Nicola Bulley detectives probe missing two hours between mum's disappearance and first call to police

Police have also identified three CCTV blindspots

Detectives searching for missing mum Nicola Bulley are reportedly focussing on a two-hour gap between the mum-of-two’s disappearance and the first call to police to report her missing.

MailOnline reports that Lancashire Police have also identified three key CCTV blindspots, adding to the possibility the 45-year-old may have left the St Michael’s on Wyre area via a path not covered by cameras.

Nicola has now been missing two weeks, having gone missing while walking her dog along the River Wyre on January 27. She was last seen at 9.10am, having earlier dropped her daughters, aged six and nine, at school. Her phone, still connected to a work call, and the dogs lead and harness were found a short time later. Lancashire Police’s “main working hypothesis” is that she accidentally fell in the river.

Friday’s development comes after the search on Thursday moved to Morecambe Bay, around 20 miles from where Nicola was last seen. Two boats with specialist police teams were seen in the sea, before heading upstream on either side of the river, with police suggesting finding her “in the open sea becomes more of a possibility”.

It also came after a specialist group drafted in to help trawl the river for Nicola pulled out of the operation on Wednesday night, suggesting she is not where police think she is, and amid calls for an abandoned house to be searched. And late Thursday, it was suggested police are also still trying to track down a “tatty-looking” red van which was parked close to the spot where Nicola disappeared.

While Nicola was last seen at 9.10am, the first call about her disappearance did not come until 11am – leaving a near two-hour window between her last sighting and officers beginning their search, the Mail reported.

The widening of the search comes despite Peter Faulding, founder of expert search team Specialist Group International, saying it is “impossible” for Nicola to have made it to the sea. Having searched the river for three days without success, Faulding believes Nicola is not there, raising the prospect of “third party” involvement.

While believing Nicola fell in the river, police have admitted that it is possible she left the area by one path not covered by CCTV cameras.

The path in question leads to Garstang Road, which runs through the village, and is therefore a blindspot, the Mail reported on Friday, saying police have been trying to trace dashcam footage from 700 drivers who passed along the route at the time of her disappearance.

Aside from the river itself, there are only two other exits from the area, one of which is covered by CCTV, the Mail reported, and friends of Nicola have reportedly claimed that CCTV covering the other exit, close to mobile home site Rowanwater, is not working.

This camera would have covered the fields to the south of where Nicola was last seen.

After reviewing other CCTV footage from within the mobile home site, police are confident that Nicola did not leave the field near the river via Rowanwater itself. Another blindspot is a riverside path leading from the Wyreside Farm Caravan Park through to the A586. A camera at a house close to the path is also understood to have not been working at the time, but did not cover the exit, the Mail report states.

Superintendent Sally Riley this week acknowledged the possibility of Nicola having left the area via a blindspot, but added that “every single” suspicion or criminal suggestion had so far been discounted.

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