Missing woman

[MyOldCaravan]

BBC News - Nicola Bulley: Partner describes perpetual hell over missing mum
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-64450243

Just been reading about this. How awful for her partner and children. Really hope she is found soon

That's why I felt it important earlier on to stress that this isn't just some picturesque village a million miles from anywhere. It's being framed like that in the news but the truth is all sorts of people pass through.

I'm assuming one of the first things the police did would be to check exactly who was staying at the caravan park for example the night before.

The dog must have been barking mad and giving indication of the direction she took. There must be foot prints all over because it has been dry. It's unimaginable to attack a woman with her dog.

Such a worry for the people who live there. I know I wouldn't feel safe until I knew she hadn't been purposely harmed.

Sorry but if they had been searching that river with drones and technology for almost a week ...after being alerted almost immediately...and it doesn't look fast flowing right now, she hasn't fallen in the water.

Something not right here.

Well I hope you're wrong because any evidence that might've been there won't be any longer. A channel 5 news reporter was actually sitting on the bench making his report today.

I'm surprised there's been no mention on the news of the nearby campsite, it's the closest place to where she went missing.

No. There are people searching it, up to where it comes out at Fleetwood. That area, and another area a little further up the coast are also being heavily monitored. That's where things often wash up due to the tides.

The river is very twisty, and there's lots of things at water level, and below where a body can get caught up, so, if it is the case that someone does drown, it can be some time (weeks even) before they are discovered.

While the water level, on the pictures circulating doesn't look too high, that area often floods, way above the banks. Those who live close by will know of the devastating floods there just over a year ago.

Absolutely crazy. I guess sadly the most likely outcome is that there’s been a tragic accident. However, why are the police continuing to say they don’t suspect an attack, yet the family comments seem to be saying they think otherwise? Even their earlier comment about the house opposite and that being the police’s job to search. Why put that statement out to the press if they are in agreement it’s not foul play? I understand we are merely speculating and there could be things even the family don’t know, but keeping information from the family would be more likely if it was a criminal investigation surely.

The Daily Mail have this as the top story and are focusing visuals on the large abandoned gloomy looking estate. The BBC are not updating.

Thing is, to get to that house she'd have to come back out onto the main road and walk all the way round. She'd have been spotted, surely?
It's impossible to ford the river and the wall on the other side is huge.

When would you ever leave your phone on a bench, especially in a place where lots of people walking by? There must be pockets on her clothes where she could have put it. Did she worry it might get wet as she was approaching the river?

I think the parents comments need to be taken in context. No doubt they are absolutely traumatised - they are likely clutching at straws (understandably) - because it’s technically a better option that she has been abducted (as she could be alive) rather than she has already drowned and they are just trying to recover a body. Devastating.

True, but she was using the phone on a conference call with work.
Odds are she went in the river, but its not implausible that she had the phone in her hand on the bench and then was abducted.

I think it’s also important to stick to what the police are saying rather than the tabloids who are just monetising this “opportunity” by slicing and dicing the few facts to generate click bait.

Was this a work phone? Does she have another personal phone? I wonder if either are traceable?

I assume personal phone as the person who found it rang school I think.

It would seem plausible that she put the phone on the bench to hear the conference call while she was sitting there but then she’s gone near the river to either help the dog or coax it back from the edge and somehow gone in herself.

I think it's fair to say the chances that she went into the water are slim.

Woman who found the dog has stated it was bone dry (not too long after Nicola was last seen) and Nicola looked to be a fit woman so even if she had some reason gone to the edge and slipped which wouldn't have been to save the dog and which you'd expect the police would be experienced to find evidence of, it's unlikely she would have been swept away considering the dept and calmness and it being low tide. Similarly certainly not deep enough to try to commit suicide by jumping in.

I think that's a red herring.

Could be someone planned it to look like that.
If she walked that route routinely and someone knew her movements?

Easy enough to distract a dog with something smelly to eat downwind and someone to have come up behjnd her if she was wearing headphones while on her phone. Don't know how if someone had taken her, they'd have got her out of the area though.

I just hope for her family's sake that the police had good reason for not considering that line of enquiry and haven't wasted valuable time.

Is her current partner the father of her children?

Hopefully she doesn't have an existing mental health condition and police focused on that as a cause rather than alternative scenarios. Like at the doctors, once anxiety is mentioned in your medical record they have a tendency to assume any symptoms and pain you worry about is due to anxiety and not investigate without bias.

They have been together 12 years. Her children are 9 and 6. I therefore presume he is their father.

I'm sure the police will be looking at all possibilities but, given that mental health issues, diagnosed or undaignosed, are implicated in 8 out of 10 disappearances, they would be wrong to ignore that.

@ofwarren the person who found her dog first phoned her daughter who then got in touch with the partner. The person who found the dog didn't take the dog. She tied it up because she had an appointment to go to. As the partner made his way to the dog. Another two people came across willow loose and worried and found the leash/harness and phone on the ground by the bench, they recognised the screensaver as NB and then the husband arrived and straight away called 999.

The wife of the 70 yr old man who police appealed to as a witness said there were about 3 people on the field including her husband.

That leaves one person unaccounted for, surely...? Man, Nicola, one other?

It's got to be an abduction. Why would police rule that out?! I don't get it. Any police on here that can suggest why?

The Times -

"She was last seen at 9.15am on a footpath by the River Wyre by a man walking his labrador. The wife of the man said she would regularly see Bulley as they both walked their dogs along the same stretch of the river each day, on a circuit that took about ten minutes to complete.

On the day Bulley went missing, the woman’s husband was walking their dog and saw Bulley as she was beginning her walk at about 9.15am. The police have spoken to the man.

His wife, 57, a software engineer, who did not wish to be named, said: “In the field there were about three people, including my husband. He said there was nothing unusual about her and she seemed completely normal."

Thank you
I'd heard a few versions saying that willow was tied up so this is very helpful to clear up what actually happened.

If she was abducted though, wouldn't willow have tried to follow?
It's like she's just vanished