Now search for Nicola Bulley moves to the SEA

The search for missing Nicola Bulley moved to the sea on Thursday as police boats began trawling Morecambe Bay – after a team of expert divers abandoned their operation in the River Wyre yesterday.

It also emerged investigators could be trying to trace a ‘tatty’ red van parked near to where the mother-of-two vanished two weeks ago, after a witness reported it to police on two occasions. 

The 45-year-old was last seen walking her dog in St Michael’s on Wyre in Lancashire at around 9.20am on January 27. 

Lancashire Police and a private diving company both conducted extensive searches along the River Wyre, but have so far found no trace of the mortgage adviser. 

Two boats with specialist police teams are now searching the coast off Morecambe Bay, around 20 miles from where Nicola was last seen, with police suggesting finding her ‘in the open sea becomes more of a possibility’. 

Specialist diving units have also been deployed to search parts of the nine-mile stretch of river from the bench where her phone and dog were found to the bay, Sky News reports. 

According to the Times, a 55-year-old witness reported a red van to police on the day Nicola disappeared and again on February 2. 

The woman, who asked not to be named, told the paper: ‘I was on my way to the cake shop when I saw a tatty red van in Hall Lane outside a barn.

‘I didn’t think anything at the time, but when I saw Nicola had gone missing, I called 101 and spoke to an operator. I contacted the police again and spoke to a police officer.

‘It could have been a Renault van. It was the sort of van you can live in.’

A Lancashire Police spokesperson would not comment on the report, but said: ‘We have received a huge amount of information into the enquiry, all of which is being looked at, and we are extremely grateful to everyone who has assisted our investigation so far.’ 

It comes as police sought to reassure the public today that their search is still active after no officers or divers were seen at the immediate scene of her disappearance along the River Wyre.

After three days of intense activity with diving expert Peter Faulding leading a search on a five-mile stretch of the river, it was eerily quiet with no police around.

Mr Faulding and his Specialist Group International team ended their investigations after he declared Ms Bulley was not in the stretch of river where he had been searching using high-tech sonar.

Police divers had joined in his search – but they were absent today with Lancashire Police assuring the public the search is continuing along other stretches of the river than runs into Morecombe Bay.

Mr Faulding has said he doubts that Ms Bulley’s body would have been carried so far into the bay and out into the Irish Sea if she had indeed drowned.

A Lancashire Police spokesman said: ‘Our investigation to the disappearance of Nicola Bulley is continuing and we continue to search areas of the River Wyre and surrounding area.

‘People may have seen less police activity today than previously in the area of the river above the weir but that is not because we have stepped down our searches. It is because the focus of the search has moved further downstream into the area of the river which becomes tidal and then out towards the sea.’

While Mr Faulding and his team were at the scene there were numerous visitors who were criticised by the local vicar for taking ‘selfies’ and treating the area as some sort of tourist site.

The police have also issued a warning about people making ill-informed and offensive comments on social media about the family and the investigation.

The spokesman said the comments on social media were being examined and charges could follow.

‘We are also aware of a number of grossly offensive comments being made on social media and elsewhere. We are looking into these and will not hesitate to take action where appropriate,’ the spokesman said.

Ms Bulley’s partner Paul Ansell has been the subject of vile comments on social media posts.

Mediums and so-called paranormal experts have also been posting their theories about what has happened to the 45-year-old mother.

One person even posted a sketch on social media of what they thought the person who ‘abducted’ her looked like. Another said police should examine track marks in the field behind the wooden bench where Nicola’s mobile phone was found.

Police also confirmed that a dispersal order put in place for the village of St Michael’s on the Wyre remains in place for eight hours.

It was issued at 8.40pm on Wednesday night after police received a report that a group of men were travelling from Liverpool to carry out their own search of an abandoned house close to where the phone was found.

It was later confirmed the house had been searched by police and an outside rescue unit.

The spokesman said a number of people were warned of their behaviour.

It came as the hunt for the mother-of-two entered a 14th day and repeated warnings from the police for the public not to interfere with their hunt for Nicola. Earlier this week Lancashire Constabulary said it ‘will not tolerate’ people breaking into riverside properties.

Speaking from the scene last night, TalkTV’s Oliver Whitfield-Miocic said: ‘The police here have just had to issue a dispersal order to a group of men believed to have travelled down from the Liverpool area.

‘They wanted to go and search this abandoned house on the other side of the river where police believe Nicola Bulley had accidentally fallen in.

‘All of this despite the police already having searched that area and, only 24 hours ago, the Superintendent in charge of this investigation asking people not to take the law into their own hands.’

A friend of Ms Bulley’s has since taken to social media to reveal she knows the the owners of the property.

Heather Gibbons, who has been speaking on behalf of Ms Bulley’s family, said she had spoken to the owner who given police permission to search the abandoned house and derelict outbuildings. 

She said on Facebook: ‘Here are some facts that need to be known. 

‘It’s not abandoned. Its owned by a lovely family who have lived in this village for generations and would do anything they can to help in the search for Nikki.

‘It has been searched, inside and outside, from top to bottom by the police. I have clarified this with the family themselves and also with the police. They have never refused entry to the police or told them they need a warrant to search’.

And in a warning to the public she added last night: ‘Tonight multiple police units are out in St Michaels dealing with people trespassing, not only on this families land but also others. We are at the point where people coming to ‘help’ look for Nikki in this way is actually doing the complete opposite.’

Among the reponses to the post, one read: ‘There seems to be no SOLID facts except Nicola is missing. Timelines don’t add up. This is exactly the reason there is so much speculation, confusion and allegations. I hope that behind the scenes the police do have actual facts that they are just choosing not to share, for whatever reason. Because there is still a chance Nicola is alive somewhere.’

It comes after a family friend of Ms Bulley was forced to apologise to police after claiming they had failed to search an abandoned house near where Ms Bulley went missing.

Tilly Ann attempted to blame the police and media as she made an impassioned plea on social media for the property to be searched. But she has now apologised and said she was withdrawing from social media, blaming comments and accusations that followed her outburst.

In an impassioned Facebook post, Tilly Ann had said: ‘The abandoned house and outbuildings have not been searched as it is not currently a crime investigation !!!! (This should have been done straight away!)’

But later she issued an apology for getting her facts wrong.

She wrote on Facebook: ‘I would like to apologise for the confusion regarding the house. I was told it hadn’t been searched but then tonight it was confirmed to me it has now in fact been searched.

‘I apologise profusely if I’ve caused any upset, this was absolutely not my intention.

‘The whole purpose of this post is to make sure people understood the little details that were getting mixed up by the media/police and to hopefully answer everyone’s questions.

‘I am going to be leaving social media as I just can’t cope with all the horrendous comments and accusations. All I want to do is find Nikki.

‘I really can’t understand what on earth is going on at the moment, it doesn’t make any sense.’

As well as officers from Lancashire Police searching the abandoned house, a team from the Bowland Pennine Mountain Rescue combed the vicinity of the house.

Ken Camplin said he and his team of 25 volunteers were walking through the grounds that overlook the River Wyre when they met the owner.

He said: ‘While the team was searching the grounds, the owner was there for some reason and we asked him to go in and he had a quick look round and she wasn’t there.’

Yesterday the expert diver leading the river search for Ms Bulley has dramatically called it off to declare she is not in the water – as he branded the case ‘baffling’ and said he ‘did not know’ whether the mother-of-two was still alive. 

Peter Faulding, leader of underwater search experts Specialist Group International (SGI), said he had been ‘determined’ to find Nicola but that both he and her partner Mr Ansell, 44, were ‘relieved’ that he hadn’t. 

The pair met at the site of the search yesterday in St Michael’s on Wyre, where Mr Faulding insisted to Mr Ansell that his partner ‘is not here’.  

The SGI team will not be helping Lancashire Police search the ‘lower estuary’ of the River Wyre. The force told MailOnline their search remains ‘ongoing’ and that there was no deadline in place for it to end.

Police last night admitted that Nicola could have left the area with a third party when she vanished during a walk with her springer spaniel Willow at around 9.20am on January 27.  

While police still maintain that she most likely fell into the river, superintendent Sally Riley, of Lancashire Police, said it remained a ‘possibility’ that the 45-year-old left the area by one path not covered by CCTV cameras – but added that ‘every single’ suspicion or criminal suggestion had so far been discounted. 

The path in question is crossed by the main road through the village, and officers are scrambling to trace dashcam footage from 700 drivers who passed along the route at the time she disappeared.

After reviewing other CCTV footage, police are confident that Nicola did not leave the field near the river via Rowanwater. 

Mr Faulding had said that if his team did not find Nicola in the water using his sonar equipment, then it was his belief that she had not been in the river, raising the prospect of a ‘third party’ involvement in the disappearance.

Announcing he had called off the search on Wednesday afternoon, Mr Faulding said: ‘We are happy that the area where Nicola’s phone was found and the harness, we’ve thoroughly searched it from all the way down to the weir and up to the bridge, about a mile upstream, and we’ve confirmed to Paul [her partner] that there’s nothing in that area. 

‘That’s been dived by police dive teams three times as well… and on the day that Nicola went missing it was dived in the afternoon, with no sign of Nicola.’ 

He added: ‘I’ve worked on some weird cases, but this is a baffling case. For someone whose mobile phone was found there… I would’ve expected Nicola to be found that afternoon by the police dive team, normally down in the water, but there was no sign of her.’

He said he simply ‘didn’t know’ where Nicola was, adding: ‘I was determined to find Nicola, but one good thing is that I didn’t want to find a body, so I’m happy we haven’t found Nicola’s body, which can lead to other areas, so we don’t know if Nicola is alive, this is just a baffling case.

‘After the end of today, we’ve done what we’ve come here to do, we’ve cleared the area for the police and the family, we can say that in the top section of river and some of the section going down towards the sea, that she’s not in that part.’ 

He said he could not comment on ‘further down the estuary’ because his team was not searching that area. 

‘We just want to bring some form of closure,’ he added, ‘And I say again that I’m happy we never found a body and Paul is relieved we found nothing up there.’ 

Mr Anselll and Mr Faulding were joined by a senior detective and a friend of Ms Bulley, who listened attentively as Mr Faulding explained how the water where police believe she drowned was particularly shallow. 

It comes as a video obtained by MailOnline shows Mr Faulding’s sonar device scanning either side of the riverbank near St Michael’s on Wyre, where she is feared to have fallen in.

The only sound that can be heard on the short clip is the outboard motor on the rear of the inflatable dinghy as the search team slowly meanders along the twisting river. The side scan sonar is able to ‘see’ to the bottom of the river and any major obstacle in its way would be detected on the film.

Mr Faulding was convinced that if he was to find a body it would have been in the area close to where police say Nicola fell into the water.

The expert took MailOnline to the scene and pointed out that the water was fairly shallow – no deeper than 3ft – and covered with jagged rocks.

He said: ‘If this is where Nicola fell in you can see that the water is not particularly deep. There are lots of rocks and if she was in the water she would be able to grab hold of them.

‘No one heard any shouts for help and I just can’t see how she could drown here. 

‘The only possibility is that she fell head first and was knocked out on the rocks, but I don’t see how that could happen.’

Lancashire Police are working on the hypothesis that Nicola slipped into the water and drowned.

But last night police said it was still a ‘possibility’ she left the area by one path not covered by cameras which is crossed by the main road through the village, and officers were trying to trace dashcam footage from 700 drivers who passed along the road at the time she disappeared, around 9.20am. 

They have extended their search 10 miles away towards Fleetwood and the Irish Sea in the belief her body has been swept away from the point of entry in the village of St Michael’s on the Wyre.

Mr Faulding disputes the police theory that the body could have ended up so far away and in the Irish Sea.

Based on his 20 years of experience in finding drowning victims he insisted her body would have remained at the bottom of the river for several days and police would have found her.

His suggestion that a ‘third party’ could be involved and abducted the mother-of-two has put him at loggerheads with the police investigation.

The SGI team packed up their equipment and left the scene on Wednesday after they failed to find any evidence of her body in the water. 

They had used their sonar to look around a weir about 200 metres from the main search area.

He said earlier on Wednesday: ‘We want to sonar the first stretch of the river and if nothing is there then I am happy there is nothing there.

‘My opinion is had Nicola gone in by that bench she would have gone to the bottom and drifted a couple of meters. The police divers who are very professional thoroughly searched that stretch of river and she wasn’t there. There is hardly any current and in my experience, bodies do not move very far.

‘It is not feasible that she could have drifted 15km, not in my experience and this type of tidal river. Things get washed in and washed out. It is very shallow. There is nowhere to go.’

The SGI team have been using a side scan sonar and Mr Faulding said the images it produces are crystal clear.

‘You can see every stick and stone and can give a guarantee that from the bench to the weir she is not there.’

The side scan sonar being used by SGI creates an image of the river bed and is often used in marine archaelogy, environmental science and by the military.

It works by beaming out high frequency sound pulses in a wide fan shape from an dinghy floating on the surface.

The reflected pulses are recorded and processed to produce an image of the river bed and identify different materials and textures.

A member of his team told Mail Online that unlike in many movies where drowning victims are seen floating on the surface of the water that does not happen in real life.

‘When someone drowns and we find them a couple of days later they are almost always on the bottom of the water. Their arms and legs are dangling down, a big like an Octopus shape.

‘The body will remain on the bottom of the river for four or five days, and then depending on the current might start to drift.

‘Unlike what people see in films the body does not instantly float to the surface.’

It comes after some critics accused Mr Faulding of having an ‘ulterior motive’ since making his feelings known, but the forensic expert rebuked the ‘keyboard warriors’, adding that he has devoted his life to trying to find missing people. 

In a sign of tensions between police and Mr Faulding, police superintendent Sally Riley last night stressed that he was not party to all the details of their wider investigation.

She said: ‘Our search has not found Nicola in the river and then a re-search in parts by SGI has found the same. That does not mean… that Nicola has not been in the river.

‘In the light of other inquiries being discounted from the investigation so far… clearly our main belief is that Nicola did fall into the river.

‘Clearly Mr Faulding isn’t included within all the investigation detail any more than the members of the public are that I’m briefing through these sorts of press conferences.’

Mr Faulding later demanded that he be granted such access, adding: ‘If there’s any more facts that we don’t know about – normally we work along the side of the police and if you haven’t got the facts then you can’t conduct a proper search, it is very difficult without that information. Normally, I’m privy to that information… it would be useful to know.’ 

It comes as police have extended the search for Nicola towards the sea after still finding no concrete evidence she fell into the river, while friend of the family Heather Gibbons was among the growing number to question their theory. 

She told MailOnline: ‘It’s natural for everyone to have speculation, because the truth is, in this, nothing is making sense.’

While SGI divers concentrated on the area where Nicola’s phone was found on a bench, finding nothing of interest, other dive teams continue to look further upriver towards Fleetwood and the Irish Sea.

Meanwhile, Supt Riley said the police investigation by her officers had been reviewed by the National Crime Agency (NCA) and they had not found any new line of inquiry that should be pursued.

The police chief warned ‘amateur detectives’ they would be arrested if they were found to be breaking the law while carrying out their own searches.

Abandoned and derelict buildings along the river have been broken into by members of the public carrying out their own investigations.

She added: ‘There are some properties along the riverside which are empty or derelict and whilst it may be well-intentioned that people think that that could be a line of inquiry, I would ask them to desist from doing that.

‘In some cases it may be criminal if they are breaking in, causing damage or committing a burglary.

‘We have gone into derelict property – including ones on the riverside, (and) any under renovation that were empty – with the permission of those owners and their knowledge.’ 

‘Because there is no criminal element yet identified, and we don’t expect there to be in this inquiry, then we’re not starting to go into houses because that’s not where the inquiry is leading us,’ she added.

Seemingly at odds with police, Mr Faulding previously said it was unlikely that Nicola was in the fast flowing River Wyre – adding that it was ‘impossible’ for the 45-year-old to have made it to the sea.

However, The Times reports that he told the newspaper it was in fact possible her body could have reached the sea by now due to the river’s meandering course.

The bay is around 15 kilometres away from where Nicola is believed to have disappeared and where the River Wyre flows into the sea. 

Mr Faulding also slammed ‘keyboard warriors’ who have accused him of having an ‘ulterior motive’ for joining the search last night.

He said: ‘This is what you get for trying to help people. I have given my life to helping families looking for missing loved ones. 

‘Do our job searching in dark murky waters for a drowning victims. My team and I don’t deserve this trash.’

Mr Faulding has also reportedly been ticked off by police over speculating about the disappearance after he said there could be third party involvement. 

Meanwhile, Lancashire Police  continued to rule out any ‘suspicious or criminal’ element on Tuesday.

‘For Nicola to get out to sea would be impossible, literally, it’s such a long way in the 11 days. It’s an awful long way down,’ Mr Faulding said.

Police revealed a team of 40 detectives are currently working on around 500 different lines of inquiry and more than 700 drivers who travelled through the village around the time of Nicola’s disappearance are being traced. 

Speaking at a press conference Tuesday, Supt Sally Riley said police had been supplied with an ‘unprecedented’ amount of information and leads.

She added: ‘At the moment there are around 500 active pieces of information and lines of inquiry that we’re working on to try and find answers for Nicola’s family.

‘This is normal in a missing person inquiry and does not indicate that there is any suspicious element to this story.

‘The inquiry team remains fully open-minded to any information that may indicate where Nicola is or what happened to her.’

But the police chief emphasised that detectives have not yet come across any evidence of foul play.

‘Any criminal or suspicious element has been discarded,’ she said.

‘It is important to stress that any information that comes in that indicates otherwise is being checked out all the time.

‘We are not closed in any way to any particular line of inquiry but all these extensive inquiries, however, have so far found anything of note.’

Detailing the scale of the police inquiry Supt Riley said her team had received thousands of pieces of information ‘from the public, wider community, the Bulley family and friends’.

Officers have conducted house to house inquiries in the village of St Michael’s on the Wyre and hours of CCTV footage has also been analysed.

Police have identified 700 cars that passed through the village around the time Nicola disappeared and each driver is being contacted and asked to check any dash cam footage they might have.

Supt Riley also said police would come down on people making vile comments on social media and speculating about the whereabouts of Nicola.

She added: ‘This is an agonising time for the family, particularly her two little girls. 

‘I would ask everyone to remain constructive and cooperative with the inquiry and not do anything that would thwart us and hold us back from trying to find Nicola.’

But Mr Faulding hit back in an interview on GB News last night, saying all information should be made available to his team. 

‘If you haven’t got the facts then you can’t conduct a proper search. It’s very difficult without that information.

‘Normally I’m privy to that information on a lot of these searches.

‘If there’s more information I certainly don’t know about it and it would be useful to know.’

It comes as family and friends of Nicola have questioned the police theory that she probably fell into the water.

And Mr Faulding said if his team could not locate her in the river then she is not there and he would not rule out ‘third-party involvement’ in her disappearance.

Mr Faulding previously said his ‘gut instinct’ tells him that Nicola is not in the water.

‘I personally think if I rule this stretch of river out today where we’re working I don’t think she’s here, I think there’s probably a third party involved,’ Mr Faulding told Good Morning Britain on Tuesday.

The forensic expert said he has spoken with Nicola’s ‘distraught’ partner Paul Ansell to keep him updated on the search.

He said: ‘I spoke to Paul last night and asked him if she had any enemies, any stalkers, the normal questions you would ask. And nothing, he said no. And she was totally normal that day when she left, nothing out the ordinary.’