Found Deceased UK - Nicola Bulley Last Seen Walking Dog Near River - St Michaels on Wyre (Lancashire) #2

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Thank you. That does then make me think there was someone else involved unless the headphones were recovered and it hasn’t been reported. In my opinion they would have been removed by her leaving them attached to the phone on the bench if she had to quickly rescue the dog.
That is the difficulty of these investigations the small details which we may never know will provide all the clues to actually what happened. It is a good call about the headphones something i have not considered. IMO
 
Hi everyone. I haven’t seen this mentioned but do we know if the phone found was her work phone? Many companies provide work mobiles now for accessing teams calls etc. especially with more people working from home. I just wonder if she had another phone with her that morning. If I had gone to help my dog near the water I would definitely have grabbed my phone quickly before doing so.
My thoughts exactly re the phone. IMO you would instinctively grab it and put it in your pocket, as an instinctive reflex move. I've definitely been in scenarios where something unexpected has alerted my attention while I was in my phone, but my first course of action is always to put my phone in my pocket/bag. One thing I wondered this morning was did NB potentially put her phone down on the bench while listening to said meeting call? Then again, I'm not massively convinced was sat on the bench with her phone. I'm tending towards a previous poster's theory that someone came up behind her while she was walking and/or definitely the above poster's theory that NB may have dropped her phone out of shock if someone caught her unaware and prompted her to suddenly turn around. Hence why I'm keen to know what state/condition the phone was found in.
 
This story is now becoming a major news item and police need to clarify the circumstances with a detailed press conference outlining exactly what they know about in order to end the media inaccuracies which is becoming a distraction. There have been some great questions on this thread which if answered would paint a very different picture of her last known movements.
The police don’t have to though.
We (public) aren’t entitled to know everything. There are reasons the police don’t tell us all the details. For example in case something has to be corroborated down the line. If they’d released that ‘fact’ then it becomes common knowledge and they can’t use it to sort of ‘test’ a suspect. It’s hard to explain!

But I get it’s extremely frustrating when media seems to sometimes not quote the correct thing. That’s why it’s best maybe to only focus on what the Lancs police have told us.
 
How likely is it the the empty house fits into this since it's on the opposite side of the river? Unlikely NB was taken there.
 
The police don’t have to though.
We (public) aren’t entitled to know everything. There are reasons the police don’t tell us all the details. For example in case something has to be corroborated down the line. If they’d released that ‘fact’ then it becomes common knowledge and they can’t use it to sort of ‘test’ a suspect. It’s hard to explain!

But I get it’s extremely frustrating when media seems to sometimes not quote the correct thing. That’s why it’s best maybe to only focus on what the Lancs police have told us.
Yep. Quite often police will say that they don't believe it was suspicious when they know it was.
 
So, if we table the 'going into the water' (for whatever reason) theory for a moment. What are peoples other theories or scenarios as to where she's got to for a week plus, who else is involved (hypothetically) <modsnip - topic not open for discussion>
 
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I wholeheartedly believe that Willow - a spaniel, like a child - if she saw her mum get in to the river, she'd go follow. I also believe that if her mum was in the river, then that wonderful spaniel nose would follow a trail to the river and or instinctively know she was in there. That it seems Willow was dry so she never once entered the water is very telling to me, a spaniel mum.

ETA: to clarify, I believe if Willow didn't see NB enter the river, then she'd follow her nose!
 
If she bent down BEFORE she got to the bench to take Willow’s harness off, was crouched down and someone came up behind her hence the phone being found behind the bench? Wasn’t there a gate that Willow may not have been able to follow through? But then surely someone would have seen two people in a struggle, it would be incredibly difficult not to be seen at all.
 
The stretch of slope below the bench looks to be relatively gradual initially, then to drop away more steeply immediately before the water, with a drop of around 1-2 metres. If the water is as shallow as it appears, I wonder if she may have gone in head first and hit her head on the bottom, knocking herself out. If conscious it does seem likely she'd have been able to get out relatively easily, even considering the cold water, unless she was badly injured.

One thing that puzzles me is how the police can distinguish between an accident in which she ended up in the water, and an attack in which she ended up in the water. I get that an abduction is fairly unlikely because of the difficulty in getting her away from that location without being seen, but an assault in which she fell in the water during the struggle surely wouldn't look all that different to an accident. At any rate, for her to leave her phone behind means that whatever happened must have been quite sudden and unexpected.
 
Do we know if the dog had any sort of processing by LE just to further rule out another party being involved? A relatives death first appeared suspect thankfully it wasn’t but their dog was taken it as evidence for a while anyway. I suppose it may be different without a body or enough evidence of foul play.
 
If NB has gone into the water by accident and she was well on the way in, the dog would most likely be wet and there would be some evidence due to the size of the bank and depth of the water , that said if she wasn't well or something else then she could easily have not been able to get out or save herself , but for this to be the case I think she would have likely emerged by now due to the river not being deep and fast flowing.

There should be more evidence in the location of the bench of what occured , but it seems on the face of it , no struggle , no incident other than she is missing without her phone .

I do think the placement of the phone is key , on the bench likely to mean she or the perp put it down , on the floor near the bench means dropped or discarded and there is foul play or an urgent action.

Headphones and bobble hat interesting as well, as both likely to be local if she went I to the water , can we establish how far the search has gone and in which direction ?

I think it's unlikely that NS has entered the water else where due to a chase or similar as the phone seems to have been left or placed on the bench with willow likely tied to the bench (later go loose).

I know it's crude but did she have an urgent need for the toilet and slip in else where along the bank (as a man I've done it), after all it is secluded.

All just my theory and guesses.
 
The police don’t have to though.
We (public) aren’t entitled to know everything. There are reasons the police don’t tell us all the details. For example in case something has to be corroborated down the line. If they’d released that ‘fact’ then it becomes common knowledge and they can’t use it to sort of ‘test’ a suspect. It’s hard to explain!

But I get it’s extremely frustrating when media seems to sometimes not quote the correct thing. That’s why it’s best maybe to only focus on what the Lancs police have told us.
In a case like this, a story gets a life of its own and the media understandably want to report everything as quickly as possible. Sometimes the truth gets lost amid the speculation. After a few says the story gets skewed and confuses the investigation.
There may be facts the police hold back but given the nature of the appeal for information, it seems they are keen to get a direction from the public for the inquiry to go in.
 
The stretch of slope below the bench looks to be relatively gradual initially, then to drop away more steeply immediately before the water, with a drop of around 1-2 metres. If the water is as shallow as it appears, I wonder if she may have gone in head first and hit her head on the bottom, knocking herself out. If conscious it does seem likely she'd have been able to get out relatively easily, even considering the cold water, unless she was badly injured.

One thing that puzzles me is how the police can distinguish between an accident in which she ended up in the water, and an attack in which she ended up in the water. I get that an abduction is fairly unlikely because of the difficulty in getting her away from that location without being seen, but an assault in which she fell in the water during the struggle surely wouldn't look all that different to an accident. At any rate, for her to leave her phone behind means that whatever happened must have been quite sudden and unexpected.
I've thought of this scenario too, where she fell into the river because of someone else possibly but like... why would that happen? It would be much more likely for somebody to try to take her (usually rape/assault or/and murder that follows), but I can't think in what instance that would happen where somebody would randomly attack her/push her in. Especially since her phone and dog were left there.
 
The stretch of slope below the bench looks to be relatively gradual initially, then to drop away more steeply immediately before the water, with a drop of around 1-2 metres. If the water is as shallow as it appears, I wonder if she may have gone in head first and hit her head on the bottom, knocking herself out. If conscious it does seem likely she'd have been able to get out relatively easily, even considering the cold water, unless she was badly injured.

One thing that puzzles me is how the police can distinguish between an accident in which she ended up in the water, and an attack in which she ended up in the water. I get that an abduction is fairly unlikely because of the difficulty in getting her away from that location without being seen, but an assault in which she fell in the water during the struggle surely wouldn't look all that different to an accident. At any rate, for her to leave her phone behind means that whatever happened must have been quite sudden and unexpected.
Agreed. The absence of signs of a struggle or a slip doesn't mean there wasn't one. Similarly the well-intentioned reassuring comments of the Fleetwood Sgt aren't helpful. There is nothing here yet to eliminate the possibility of third party involvement.
 
Which part of the bank is sloping in the photo? I don't see anything to hold onto, do you?

Is 'no current or flow' fact or a guess?

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https://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/...skip-mum-entered-its-fifth-day-4008800?page=3

I am struggling with a couple of things

While I agree it is technically possible to drown in there, it's not very likely for a healthy middle aged woman.

If it's misadventure, and she went in the water, you'd expect she would have been found close by

If she were attacked, where is she? I am struggling with the idea she is removed from the locality - not so easy!

In every case, we seem to be dealing with some kind of low probability event, as the obvious things are being eliminated.

You have to wonder if she left under her own power, but that seems unusual with the dog and the phone.
 
In a case like this, a story gets a life of its own and the media understandably want to report everything as quickly as possible. Sometimes the truth gets lost amid the speculation. After a few says the story gets skewed and confuses the investigation.
There may be facts the police hold back but given the nature of the appeal for information, it seems they are keen to get a direction from the public for the inquiry to go in.
I’m thinking the previous nights meeting in Harding may have significance.<modsnip - not victim friendly> It is a coincidence this happened the very evening before she went missing.

If there was foul play then everything found at the bench may have been carefully placed there .. away from any crime scene further along. She obviously went for her usual walk but as somebody else mentioned, her usual timings meant that she started out at 8.45.
The dog may have been deliberately set loose by any perpetrator but the dog will naturally have hung around the owner or the owners belongings. This tells me that NB may have been taken by car/ van. Just my thoughts though… I have 2 spaniels and this case hits home
 
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