Found Deceased UK - Nicola Bulley Last Seen Walking Dog Near River - St Michaels on Wyre (Lancashire) #8

[GTB72]

Snipped by me for focus.

Nicola could have walked straight across the road and got back onto the river bank downstream of the bridge / Blackpool Lane.

Link to Google Earth

If that's the case then she would probably show up on dashcam footage at the Garstang Lane/River path. Which would suggest 3rd party involvement if earlier than 9.20

 

[kittythehare]

Missing mum texted her friend a significant message minutes before going missing

Mum-of-two Nicola Bulley, 45, disappeared while walking her springer spaniel along a river towpath in St Michaels on Wyre, Lancashire, after dropping her daughters at school

www.mirror.co.uk

My apologies, THIS, is the article that supports my earlier post.

Her father says Nicola had just sorted HER mortgage and was pleased to have done so, additionally she had been working hard on a client negotiation. Presumably then, a ‘remortgage’?

I think a malevolent perp is very unlikely as the police have clearly said. St Riley & team would NOT have the public traipsing freely & endanger the public, plus. The police have a clear context they have to sensitivity share when timing is ‘right’ as was said yesterday.

Nicola SOLD mortgages, that was her job.
It meant she had gained a new client.
Nothing to do with her personal finances.

 

[Miss_French]

Some of the posts this morning re mental health are I the sort of harmful (baseless) speculation that the police have been warning against IMO.

Not baseless, though, and understandable when the police have talked sensitive information. There's only a few scenarios that sort of language suggests.

 

[Coach]

With regards to the meeting Nicola has the night before she went missing, I expect her boss will have been able to give a clear insight as to how she was that night as he would have been one of the last people outside her family to see/meet with her. Her work colleagues might also know how she was in the days, weeks and months before she went missing. There is a post on his own page about Nicola going missing and that she worked for him but nothing on his company page.

 

[in2thegate]

Nicola Bulley search specialist rules out area of water where police believe mother fell in

Could be the last day of the search as they have 'other commitments' to attend to.

 

[GTB72]

You'd be surprised. I know a lot of other high-profile news stories of which people are not aware, because they don't bother watching TV news or don't click on non-local stories on social media. Took me a while to find out about Corrie Mckeague going missing when it happened on my doorstep! Last night wasn't just 'some missing woman', details were known.

Fair enough. Some people do seem to breeze through life totally unaware of current events. I just dont know how they manage it. I wish I could do it, but alas no.

 

[kittythehare]

Well I can understand that for sure. So key witness man with white dog. Did this witness see nicola that morning ?

Key witness identities are being protected because they were subjected to online abuse.
We're just using times for them here.

Facebook

www.facebook.com

 

[wallaby]

Yes absolutely, an absolutely impossible situation, but it would explain why they, the police, are keen to focus on another part of the river & why Peter F is possibly currently confused. It would explain the interview with a family member, too wouldn’t it? The stages of grief… If so, all really should be much more confidential. Sadly, in today’s world, almost impossible.

Nicola looked to be/is a truly genuinely amazing person in all the ways that truly matter. I wonder if she knew/knows? Cerebral too. I imagine she’d be amazed if she knew the traction this had gained…

Yes I have thought the same, also regarding the interview. It all clicks into place and makes sense in a certain context.

(Obviously we all hope for an Agatha Christie type situation where she is found safe. I am just reflecting on what is known and statements from LE so far.)

All JMO.

 

[WestLondoner]

IIRC it was the Mail who went down the 'Mystery' angle big time, at the outset. ( Then the rest followed on in the same vein)
<snipped for brevity>

It's not an unreasonable take to me, though. People do go missing, and people do fall into rivers and come to harm. What's uniquely odd is for someone to become a missing person by falling into a river. This has all happened in, near enough, plain sight.

It seems to me to be completely correct for the police to have focused on the river search. It's where her stuff was found, it's where her dog was waiting for her. While it can be argued that an attack was possible, there isn't a shred of evidence (AFAIAA) that there was one.

Whether this was by accident or by someone's design, the baffling thing here is surely not that she has unexpectedly come to harm, but that she has vanished without trace.

 

[sriraaacha]

Interesting that NB Facebook page was only created in 2021. Did she maybe have another facebook account that she removed?

Not 100% sure about this, I legit can't stand fb and rarely use it but I noticed that when she was tagged previously it just read "@ Nicola Bulley" without a link to her profile so I'd assume that was her old account was (possibly) deleted?

 

[Miss_French]

Thanks MF. Did she also have a meeting the night before she went missing and was it an in person one or remote/online?

Actually, that info was further down that link, comment by her dad:

"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."

It wasn't far for NB to travel to a meeting if it was in person.

 

[hedgetog]

Have there been any other cases where someone has fallen into a river and not been found after 10 days - with searches and divers being on the scene within hours of the suspected entry point, helicopters (possibly using infrared), sonar and then specialist sonar scanning of most of the river?

I know people don't get discovered after weeks sometimes, but in those cases are the response times as quick as here, with a suspected entry point, and to this extent with all this equipment. Just curious, as I haven't followed many other cases like this.

I know about Libby Squire, but I don't believe the river searches started as quickly as here or if the same technology was used, or how different (or more difficult) that river was compared to the Wyre?

MOO- even if NB did enter the water there is no indication that it was at the bench, it seems a likely entry point sure because of the dog and phone being there, but as there was no sign on the bank, its possible she entered further up or down (if at all of course) which could throw the search. Water, river beds, surrounding geography make it really hard to compare. Presumably the police will have access to the experts who can predict and map scenarios based on the particular stretch of river, depth/weather for the particular times etc but as a science it's still at best a calculated 'guess' rather than exact science. It does seem unlikely that as the searches commenced so quickly and due to the depth you'd assume (perhaps wrongly) that in an area such as this something in the water would be seen.

Without going back to analysing the behaviour of dogs and assuming they are all the same, I did look into a while ago because i was interested whether bodies in water (and in general) were often found by dog walkers because they tended to walk in areas others possibly wouldn't, or whether dogs could pick up a scent. Again not an expert in any way, shape or form, but it did lead me to wonder whether in a popular dog walking area where it seems plenty of places for dogs to jump into the water would they find something- acknowledging it was bloody cold so perhaps wouldn't? Again, JMO and sorry if it's veering off topic a bit.

 

[Deleted member 320164]

Some considerations I have had with the time line of events for each of the different possible scenarios.


1. The police are correct and she entered the water and has sadly passed away.

If I am understanding correctly, NB arrived at the gate/bench first at roughly 08:46, then she was seen on the upper field at 09:10 which would mean it took her 24 minutes roughly to reach that point of the field. Yet her phone is back on the bench 10 minutes later, which means she is making a much quicker pace back than she was when she went out.

Can anyone tell from her strava account what her usual timing and route was, is it usual for her in terms of time spent, would there be a reason for her to make a much quicker pace on the route back than the route out, where did she have to be next/what did she have to do next, where was she heading if her day had carried on as normal.

Was it routine for her to stop at the bench?

To support the police theory of accident with no third party involvement, reasons for the quicker pace could have been she was feeling unwell or as suggested in an earlier thread, needed the loo. Both of these could have been reasons for a fall/slip that account for the dog not being wet and no signs of a slip (because she didn't slip/lose her footing but lost balance near the edge of the water)

Another theory as to why the dog could dry would be, NB has sat on the bench to finish her call. Lost concentration for a second, the dog has headed towards the water but not gone in but from NB's line of sight from the bench is hidden by the bank, NB walks over to the edge of the river to try and see where the dog has gone and the dog playfully bounds up and knocks NB off balance and into the water.

These are all ways to make the police hypothesis make sense that seem plausible but if nothing is discovered in the river then it seems unlikely.

Question would be: I think I read if she had entered the water and died she likely wouldn't have been washed out to sea but could there be a possibility that she did survive the entry to the water couldn't get herself out at that point but as a strong swimmer she didn't immediately die and then tried to swim down stream with the currents in order to find somewhere where exiting the water was much easier? how would that have effected her final location and where they are searching? could in that scenario she have accidentally swam out to sea or at least made her way much further down the river than anticipated ?

I noticed the faster journey back too - she may just have walked back faster or not stood around letting the dog explore. Another alternative is that she was being followed.

If her phone has an accelerometer and gyro - that would tell you if she speeded back.

 

[wallaby]

You'd be surprised. I know a lot of other high-profile news stories of which people are not aware, because they don't bother watching TV news or don't click on non-local stories on social media. Took me a while to find out about Corrie Mckeague going missing when it happened on my doorstep! Last night wasn't just 'some missing woman', details were known.

I started talking to my husband last night about this case and he had no idea what I was talking about, and we had a brief conversation about it several days ago! (He did kind of remember when I reminded him of that, but then said “I thought she turned up the next day?”)

He is just very busy with work/our kids (as am I) and doesn’t look at the news outside of what he sees on a couple online sources that are more world news and US politics etc (we used to live there).

I was flabbergasted but we don’t watch live TV or get newspapers. I’m sure there are a lot of people who pay even less attention than him!

 

[Fishwick]

Not baseless, though, and understandable when the police have talked sensitive information. There's only a few scenarios that sort of language suggests.

They haven't. This is the transcript, and the word sensitive is not used once.

UK - Nicola Bulley, St Michaels on Wyre (Lancashire), Jan 27, 2023 *MEDIA, MAPS, & TIMELINES - NO DISCUSSION*

www.websleuths.com

They've simply said that they haven't released all information, which is absolutely standard for any enquiry.

 

[I wonder]

Does anyone have a photo of the area that meets the sea from the river?

Google will.

 

[LeopardLeotard]

Can i just check, does the second gate lead to a caravan park, the wyreside farm park, is this the one where the witness that found the dog etc is from?, was this searched?, thankyou

 

[WestLondoner]

Without going back to analysing the behaviour of dogs and assuming they are all the same, I did look into a while ago because i was interested whether bodies in water (and in general) were often found by dog walkers because they tended to walk in areas others possibly wouldn't, or whether dogs could pick up a scent. Again not an expert in any way, shape or form, but it did lead me to wonder whether in a popular dog walking area where it seems plenty of places for dogs to jump into the water would they find something- acknowledging it was bloody cold so perhaps wouldn't? Again, JMO and sorry if it's veering off topic a bit.

It's actually quite hard to stop your dog when it's off the lead from following you around. It may figure you're the pack leader and you're going somewhere, so this must be walkies, so obviously it feels invited, so it's coming with you. As a kid I used to get the Tube to school, and the dog we then owned had to be kept inside when I set off. If he managed to slip out, he would follow me to the Tube station and would try to board the train. You couldn't abandon him at the Tube station, because he'd then hang around waiting to be walked home. He knew the way, he just expected to be accompanied.

All dogs aren't the same of course but I struggle to see how NB could persuade her dog to stay put in one place while she went away to another and didn't return. At some point the dog would follow her to see where she was. Probably (IMO) that's what it did do.

 

[DickieDumDum]

They haven't. This is the transcript, and the word sensitive is not used once.

UK - Nicola Bulley, St Michaels on Wyre (Lancashire), Jan 27, 2023 *MEDIA, MAPS, & TIMELINES - NO DISCUSSION*

www.websleuths.com

They've simply said that they haven't released all information, which is absolutely standard for any enquiry.

Thank you for confirming this. I was just looking myself for the word 'sensitive' and couldn't find it either. Bit of a misleading series of posts from that poster, imo.

 

[Firstsnow4]

According to that witness, Yes. Nicola was last seen at 09:10 in the upper field by another person walking their dog. Their two dogs interacted briefly before the witness left the field.

I think that’s actually the earlier witness if you look at the police statement - the 8.47 witness was the one whose dog interacted with NBs

Source - Lancashire Constabulary - Missing Nicola Bulley - latest update