COPS fear Nicola Bulley may have left the river on a path not covered by CCTV as a dive expert admitted he couldn’t find her in the water.
Police have been working on the “hypothesis” that the mum-of-two slipped into the icy water and drowned.
2Police have now said there is a ‘possibility’ missing mum Nicola Bulley left the area on foot
2Police maintain their ‘main working hypothesis’ is the mum-of-two slipped and fell into the riverCredit: WARREN_SMITHBut last night police said it was still a “possibility” she left the area by one path not covered by cameras.
The path is crossed by the main road through the village.
They said officers were trying to trace dashcam footage from 700 drivers who passed along the road at the time she disappeared, around 9.20am on January 27.
It comes after the dive expert scouring the river in the search for Nicola said his team will end their efforts later today.
Peter Faulding said they have done all they can to try and find the missing mum-of-two who vanished on almost two weeks ago.
He told reporters this afternoon: “Wherever she is I hope closure comes soon.
“All the family are clearly distraught.”
Discussing search progress, the dive leader said there is simply “no sign” of Nicola near to where she vanished around St Michael’s on Wyre, Lancashire.
He explained: “We’ve cleared completely the area where the bench is and about a mile up from the bench, where the phone was initially found.
“We’ve run the side scan sonar from here down to the next bridge, which is about three or four miles away and there is no sign of Nicola in that particular area.
“We’ve done very thorough searches all the way down to the weir. I’m totally baffled by this one, to be honest.”
He spent 10-minutes walking the river bank near the bench where Ms Bulley’s phone was found, still connected to a work Teams call.
Nicola, a mortgage adviser from nearby Inskip, was last seen walking her dog at around 9.15am the day she vanished.
She had dropped off her daughters, aged six and nine, at school before heading to the towpath near the River Wyre.
Monday’s search for Nicola focused downstream on the tidal area of the river but Tuesday’s search took place further upstream.
It included and went beyond the area where Nicola’s belongings were found on a bench near Garstang Road.
It is a non-tidal area of the river.
Story Credit: thesun.co.uk