence at the scene, eye-witnesses etc) that give a fairly clear picture of how the tragedy unfolded. That is absent in this case.

I have found it particularly odd from the start that NB regularly posted on Facebook up until December 7th of last year. She posted something daily or every couple of days but on December 7th she abruptly stops posting. No further posts are made, not even on Christmas Day or during the festive season. That's almost a two month period. Her final post is a sale listing.

There are a number of other odd details, none of which i feel should be mentioned given what was said in the press conference, but these add to a general sense of something not making sense.

If this is an accident, it is truly tragic, and a very cold reflection on how quickly life can change. If however there is more to it, then i do hope the truth comes out.

 

[Beginnersleuth]

I still think it's possible she fainted after skipping breakfast (running around after kids etc) or stamding up too quickly and tumbled in whilst dealing with the dog at the rivers edge. Would explain why she didn't manage to get herself out.

Or like when you bend down,crouch for a min or so then get up, esp if it’s cold out. Could faint. All the bloods in your legs etc

 

[Firstsnow4]

This was pointed out earlier by @CoverMeCagney so I listened carefully and it was definitely 10:50.

That is a long time between the people find Willow and police being called. IMO.