Nicola Bulley latest: police confirm body found in River Wyre is missing mum after three-week search

The body of Nicola Bulley has been found in the River Wyre, Lancashire Constabulary has confirmed.

The missing mum-of-two was found around a mile from where she was last seen walking her dog in St Michael’s on Wyre on 27 January, after dropping her daughters, aged six and nine, at school.

Police officers were called to reports of a body in the river close to Rawcliffe Road at around 11.35am on Sunday (19 February) and formal identification has now been carried out. The force said an underwater search team attended the scene and recovered a body from the water, adding that the death is currently being treated as “unexplained”.

On Monday morning, police officers and community support officers could be seen on patrol in St Michael’s on Wyre. Daffodils and yellow ribbons were still on the bridge through the village, along with a red rose and a bunch of red carnations. No police presence remained at the section of the river where the body was discovered.

At a press conference on Monday evening, Lancashire Police Assistant Chief Constable said: “Sadly, we are now able to confirm that yesterday we recovered Nicola Bulley from the River Wyre.

“Nicola’s family have been informed and are of course devastated. Our thoughts are with them at this time as well as with all her loved ones and the wider community. We recognise the huge impact that Nicola’s disappearance has had on her family and friends, but also on the people of St Michael’s.

“We would like to thank all of those who have helped during what has been a hugely complex and highly emotional investigation. Today’s development is not the outcome any of us would have wanted, but we hope that it can at least start to provide some answers for Nicola’s loved ones, who remain foremost in our thoughts.”

Lancashire Constabulary also read out a statement from her family which hit out at the public and press as being “appalling”. They said: “We will never be able to comprehend what Nikki had gone through in her last moments and that will never leave us.

“We will never forget Nikki, how could we, she was the centre of our world, she was the one who made our lives so special and nothing will cast a shadow over that. Our girls will get the support they need from the people who love them the most.

“And it saddens us to think that one day we will have to explain to them that the press and members of the public accused their dad of wrongdoing, misquoted and vilified friends and family. This is absolutely appalling, they have to be held accountable this cannot happen to another family.”

Ms Bulley’s partner Paul Ansell had previously spoken of his “agony” after the discovery, telling Sky News that the family were all together and “have to be strong”.

The body was discovered by a man and a woman walking their dog. It was found on an unremarkable stretch of the river, just past a slight bend, a mile or so outside the village, close to where a tree had fallen on its side half in and half outside the water, with branches and undergrowth partially submerged.

Police had earlier erected a tent and cordoned off the lane while police divers were called in, but the road was reopened around three hours later once the body was recovered by officers.

The area attracted press interest and members of the public including one woman who told reporters she was a clairvoyant and had “picked up” an area of the river on Saturday night. The police diving team could be seen conducting the search while a police drone and helicopter flew above.

Underwater search expert Peter Faulding, who was called in by Ms Bulley’s family to help find her, found no trace of her in the section of river searched by his team and police divers over three days.

On Sunday, Mr Faulding said he had only cleared the area around the bench where her mobile phone was found, and that the tidal section beyond the weir was “an open book”, according to MailOnline. He said: “All I can say is when we searched she was not on the bottom of that river. We weren’t searching the reeds, our job was to search the water.”

The investigation into Ms Bulley’s disappearance has attracted widespread speculation as well as criticism of the police response, with the force coming under fire after publicising Ms Bulley’s struggles with alcohol and perimenopause three weeks after she vanished.

In a press conference last week, police revealed the 45-year-old was classed as a “high-risk” missing person immediately after her partner reported her disappearance, “based on a number of specific vulnerabilities”. The force later added in a statement that Ms Bulley, from Inskip in Lancashire, had stopped taking her HRT medication.

A public backlash and interventions from the government and shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper followed, with Lancashire Constabulary confirming a date had been set for an internal review into the investigation.

Bob Eastwood, former chief superintendent with Lancashire Police, said the case will be a “watershed moment” in how police deal with public interest. Asked about the personal information released about Ms Bulley’s struggles with alcohol and menopause, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “When I first heard the police had released that, I cringed, but I didn’t say anything, I didn’t put anything out on my own social media because I didn’t know the full facts and didn’t know why they had taken those steps.

“Some hours later the family gave a press release indicating they were aware the information was to be given out and they’d given the information out because somebody had sold a story to the press and that information was going to be given out as an exclusive.

“Knowing policing as I do, I suspect that they made that decision in order to prevent somebody releasing it in that way. It was unpleasant information to hear but I think in all the circumstances, from what I know and believe, I think the police were right to do so.”

He continued: “I think it’s a watershed moment in how policing going forward deals not only with the onslaught of communications and the interest of media organisations, but it’s the ones that do not represent media organisations, that purport to be, and the other of course is the use of so-called specialists who I think in this case imposed themselves on the investigation and Nicola’s family, and I’m hoping their consciences are currently in overdrive.”

Downing Street declined to comment on the possibility of an independent external review of Lancashire Police and its handling of the Nicola Bulley case. The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “You have heard the concerns of the Prime Minister before.

“He welcomed the fact there was an internal investigation, I think the first step is to allow that to take place and see what the findings are, so I am not going to comment before that. We think it is appropriate that this investigation is taking place.”

“We will wait and see what the findings of that are before commenting further on the investigation, given it is a live case,” the spokesman added.