Found Deceased UK - Nicola Bulley Last Seen Walking Dog Near River - St Michaels on Wyre (Lancashire) #17

[cottonweaver]

But there don’t look to be ‘ banks’ of reeds at that part of the river in the footage? A partially submerged tree yes. The sort of spot that might have merited checking daily….

28 miles long multiplied by two. ( two banks)
Plus c 8 miles of the river- Wyre country park, Skippol Creek etc - aren't uninterrupted river-bank. ( Filigree of complex inlets, debris, obstructions)
Actions of a tidal river, moving items with the flow
Biological processes re re-emergence of bodies which have been in the water for a significant period of time ( re- float)

I can't even do the logistical calculation for that, myself. ( If I was resourcing that search over three weeks)

What I will predict otoh is that once the costs of the LP investigation are released, there will be a huge & contradictory hoo-ha from people appearing on TV news, complaining about the high cost of the resources committed to this case & river.

 

[Liverpool86]

I agree @PeggyHenry
It is Naive for anyone not to consider that a body can be placed somewhere after an abduction.
It happens often.
The obsession that she fell in the river from the start, without any evidence to suggest this other than a river being close by and even after extensive searches didn't find her, has to come from somewhere.

I don't believe that she would have threatened to someone to do this as her partner and family didn't believe she was in the river.

I would like to know where she was for the last 23 days and how people can get so close to film the spot she was found. An area that should be crawled over with a fine tooth comb.

Until you have the results of a post mortem you have to search the whole area as to search after the results will find lots of trinkets from YouTubers, tourists and Tick Tockers.

I completely agree. I think most people (including LE) are riding off the fact that she was visited by LE and medical professionals in the weeks before, and to assume that this is suicide without looking at every other possibility is wrong IMO. The two things can coexist. She may have been deeply suicidal and also have been the victim of a crime or just a plain accident. Not everyone that is suicidal carries it through - in fact, very few do.

It is troubling that the area has not been cordoned off and sifted through with a fine tooth comb. I would have expected this area to be closed off for the next 24 hours plus at the very least. But they didn’t even cordon or examine the bench so I’m honestly not surprised - it does kind of confirm that they just suspect suicide as the ONLY option IMO. Very sad

 

[Liverpool86]

Don't you think it would be rather obvious to the recovery team whether the body has been in the water for weeks or only recently put there?

Surely we should wait for confirmation of known facts.

Possibly. But it may also be possible that someone keeps a body in water elsewhere and then takes it to another water source. (Just to clarify, I don’t think it is the case but nothing is impossible). JMO

 

[wizardizzo76]

"The slower decomposition process that takes place in water" ???

When was the last search of this area by divers /PH?

Decomposition Changes in Bodies Recovered from Water

Recovering bodies from water is a common task for any medical examiner or coroner office. Unfortunately, there will be a significant postmortem interval before many of these remains are found. A thorough scene investigation must be undertaken to determine ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[wizardizzo76]

Possibly. But it may also be possible that someone keeps a body in water elsewhere and then takes it to another water source. (Just to clarify, I don’t think it is the case but nothing is impossible). JMO

Surely everyone knows that you'd be found out in about half an hour, as soon as they did the postmortem and found you'd not drowned and the bacterial and flora and fauna were all wrong? Are people really forensically aware enough to consider storing a body in water elsewhere to make it look like she'd been in water for 3 weeks (and where? You'd probably need a bigger space than a bath tub) but not realising that drowning is easily established as cause of death and that the evidence wouldn't add up? This seems like the most unlikely scenario and most straw clutching IMO.

 

[ginnyw]

In the light of what happened yesterday I went back and viewed those final images of NB captured on the day - the picture showing her in side profile is particularly poignant, IMO. She looks very gaunt and not right, and I thought that at the time the photos were released. It's just so sad, that a couple of hours after this photo was taken, and for whatever reason in whatever way, she was gone forever. JMO.

Police release CCTV showing last known sighting of Nicola Bulley

CCTV released by friends of Nicola Bulley shows the mum wearing a long, dark coat and ankle boots with her hair tied in a ponytail.

www.express.co.uk

 

[GML1981]

I completely agree. I think most people (including LE) are riding off the fact that she was visited by LE and medical professionals in the weeks before, and to assume that this is suicide without looking at every other possibility is wrong IMO. The two things can coexist. She may have been deeply suicidal and also have been the victim of a crime or just a plain accident. Not everyone that is suicidal carries it through - in fact, very few do.

It is troubling that the area has not been cordoned off and sifted through with a fine tooth comb. I would have expected this area to be closed off for the next 24 hours plus at the very least. But they didn’t even cordon or examine the bench so I’m honestly not surprised - it does kind of confirm that they just suspect suicide as the ONLY option IMO. Very sad

Perhaps NB’s phone had search history that showed self harm or ending her life was something she had been researching, or perhaps a draft text message explaining her intentions that didn’t get sent or was meant to be found after she disappeared. It does seem like the Police are pretty adamant there was no third party involved, especially with no cordons put up to take forensics where she was found.
Just my thoughts and opinions.

 

[BDL1960]

new links

https://twitter.com/x/status/1627578996539129858

Again - there is zero info to be able to say that the body of poor NB was in these 'reeds' for - 3 weeks ( And imo, from the clips I posted on this WS page, there is no reed bank anyway)

https://twitter.com/x/status/1627563326069768192

If PF thinks the criticism of him and his team was unfair then he needs to spare a thought for the officers who have spent the last 3 weeks trying to find NB. Under the intense media spotlight, some decisions may not have been 100% justifiable but no-one can doubt the effort and commitment that LE have put into this case. PF was quick to put the boot in too in an effort to inflate his profile (and ego). I think we will see that some of the senior officers in this case will have their careers (and potentially their mental health) destroyed by the unprecedented media witch hunt which has accompanied this case.

 

[jtg65]

People who think her body was placed there are desperately, almost embarassingly, clutching at straws.

For that to happen, someone had to take her without being spotted or leaving any evidence at the scene. They then had to murder her at another location (again without being noticed) and then take the body back to the river over 3 weeks after she went missing (again without being spotted or leaving any trace, all in area with an extremely high police & media presence).

Let it go folks.

 

[mrjitty]

Surely everyone knows that you'd be found out in about half an hour, as soon as they did the postmortem and found you'd not drowned and the bacterial and flora and fauna were all wrong? Are people really forensically aware enough to consider storing a body in water elsewhere to make it look like she'd been in water for 3 weeks (and where? You'd probably need a bigger space than a bath tub) but not realising that drowning is easily established as cause of death and that the evidence wouldn't add up? This seems like the most unlikely scenario and most straw clutching IMO.

Not to mention, the kind of wild eyed speculation that law enforcement have asked the public not to engage in

 

[tree1]

I’ve just watched all of this. Thank you for posting; a fascinating watch. I wonder if she has been an advisor on this case.

Very articulate and a natural on the podium. She really knows her stuff

 

[cottonweaver]

What I found interesting from the Maitlis/Goodall coverage late last week is there is now going to be a huge fallout from what was always a relatively mundane case. Tragic yes. But person goes in river, takes weeks before they can be found is a very common scenario and numerous examples were posted here.

It is pretty clear much of the criticism of police was based on misunderstandings or lack of knowledge of what had been done, or simply professional disagreements. There was a lot of irresponsible reporting, before we even get to social media.

The problem with all of that is we now have the suggestion that police, in an attempt to cover themselves, then released information that ought not to have been released, and at a time where public confidence in police capability to handle these kinds of cases is at rock bottom post Sarah Everard.

Unfortunately a local tragedy was elevated into a national psychodrama and i suspect no valuable self reflection will come from it.

Also, just so happens that there is a fair pay/pay rise dispute in the offing

 

[CoverMeCagney]

They will be able to tell how long she was in the water. They can also tell whether she has always been in THAT particular stretch of water.

Have a look at the work of Patricia Wiltshire, forensic ecologist.

Patricia Wiltshire - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[Cazb78]

Very articulate and a natural on the podium. She really knows her stuff

She’s brilliant! And funny too.

 

[Woodburnbay]

Surely everyone knows that you'd be found out in about half an hour, as soon as they did the postmortem and found you'd not drowned and the bacterial and flora and fauna were all wrong? Are people really forensically aware enough to consider storing a body in water elsewhere to make it look like she'd been in water for 3 weeks (and where? You'd probably need a bigger space than a bath tub) but not realising that drowning is easily established as cause of death and that the evidence wouldn't add up? This seems like the most unlikely scenario and most straw clutching IMO.

Or a water pumping station

 

[rls11]

<modsnip>
I can't help but think that if the initial, probably local, news story of NB's disappearance had read 'Local vulnerable woman, 45, missing in St. Michael's on the Wyre. Police call for witnesses' it would have been a very different, quieter story, still with the same sad outcome but a lot easier for the police and ultimately the family.

I wonder how (if at all) the hysteria over this case will affect policing of missing persons in the future?

 

[4441]

Nathan Cole, a person who recently went missing local to me - police searched thoroughly in the nearby canal but didn't find him. His body was spotted by member of the public in the canal on the Friday just gone, 26 days after he went missing.

This body in the Wyre (presumably Nicola's) has been found around the same length of time after she went missing (23 days).

My thinking is the most realistic explanation in both cases is at this time of year with the water temperatures as they are in the country currently, it's to be expected that three to three and a half weeks is a normal length of time from when a body enters and stays in the water to when it will become buoyant through the decomposition process. And if we were in summer the bodies would have become buoyant from decomposition sooner.

Oh that’s so sad. He is local to me too and I’d so hoped for the best. I hadn’t heard the news about him.

 

[LeopardLeotard]

Really not sure about this need for the hate from some regarding PF. If i was in the unfortunate situation that NBs family have been in and someone offered the help PF has- i would take it, im pretty sure many others would too.
We can go back and forth with the blame game here, however some poor soul (probably NB), has now been found,maybe we will never know exactly how this happened, but some of the comments are ludicrous. He gave up his time to at least try to find her, the police were already searching before and after PF, they didnt find her either. This seems to be a tragic accident,but we just may never know.

 

[once upon a time]

The Oxford lady in the video was brilliant.

It will have been the high spring tide adding salinity to the water and some extra flow which released the body from the deep hole area where she fell in and washed it in the early morning to where she was found.

Simple.

The man with the sonar needs to belt up now.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

I can't help but think that if the initial, probably local, news story of NB's disappearance had read 'Local vulnerable woman, 45, missing in St. Michael's on the Wyre. Police call for witnesses' it would have been a very different, quieter story, still with the same sad outcome but a lot easier for the police and ultimately the family.

I wonder how (if at all) the hysteria over this case will affect policing of missing persons in the future?

I doubt it’d even have made the national news to be honest. People die in rivers all the time without it being heralded by the tabloids.

It’s interesting that this one grew legs and galloped across the front pages, and I think you’re right that next time the police will think very carefully about the sort of attention a case needs.