by Police have extended their hunt for Nicola Bulley to the Irish Sea after two weeks of fruitless searching for the mother who went missing on her morning dog walk.
A dinghy with two officers on board was on the water in Morecambe Bay, Lancashire, almost ten miles from where Bulley is suspected of having fallen in the River Wyre at St Michaels.
An orange rescue boat also appeared to be doing sweeps of the river off Knott End-on-Sea, at the mouth of the bay.
Five miles upstream, police search officers patrolled the banks of the estuary at Shard Bridge, near Skippool.
Search efforts had previously been focused on the stretch of the Wyre nearest to where Bulley’s possessions were found, on a bench by the riverbank.
On Wednesday, Peter Faulding, a forensic search expert drafted in to help police efforts, said that having scanned the four miles of river up to Cartford Bridge and not found Bulley, he had done all he could.
A spokesman for Lancashire police reassured the public on Thursday that the search for Bulley, who went missing two weeks ago, was continuing.
“People may have seen less police activity today than previously in the area of the river above the weir but that is not because we have stepped down our searches,” the spokesman said. “It is because the focus of the search has moved further downstream into the area of the river which becomes tidal and then out towards the sea.”
Faulding said he was “baffled” by the fact that Bulley — had she indeed fallen in — had not been found by police divers who searched the river near where her possessions were on the day of her disappearance.
However, police confirmed on Thursday that it was only at 11am that a 999 call was made, nearly two hours after Bulley was last seen, which might account for why she was not found in the immediate area.
Superintendent Sally Riley, who is leading the investigation, raised the possibility earlier this week that Bulley may have been swept out to sea.
“The amount of technology that we have put into the river — clearly as time goes on, the open sea becomes much more of a possibility,” she said.
The family of a teenager who drowned in the River Wyre metres from where Bulley may have fallen in have expressed their sympathy for the mortgage adviser’s family.
Roger Jones, 16, vanished in 1978 following a motorcycle crash. His body was not discovered until two months later, washed up on a sandbank at low tide near Shard Bridge.
“We feel so much for Nicola’s family and friends — we know just what they must be going through,” Don Jones, Roger’s brother, told the Lancashire Evening Post.
“It was awful. And what has happened at St Michaels has brought it all back for our family. There are so many similarities, like the location, the date, the support from the public. Yet there are so many differences too.
“By the time he was found we had already come to the conclusion that Roger was in the river and it was just a case of waiting for what seemed inevitable. As a family we kept looking and hoping, although the general searches were eventually called off. Everyone was exhausted.”
On Wednesday night, a dispersal order was issued after members of the public from outside the St Michaels area were seen filming the spot where Bulley vanished.
Police said that the order was issued after reports that people had come to the village from outside the county to film.
The order will remain in place for 48 hours and gives officers the power to disperse anyone behaving in an antisocial way.
Police said that two dispersal notices had been issued and a number of people warned about their behaviour, and that the force would not tolerate criminality, including trespass or criminal damage.
Officers had previously warned members of the public not to “take the law into their own hands” by breaking into empty or derelict riverside properties to try to find Bulley.
