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

I can't believe there has been no forensic examination of the area. In the absence of any physical evidence of a slip into the water, they should be looking at all the exit routes and all possible scenarios. Was she even at the bench? Here phone was but was she seen there?
I think the reason we are all here posting is not as some posters have said that we enjoy armchair speculation. It is because we are deeply concerned for another mum who has vanished into thin air and we want the police to deal with this urgently and thoroughly and leave no stone unturned. Maybe we are wrong but from a distance this investigation looks piss poor and that is putting a woman's life at risk.

Reports in a couple of newspapers state that the river is 15ft deep near the location where she disappeared.

Yes personally I would’ve called the police immediately in that situation not waited until I got home and then try and find out who the dog belonged to first. Better safe than sorry.

And if she went in upstream of the weir she’s surely more likely to be that side of the weir still? The flow over the weir doesn’t look very deep?

Different people do different things. Not sure what I would have done but, with a mobile phone and a dog present, I might assume that the owner is in the bushes somewhere relieving themselves. I doubt I would immediately jump to an assumption that the owner was in trouble.

But if the dog wasn't at the waters edge, so didn't see Nicola go in, what on earth was Nicola doing down by the waters edge anyway? That's the bit that doesn't make sense to me. There was no ball to retrieve (like the spaniel wouldn't have retrieved it's own ball). The dog was dry so hasn't gotten into trouble in the water, with Nicola then going to assist.

At the beginning there was reports that someone found the phone on the grass, they then put it on the bench. Is it possible someone came up behind her, grabbed her, she's grabbed the phone, they've snatched it then thrown it forward away from her and then taken her? This would maybe explain why Willow was found running between the gate and bench.

But that’s what the police have been doing - trying gather as much evidence as possible via cctv, dashcam and witnesses of all of the possible exit routes from the area. It’s a process of elimination- if they can’t find any evidence she left the area, the likelihood is that she fell in the river.

it’s not particularly rare for people to go missing and it turn out they have fallen in a river. For whatever reason this case has garnered a huge amount of media attention whilst other cases barely make the local news.

It seems like the police effort has been extensive to me.

@prh47bridge depends if those photos are taken at low or high tide! I could well see a decent high tide raising the water level above the weir!
I live alone a similar type of river. I can tell you for a fact that at times there is significant pressure on the river for at least 5 miles further than it would be considered tidal!

Is it possible someone came up behind her, grabbed her, she's grabbed the phone, they've snatched it then thrown it forward away from her and then taken her?

Highly unlikely given there was no evidence of a disturbance at the scene. If she has gone with an assailant it’s either willingly or under duress i.e. at gunpoint.

As this is described as the limit of the tidal river, I would have thought there would be very little rise and fall in the water level at this point. Without a weir, yes, there would continue to be pressure upstream.

It is perhaps worth noting that the point where she disappeared is about 400m below the point where the River Brock flows into the River Wyre.

Wouldn’t the dog have followed the owner if that was the case? Or be sat still if following a command to stay.

I can understand more if the person was elderly or something though, and maybe panicked or didn’t have a mobile phone. We don’t know when they called about the dog - whether it was straight away or after their appointment (it sounds like there was a large gap where the dog was left unattended before someone came out).

Yes its very strange why she would indeed go near the edge or into the water.. it certainly is a mystery..

This guys sounds like he knows what he's talking about and he seems very sure about his theory. I reckon he's right.

I think they need maybe more equipment more teams to do the river searching

He isn't a forensic expert in drownings. His claimed expertise is in confined space rescue and forensic search. He runs a company that specialises in specialist rescue, underwater search, forensic search and removing protesters.

I'm talking about what I might have thought. I doubt I would have spent much time analysing the dog's behaviour. However, my two dogs would not follow me into the bushes if I went to relieve myself. They would only follow if they thought I was leaving.

I think the phone being on the ground at some point could be a sign of a struggle on its own. Unfortunately we will never know about any real and tangible evidence at the scene as the police didn't manage the scene properly imo.

At least 25 minutes from 9.10am where she can't be accounted for until that woman came across Willow and the phone. The police not informed until 10.50. Loads of time for anyone to do anything, especially now we know the 'one and only' camera that would have seen everything wasn't working. How convenient

@prh47bridge @CromwellsPetHate @oakleaffy

The ‘expert’ respects & collaborates with other Police forces to this same end. His confidence, professionalism & track record, appears to speak for itself.

Surely it’s a no brainier to engage? He clearly speaks from experience & knows how to handle the sophisticated equipment, which sounds like a bit of an art form.

This will be solved & brought to a conclusion with timely, professional, collaboration. No time for egos, etc. (Not suggesting that’s case but also true. I have seen investigations go awry because of them).

I don't believe Nicola is in the river anymore than her family do without a shred of evidence... however, I think wherever she is it's probably a scenario no one has even thought of and there's every reason to believe she's alive...

I'm not sure the expert who says she isn't in river isn't just trying to drum up business and raise his company's profile. Maybe I'm being cynical.

I did not claim he does not have expertise. I would need to investigate his claims carefully before offering an opinion. As for being a no brainer to engage, I would hope the police only bring in external experts when their own equipment and experts are insufficient. If we think every disappearance near a river should result in this person's company being brought in, he would be working on thousands of cases a year. Since almost all missing people turn up within a week of disappearing, that would clearly be a huge waste of money.

Nicola Bulley has, of course been missing for longer than that. The most likely explanations are that she drowned or that she has voluntarily gone missing. She may have been murdered or abducted but, in the absence of evidence, that remains an unlikely scenario.

Like so many other people, I keep thinking about Nicola and her girls …. It’s such an awful awful situation. Nothing adds up… why would she go near the water if her dog wasn’t in? Why are the police making national appeals for particular witnesses when it’s clear they could just ask locally? I hope she is found soon 🙏

It is an exceptionally odd case. The Police have a theory, but apparently there is no basis.

I can't get over the fact that both witnesses sought by police, lady in red coat and lady in yellow coat, both said they had already spoken to police before the appeals. Things like this are adding to the already huge speculation, I can't understand what's going on.

Is it a sign that the police are a bit incompetent? Surely if they have already been spoken to, the police would have known that and also would have known exactly who these women were, so why the public appeals? Is none of this information meant for us? Like the evil bastard Huntley, the police did stuff publicly but it was part of a plan to nail Huntley. Is this what's happening here?

What is like to understand more, is how easy is it to drown if you fall close to a river bank? I obviously understand that you can go into shock etc, but would this not be a it less likely given that she had many layers on (giving her an extra few minutes of warmth).

If she'd fallen in, presumably it would have been right by the bank. Wouldn't she just have surfaced and been able to grab the sides? The biggest issue would have been getting any traction onto a muddy bank to climb out.

However, if the bank was so muddy that it would be hard to climb out, then wouldn't there be footprint marks from when she'd fallen in??