Woman who police sought over Nicola Bulley's disappearance saw nothing

February 3, 2023

EXCLUSIVE: Another blow for Nicola’s family: ‘Lady in red’ who police sought over disappearance of dog walker ‘told officers she did not come into contact with her’ – as sibling makes heartfelt plea to ‘get my sister back’

Nicola Bulley, 45, disappeared on Friday morning as she was walking her dog
Follow MailOnline’s live blog for updates as the search enters its seventh day

The family of missing mother Nicola Bulley have been dealt a devastating blow after the ‘lady in red’ who police spoke with revealed she knew nothing of significance.

Police issued a public appeal for a woman seen in CCTV wearing a red coat on River Wyre around the time Ms Bulley vanished last Friday morning.

They later revealed she’d been identified.

Now, MailOnline can reveal the 67-year-old woman told police she did not see Ms Bulley during her walk.

A friend of the woman’s said: ‘She didn’t see anything unfortunately and she’s told the police that. They spent about 40-minutes with her this evening.’

MailOnline can reveal the 67-year-old woman in the red coat told police she did not see Ms Bulley during her walk

This picture from Ms Bulley’s Strava account shows the River Wyre route where she was last seen was one she would take often

An emotional Miss Cunningham insisted: ‘People don’t just vanish into thin air’

The woman – who police hoped could provide key pieces of information in the search for Ms Bulley – does not travel as far as the bench where the missing mother’s phone and dog were found.

‘The security camera footage that she was caught on was taken from the caravan park next to the towpath.

‘That’s as far as she goes, she doesn’t walk her dog further along the footpath than that point.’

It’s a devastating blow for Ms Bulley’s family, who have been waiting with bated breath for updates in the investigation.

In the appeal to track down the woman yesterday, a spokesman for Lancashire Police said: ‘She is described as wearing a red and white coat with a fur hood, light-coloured trousers and a light bobble hat.

‘She was walking a small, white dog. The woman was seen on CCTV at around 8.48am on Allotment Lane, close to where Nicola was last seen and was also seen near to the gate at the end of Allotment Lane.’

However the friend said: ‘Their paths did not cross, she has no information on where Nicola could be sadly.’

Ms Bulley’s sister Louise Cunningham made a heartfelt plea yesterday, saying she needed to ‘get my sister back’.

The bench where Ms Bulley is thought to have left her mobile phone before she vanished

It’s been seven days now since the mother of two vanished while walking her dog, springer spaniel Willow, on a towpath by the River Wyre

Nicola Bulley’s sister, Louise Cunningham, father, Ernest, and mother, Dot, appeal for help finding her

Ms Bulley’s Strava account reveals route was one she often took

Joining her family for a round of television interviews, she said: ‘Something has got to have been missed. Somebody must know something. People don’t just vanish into thin air.

‘There has got to be somebody who knows something and all we are asking is, no matter how small or big, if there is anything you remember that doesn’t seem right, then please reach out to the police. Get in touch and get my sister back.’

Miss Cunningham said her family felt they were ‘stuck in a nightmare’.

‘We’re going round in circles to piece together what happened. We’ve got to keep an open mind,’ she told ITV News.

‘We have no idea where she is. There’s no evidence to point us in any direction.

‘My hope is that she’s still out there. We just want her home. Her children need her home. It’s heartbreaking. We’re such a close knit family, we’d do anything for any one of us.

‘Somebody must know something, people don’t just vanish. If there’s anything you might have seen, please get in touch with the police.’

Her Strava account reveals it’s a route she took often and knew well, generally completing the loop in about 30 minutes

Police have issued this handout illustrating the route Ms Bulley took

Police divers scoured the river again yesterday, searching for clues relating to Ms Bulley’s disappearance

Ms Bulley often shared photos of her runs with Willow on her Strava page, like this picture

Police released a detailed timeline of the 45 minutes leading up to Ms Bulley’s disappearance on Friday morning.

The mother-of-two first started walking along the path lining the River Wyre, in Lancashire, at 8.43am, having already dropped her daughters, aged six and nine, off at school.

Her Strava account reveals it’s a route she took often and knew well, sharing pictures of her Spaniel Willow frolicking in the field and in the river. On average, it’d take her about 30 minutes to complete the loop and return to her car, which her family say she parked in the same spot about ‘1000 times over’ through the years.

By 8.50am on Friday morning, she’d bumped into another dog walker on the path.

The pair were known to one another and had a brief interaction as their dogs played. The witness left the field a short time later via the river path.

At 8.53am, Ms Bulley emailed her boss and by 9.01am she was logged into her Teams call. Her camera was off and audio muted as she listened in.

Pictured: A police officer guarding the entrance to the path where Ms Bulley was last seen

Police divers scoured the river again today, searching for clues relating to Ms Bulley’s disappearance

Nicola Bulley’s partner, Paul, tried to gently break the news of her disappearance to their two daughters, who are now confused and continuing to ask their grandparents when she is coming home

By approximately 9.10am, a second witness recognised Ms Bulley in the distance. Police are working to try to narrow down this timeframe.

Timeline: Mystery of mother who vanished while walking her dog

January 27

8.43am – Nicola Bulley walked along the path by the River Wyre, having dropped her two children off at school

8:50am (approximately) – A dog-walker – somebody who knows Nicola – saw her walking around the lower field with her dog. Their two dogs interacted briefly before the witness left the field via the river path

8.53am – She sent an email to her boss

9.01am – She logged into a Teams call

9.10am (approximately) – A witness – somebody who knows Nicola – saw her on the upper field walking her dog, Willow. Work is ongoing today to establish exactly what time this was.

9.30am – The Teams call ended but Nicola stayed logged on

9.35am (approximately) – Nicola’s mobile phone and Willow were found at a bench by the river by another dog-walker.

The dog’s harness was found on a bench along with her phone, which is still connected to a work conference call. The dog’s lead was on the floor.

10.15am – The alarm is raised around an hour later by a walker who finds her springer spaniel Willow running lose.

Jan 28 – Feb 2 – Police hunt for Ms Bulley, including by searching the stretch of river where she was last seen.

Then, at 9.30am, the Teams meeting ended. Ms Bulley stayed logged onto the chat room. By 9.35am, her phone and Willow were found deserted on a nearby bench by another dog-walker.

Lancashire Constabulary released a CCTV image of a woman in a red coat walking a white dog, who is believed to have been in St Michael’s on Wyre when Ms Bulley disappeared on January 27. In an update, the force said she has been identified.

The dog walker who found the phone earlier said she recognised Willow but couldn’t remember where from, and called her daughter who raised the alarm with Ms Bulley’s long term partner, Paul Ansell.

Ms Bulley would often track her walking route on Strava, sharing her times and pictures of the walks with her friends on the app.

She last recorded a 4.1km run along the river, completed over 42-minutes, last November.

Photos show her dog, Willow, scampering through the muddy river now at the centre of the police investigation.

Police continued to scour the riverbank today, with divers searching the water.

Ms Bulley’s heartbroken family broke down in tears today as they pleaded for help to trace her, saying: ‘People don’t just vanish into thin air’.

Miss Bulley’s father, Ernest, 73, said: ‘This has emptied our lives. We appreciate everything everyone is doing to find her. It’s given us hope that someone might find something.

‘There’s two young children that want their mummy back. If Nicola is out there, just come home – contact the police or ourselves.

‘The kids know their mum is coming home, they’re thinking everyone’s looking for her – so it’s only a matter of time.’

Beginning to cry, he continued: ‘Don’t, it’s hard… we’re such a close knit family.

‘We’re a close knit family, we’d do anything for any one of us and the children would do the same for us.

‘We’re getting on in life, and the grandchildren, and our own children, are more and more important to us as we’re getting older. So, yeah, I just hope she comes home.’

Two officers help a police diver up a river bank where searches are continuing for missing mother Nicola Bulley

A diver has been searching the water while teams on the river bank use a 20-foot-long probe attached to an underwater camera

Police have been on the river for several days amid fears that Ms Bulley could have fallen in

Pictures taken this afternoon show an officer standing guard by a small mud path near to where Nicola Bulley disappeared

He said that his family hoped their interview would ‘spark a light’ that would lead to finding Ms Bulley.

Specialist teams from the police and other emergency services continue to search the area near the River Wyre including divers and underwater drones.

Officers are combing the riverbed near the bench on which Ms Bulley’s mobile phone was found and where her dog was later retrieved by a local resident.

Trees and foliage which hang over the river are also being checked for any items of interest.

A solo police diver spent an hour in the River Wyre this morning, using a head torch to search through the murky water.

Nicola Bulley live search updates: Latest as hunt continues for missing mother

She emerged on to the bank just after 12.30pm this afternoon without finding anything of note.

Another police diver was seen being readied to enter the river and take over the underwater search.

A police source told MailOnline: ‘The underwater teams are performing what’s known as an arc search, whereby they monitor the riverbed by moving in a side-to-side motion from bank to bank.

‘As of yet nothing of significance has been found but it’ll be a long, thorough process.’

The stretch of river close to where Ms Bulley was in the village of St Michael’s on Wyre is about nine miles east of the estuary in Fleetwood.

Ms Bulley was last seen walking her spaniel Willow at about 9.15am last Friday along the River Wyre in Lancashire while dialled into a business call.

The night before her disappearance, she had been planning a spa trip with her sister Louise and discussing what treatments they’d get, according to her mother Dot.

At the time, her parents were looking after her daughters while Ms Bulley took a business call. She was ‘upbeat’, having recently secured a new client at work.

Recalling their last conversation, Ernest, told The Mirror: ‘I said we better go now and Nicola came to the front door, and I gave her a kiss and told her I loved her and that was the last conversation I had with her.’

Both Ernest and Ms Bulley’s mother, Dot, 72, said their daughter’s disappearance was out of character and revealed that they asked police if ‘there is any chance’ she has been abducted.

Asked about their daughter’s state of mind in recent days, the couple said there had been absolutely nothing out of the ordinary.

She had no health problems that they knew of and was enjoying her job.

Ms Bulley, who ‘lived for her children’, had also bought tickets to watch them perform in choir and gymnastics shows in recent weeks, Dot added.

The diver gestures to colleagues on the river bank as they prepare to haul her up the slope

A drone photo from February 1, when police searched an ‘abandoned’ old house and the surrounding areas

Officers are combing the riverbed near to the bench on which Ms Bulley’s mobile phone was found and where her dog was later retrieved by a local resident

A police source told MailOnline: ‘The underwater teams are performing what’s known as an arc search, whereby they monitor the riverbed by moving in a side-to-side motion from bank to bank’

Ernest broke down as he told how hard it was to be in the same room as his granddaughters, aged six and nine, as they continue to ask questions about their mother’s whereabouts.

‘When I look at the kids, I have to go out of the room because I can’t hold it together,’ he said.

‘They are asking where Mummy is and when is Mummy coming home? It’s so hard.’

The family say the girls were ‘sobbing their hearts out’ when their father Mr Ansell tried to explain to them that ‘Mummy is lost’.

‘We don’t know how long we can keep going before they realise. They think Mummy is coming home soon, but if this keeps going on I don’t know what we’re going to say to them.’

Ernest and Ms Bulley’s extended family have questioned whether she was taken from the river bank, given there were ‘no signs’ that she’d slipped or fallen into the water and zero clues as to where she could be.

The stretch of river close to where Ms Bulley was in the village of St Michael’s on Wyre is about nine miles east of the estuary in Fleetwood

The night before her disappearance, Ms Bulley had been planning a spa trip with her sister, Louise, and discussing what treatments they’d get

A message left with a bunch of flowers on the banks of the River Wyre

Police today on the banks of the River Wyre as the search for Ms Bulley continues

When Willow was found, she was ‘bone dry’ – meaning she had not entered the water – but appeared to be distressed by something.

Police say they remain ‘open-minded’ as to Ms Bulley’s disappearance but do not believe at present that she was attacked.

Rescuers have so far focused their efforts on a tidal stretch of the river amid fears she may have fallen in and been washed out towards the coast at Fleetwood, some nine miles away.

Friends of Ms Bulley say that the doting mother would have never willingly left her family.

Police search teams walk up to the banks of the River Wyre

A bench near to the spot where the mother of two was last seen while walking her dog

The search continues for Nicola Bulley, who was last seen on Friday morning walking her dog

Rescue teams scoured the area near Garstang Road for clues over the 45-year-old’s mysterious disappearance last week

Woman who police sought over Nicola Bulley's disappearance saw nothing

EXCLUSIVE: Another blow for Nicola’s family: ‘Lady in red’ who police sought over disappearance of dog walker ‘told officers she did not come into contact with her’ – as sibling makes heartfelt plea to ‘get my sister back’

Ms Bulley’s Strava account reveals route was one she often took

Timeline: Mystery of mother who vanished while walking her dog

Nicola Bulley live search updates: Latest as hunt continues for missing mother

READ MORE: Friends fear Nicola Bulley ‘slipped down steep and muddy riverbank’ while walking her dog

READ MORE: Girls aged nine and six ‘cried their eyes out’ after their distraught father had to tell them ‘mummy’s lost’