Police and members of the community have been looking for missing woman Nicola Bulley for a week, after the mum-of-two disappeared while walking her dog in Lancashire.
Lancashire Police have now said that they believe Nicola is likely to have fallen into the river and that there was no third party involved in her disappearance. They have urged local members of the public to look along the river for items of clothing that she was last seen wearing.
The 45-year-old's family are continuing to plead anyone who may have information to Nicola's whereabouts to get in touch - as they detail the "nightmare" the last week has been. Nicola's parents, Ernest and Dot, appeared on TV with her sister Louise Cunningham - describing how they are "stuck in a nightmare" after Nicola "vanished into thin air".
Read more: Family vow to keep searching for son 30 years after he disappeared from public toilets
Wales Online reports that mortgage adviser Nicola was last seen during a dog walk on Friday (January 27) in the Lancashire village of St Michaels on Wyre. Nicola - known as Nikki - has been missing for a week.
Here is what we know so far:
Nikki was walking her dog Willow
After taking her daughters, aged six and nine, to school, the mum went to walk dog Willow on a towpath overlooking the River Wyre. On Thursday emergency services carried out underwater searches in the river next to the bench where her phone was found.
The mortgage advisor has been on a work conference call and her phone was still logged in when it was discovered. Her microphone and camera had been turned off for the call.
Willow was found near the bench. The dog was dry so it's not believed she had been in the water.
The timeline
8.43am - Nicola walked along a path by the River Wyre after dropping her children off at school.
Around 8:50am - Someone who knows Nicola stopped with their dog to say hello as Nicola was walking around the lower field with her dog.
8.53am - Nicola sent an email to her boss.
9.01am - She logged into a Teams call.
Around 9.10am - Another witness spots Nicola with her dog.
9.30am – The Teams call ended but she remained online.
Around 9.35am - Nicola's mobile phone and dog were found by another dog walker by the river.
Significant text to friend
A friend has revealed Nikki texted about meeting up the following week with her kids. The friend told the Daily Express: “She booked a playdate, 8.57, she sent a text message to a friend whose mortgage she had just recently signed off on to arrange for the girls to go for tea this week.”
The friend said the message indicates that Nicola had no intention of going missing. She said: “You wouldn’t have done that if you were going to get up and go missing."
What police have said
On Friday, Superintendent Sally Riley of Lancashire Police said: “Our main working hypothesis, therefore, is that Nicola has sadly fallen into the river, that there is no third-party or criminal involvement and that this is not suspicious, but a tragic case of a missing person. This is particularly important because speculation otherwise can be really distressing for the family and for Nicola’s children.”
Earlier this week, police traced a witness they wanted to speak with, who was wearing a red and white coat with a fur hood, light trousers and a light bobble hat. She was walking a small white dog.
The force said they wanted to speak to the woman as a witness and nothing more, and say there is nothing to suggest any third-party involvement in Nicola's disappearance.
What the family are saying
Nicola's sister Louise Cunningham, speaking to Sky News, said: "I just can't...if I'm being honest, it feels like I'm just stuck in a nightmare. We're going round and round in circles trying to piece together what could have possibly happened and we've just got to keep such an open mind with everything because we just have no idea where she is.
"It's like she's just vanished into thin air. There's no evidence to point us in any direction. Obviously, my hope is that she's still out there. Something's happened and she's... I don't know, needed to take herself off for whatever reason."
She added: "We just want her home. We need her home, her children need her home. It's just absolutely heartbreaking."
Her father Ernie said: "This has just emptied our lives at the minute, we just feel so empty. We appreciate everything everyone is doing to find her. The police have been brilliant, the local community has been outstanding. But at the end of the day we just want her back."
He added: "We need the public to search their minds for anything they might have seen. The main thing is we want to find Nicola and get her back home. There are two young children there waiting for their mummy to come back. And if Nicola is out there and she's watching this - come home, contact the police. We just want you back."
Asked how much he missed his daughter, Ernie began to cry as he said: "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."
He said that his family hoped their interview would "spark a light" that would lead to finding Nicola.
"We're holding onto this, not our last hope, but this is going to reach out to millions of people, and we're just hoping that from doing this interview that something may come of it which will spark a light and it will lead to us finding our daughter," he said.
How people can help
Family, friends and volunteers are planning to go out with banners at the exact time Nicola disappeared in the hope that it will jog someone's memory. Nicola is white, 5ft 3ins, with light brown shoulder-length hair.
She speaks with an Essex accent. She was last seen wearing a long black gilet jacket with a hood, black jeans and olive-green ankle wellies. Her hair was tied into a ponytail.
Anybody who has seen Nicola, or has information about where she might be, is asked to call 101, quoting log 565 of January 30. For immediate sightings please call 999.
Read next:
- Gateshead man jailed after filming himself punching woman and calling 999 to admit it
- Murder accused Alexander Carr makes first appearance at court over death of Michelle Hanson in Sunderland
- Sunderland burglar who targeted homes and businesses during crime spree jailed
- County Durham son strangled mother and kicked her in genitals during violent attack
- Man on drugs binge chased people with knife in Durham city centre car park after 'rooting' through bins
