THE first CCTV images of missing mum Nicola Bulley on the day she vanished have been released.
Nicola, 45, a mortgage adviser from Inskip, Lancashire, vanished while walking her dog after dropping off her daughters, aged six and nine, at school on Friday, January 27.
4Nicola was last seen walking next to the River WyreCredit: Family/Emma White
4Nicola Bulley is seen on the day she went missing
4The CCTV snaps show her with a ponytail loading her car
4Nicola Bulley, 45, vanished without a trace ten days agoCredit: EnterpriseThe CCTV snaps show her loading her car outside her home before she went for a riverside walk.
She is seen on security footage wearing a long dark coat, leggings and ankle boots with her hair tied in a ponytail.
A friend of Nicola released the CCTV footage in a bid to find her.
On the day she went missing the mum-of-two was wearing an ankle-length black quilted gilet jacket, a black Engelbert Strauss waist-length coat which was worn underneath the gilet, tight-fitting black jeans, long green walking socks tucked into her jeans, ankle-length green Next wellies, a necklace and a pale blue Fitbit.
Today is the tenth day the painstaking day police have been scouring the area the mum-of-two was last seen.
Police believe she may have fallen into the river.
Cops said in recent days their “main working hypothesis” was that Nicola had “sadly fallen” into the icy River Wyre.
Specialist divers have been scouring the River Wyre, while volunteers have joined the search along with mountain rescue, sniffer dogs, drones and police helicopters, but no trace of her has been found.
Her partner Paul Ansell last night begged for help, saying he still held out hope of finding her.
And he added: “There is no evidence yet to suggest any scenario over another and all options must be kept wide open.”
The cops were slammed yesterday by Nicola’s sister Louise Cunningham and friend Emma White for their hypothesis.
The pair explained that there was “no evidence” behind the theory that the mum plunged in while trying to retrieve her dog Willow’s tennis ball.
And Emma pointed out that Nicola didn’t even take Willow’s ball on walks anymore as the pooch would become fixated on the toy, making it hard to walk.
Supt Sally Riley, from Lancashire Police, said they were “as sure as we can be that Nicola has not left the area where she was last seen and that very sadly for some reason she has fallen into the water”.
“There is absolutely nothing to suggest from all the extensive enquiries we have made that anything untoward has happened to her or that there is any third-party involvement in her disappearance.”
Detectives said they were open to new information and criticised online abuse of people who had been helping their inquiry as “totally unacceptable”.
Story Credit: thesun.co.uk