n underwater search for missing Nicola Bulley is continuing following a fresh appeal by her partner, who said her two daughters “desperately” miss her and “need her back”.
The search for Ms Bulley, 45, is entering its 11th day after she went missing on January 27 in St Michael’s on Wyre, Lancashire.
In a statement released on Monday through Lancashire Police, her partner Paul Ansell said: “I have two little girls who miss their mummy desperately and who need her back.”
Private underwater search experts will begin their second day of searching on Tuesday, using specialist sonar equipment to look for Ms Bulley in the River Wyre after finding nothing on Monday.
Peter Faulding, the head of private diving team Specialist Group International (SGI), said his team of experts and divers – based in Dorking, Surrey – worked with Lancashire Police and searched “three or four miles” of river until it got dark.
“It’s a negative search, no signs of Nicola,” he told the PA news agency.
He said his team will look through another stretch of river on Tuesday “towards where Nicola went originally missing”.
In his statement, Mr Ansell said: “This has been such a tough time for the girls especially but also for me and all of Nicola’s family and friends, as well as the wider community and I want to thank them for their love and support.
“We are also really grateful to Peter and his team from SGI for coming up and helping support the work of Lancashire Police as they continue their investigation.”
The force has searched the river and riverbank all the way to the sea, using search teams, sonar, search dogs, drone, helicopter and CCTV.
On Monday, Lancashire Police released two new images of Ms Bulley on the day she went missing, when she dropped her two daughters, aged six and nine, off at school and then went on her usual dog walk alongside the river.
Her phone, still connected to a Teams call for her job as a mortgage adviser, was found on a bench on a steep riverbank overlooking the water, along with the dog lead, with the dog harness on the ground.
“Our working hypothesis remains that Nicola sadly fell into the river for some reason, but we remain open minded, and we are continuing to carry out a huge number of inquiries,” the force said.
The force is confident, after reviewing CCTV, that Ms Bulley did not leave the field near the river via Rowanwater – either through the site itself or the piece of land at the side – and she did not return from the fields along Allotment Lane or via the path at the rear of the Grapes pub onto Garstang Road.
Officers are now focusing on the river path leading from the fields back to Garstang Road, and urged drivers and cyclists who travelled that way on January 27, as well as anyone with CCTV or Ring Doorbell footage, to contact them.
