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13th Feb 2023

Police search caravan site yards from bench where Nicola Bulley’s phone found

Charlie Herbert

The site is believed to be one of several CCTV ‘blind spots’ identified in the search for the missing mum

Police have been seen searching a caravan site on Monday near to where Nicola Bulley went missing over two weeks ago.

Nicola was last seen walking her cocker spaniel along the River Wyre, Lancashire, at 9.10am on January 27, having earlier dropped her daughters, aged six and nine, at school. Lancashire Police’s “main working hypothesis” is that she accidentally fell into the river, but no trace has been found of her.

Her phone was found on a bench overlooking the river, still connected to a work call.

Police have now been seen searching a caravan site near where the phone was found.

Officers were today photographed at nearby Wyreside Farm Park caravan site, which is closed to the public until March.

The site is believed to be one of several CCTV ‘blind spots’ identified in the search for Ms Bulley.

A friend, named Tilly-Ann, previously wrote in a Facebook post backed by Ms Bulley’s family: “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.”

Police are reportedly widening their investigation to include the day before she went missing. As part of this, they have apparently requested CCTV footage from a local garage that covers one of the exit points from the field where she vanished, the Mirror reports.

It comes as Peter Faulding – the head of the Specialist Group International team that were drafted in by police to help search the river for Nicola – has launched his own “low-key” search for the missing mum.

Faulding has reportedly spoken to Nicola’s family about “deposition sites” – a term referring to a place where someone has been buried.

He told the Express: “I’m talking to the family and obviously have vast experience finding buried bodies. We’ve got to consider all options here, there has been that report of suspicious people hanging around.

“I was frank with Paul and Heather the other day because we need to consider possible deposition sites, we don’t know. I’m not saying the police aren’t doing that and what I don’t want to do is interfere with the police operation.

“Mine (investigation) will be low key, I will just be looking around for possible deposition sites.” Police are continuing trawl the River Wyre towards the sea at Morecambe Bay, working on one hypothesis that Ms Bulley could have fallen in.”

Faulding earlier told the Daily Mail that the “worst mistake” police had made was to declare early on that Nicola had fallen into the river rather than saying “let’s keep lines of enquiry open”. A top detective echoed the same sentiment in an article in wrote for The Times on Sunday.

On Sunday, the 45-year-old’s friends and family, including her partner Paul Ansell, left yellow ribbons with handwritten messages on a bridge close to where she disappeared, and changed their Facebook profile pictures to one calling for information about Nicola.

The Facebook campaign comes after a witness came forward saying they saw two men acting suspiciously close to where Nicola went missing. Police are said to have taken further CCTV footage from a garage close to the spot where Nicola was last seen in St Michael’s on Wyre.

The reports also comes as police stepped up their hunt following reports of a “shabby” red van seen near where she went missing.

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