Nicola Bulley vanished two weeks ago and police no closer to finding her – so what happens now?

As the search extends, there are still more questions than answers in the mysterious case of a missing dog walker, Thomas Kingsley reports

Five hundred lines of inquiry, three potential witnesses approached and one private expert diving team deployed – but still, there is no sign of missing dog walker Nicola Bulley.

Peter Faulding, founder of underwater rescue team Specialist Group International (SGI), said if the 45-year-old was in the River Wyre where she disappeared on Friday 27, January, his team would locate her.

However, after less than five days after joining Lancashire Police’s operation, the group has pulled out of the “baffling” disappearance.

Nicola Bulley has not been seen since 27 January (PA Media)

Police have complained that the operation has been hampered by conspiracy theorists and volunteers who have been breaking into abandoned homes to aid the search, but quite simply after two weeks, there is no trace of the mother of two and no substantial evidence pointing to where she could be.

The last images of Ms Bulley show her loading her car before dropping her children off at school. She left her two girls at the primary school and took her spaniel Willow for a stroll by the river, a walk she’s done countless times as she’s shared on her social media.

She was sighted around 9am that morning but no further information could point toward her disappearance which police believe happened within a 10-minute window.

Lancashire Police say they are keeping an “open mind” about what could have happened to the mortgage advisor but the force revealed that their “main hypothesis” is that Ms Bulley fell into the water while trying to deal with an “issue” with her dog, causing her to go to the edge of the River Wyre and into the water.

The search team working on the River Wyre to find the mother of two (PA Wire)

The officer said a massive amount of police resources had been used to search the surface and under the water of the river and surrounding farmland – including divers, drones and helicopters, but still, after almost two weeks the operation does not feel closer to finding Ms Bulley.

Since the expert divers joined the search on Monday, the downstream and upstream river have been searched thoroughly by police divers on multiple occasions but they still have not found anything.

Peter Faulding told BBC Breakfast: “These are very professional divers and they didn’t find anything and that is the odd thing about this. That is what I can’t get my head around. It is very strange.”

The last image of Ms Bulley loading her car before she went missing (Emma White)

“Normally when we deal with drowning victims they go to the bottom and they will stay there for a while,” he said. “The police divers have done a thorough search of that river twice and nothing was found. This is one of the most odd cases I’ve ever worked on.

“If anything is there, we will find it. A body will move after a time, but they searched that area and came up with nothing – that is what is weird here. We are baffled.”

Lancashire Police has analysed Ms Bulley’s mobile phone and Fitbit as well as searched a derelict house on the other side of the river and empty caravans in the vicinity.

A map shows the distance between the spot where Nicola Bulley went missing and the open sea (Datawrapper/The Independent)

Officers have also trawled through hours of CCTV footage covering several pathways and fields near the area, with a friend of the mother lamenting that the CCTV camera that “would have seen everything” is broken.

Friend Tilly Ann said: “There’s CCTV at the back of the caravan park. The only camera that isn’t working is the one that would have seen everything.”

So what happens now? Lancashire Police’s answer is simple: keep looking.

The north England police force is now extending the search out to the sea after days searching the river.

Ms Bulley’s partner, Paul Ansell, who is said to be “frustrated” with the situation visited the river on Wednesday, while friends of the missing woman said searches of abandoned properties should have happened “straight away.”

On Tuesday, superintendent Sally Riley, of Lancashire Police, said detectives had looked at “every single” potential suspicion or criminal suggestion that had come in and discounted them.

Forensics expert Peter Faulding (L) speaking with Ms Bulley’s partner Paul Ansell (PA Wire)

She spoke after suggestions Ms Bulley’s phone could be a “decoy” and questions were raised about gaps in CCTV coverage of the area where she vanished from.

The lead and harness for Willow, her springer spaniel dog, were also left on or close to the bench.

Police said it was still a “possibility” she left the area by one path not covered by cameras which is crossed by the main road through the village, and officers were trying to trace dashcam footage from 700 drivers who passed along the road at the time she disappeared, around 9.20am.