The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
‘No crime’ evidence, say police
No evidence of a crime has been found in the investigation into Nicola Bulley’s disappearance, a police chief said, as he criticised “ill-informed speculation” that had distracted detectives.
Lancashire Police Assistant Chief Constable Peter Lawson defended his force’s investigation into the case of the missing mother-of-two at a press conference yesterday.
Ms Bulley disappeared while walking her springer spaniel, Willow, in the Lancashire village of St Michael’s on Wyre after she dropped her two daughters, aged six and nine, at school on January 27.
Setting out the details of the probe in more detail than police “normally” would, he said the scale has been “unprecedented”.
Nearly 40 detectives have sifted through hundreds of hours of CCTV, dashcam footage and tipoffs from the public.
And Mr Lawson said: “There is no evidence to indicate a criminal aspect or third-party involvement in Nicola’s disappearance.”
He added: “We’ve shared more detail in this conference than would normally be the case but we intended, by doing so – both in terms of the scale of the investigation and the resources and the intensity of it and something around Nicola’s vulnerabilities – that we are able
to counter some of... the illinformed speculation and conjecture that has at times distracted the investigation from what ought to have been its priorities.
“It has been a distraction. That is potentially damaging to the investigation.”
Senior investigating officer Detective Superintendent Rebecca Smith said her officers were being “inundated with false information, accusations and rumours”, which are “distracting” them from finding Ms Bulley, as she went through her decisionmaking process in detail.
She said the 45-year-old was designated a “high-risk” missing person because of a “number of specific vulnerabilities” and her “main working hypothesis” was still that the 45-year-old fell into the River Wyre.