Lancashire Police have updated the public on their search for missing mother-of-two Nicola Bulley, 19 days after her disappearance
The 45-year-old disappeared on 27 January after a riverside dog walk in St Michael's on Wyre in Lancashire
Det Supt Becky Smith tells reporters Bulley is a "high-risk" missing person with "specific vulnerabilities" but says she won't go into detail
She says detectives have still found no evidence of a "criminal aspect or third party involvement"
And she says her "main working hypothesis" remains that Bulley went into the River Wyre, but the investigation is ongoing
Assistant Chief Constable Peter Lawson defends his force's investigation, recognising there has been criticism
Bulley's partner, Paul Ansell, has said he is "100% convinced" she's not in the river
Smith says police are continuing to investigate every single line of enquiry.
"Because I can assure you, we, as much as everybody else in this country, want to find out what's happened to Nicola, to be able to give her two children the answers they deserve," Smith says.
Smith again stresses there has been no information to show third-party involvement, or that Bulley left the field.
But she adds, again, that every scenario is being continually reviewed.
It's an ongoing inquiry, she adds, with a vast team working through all the information that has been given to the police.
Smith says her main hypothesis at this time is that Bulley could have gone into the river, but they are still reviewing other possibilities.
Smith says there is "further work" that police are doing involving Bulley's social media accounts.
She says that work might mean Bulley will show up on those accounts as being online, but that the police have full control of Bulley's phone and it will be them, not anyone else, using the accounts.
Smith says police have done an "exhaustive" amount with Bulley's phone. Digital media experts are helping to track her movements in the field, which have been corroborated by witness accounts, she says.
Despite specialists and technicians looking at Bulley's Fitbit, there's no further information that can be gained, because it hadn't been synced for a number of days.
Smith says the main entrance and exit to the fields is by the so-called river path.
She says the path joins up to Garstang Road and "has always been the focus" of the investigation. She adds that there is another track that joins the river path to the main road, but that it is covered by CCTV, and that police are confident Bulley didn't walk along it.
Smith says that, because of the lack of CCTV on the main road, police have had to appeal to the public for footage from dashcams, but that none of the footage so far reviewed has shown any sign of Bulley.
She adds that police are still reviewing the footage.
Smith refers to Allotment Lane, which you can see in the map in our last post. She says police have numerous CCTV sites on that road – despite it being a rural area.
"That's why we can be confident Nicola has not gone down that road," she says.
Becky Smith moves on to CCTV footage now.
A reminder that Smith is the detective superintendent leading the investigation.
The area at the top of the Rowanwater field has CCTV that covers the gate that enters it and the front of the site. This CCTV was working and site managers have been cooperating with police, she says.
Smith says she can confirm Nicola had not entered that area or left it.
Image source, .Smith describes how, at around 09:33 GMT, a local dogwalker found Willow off her lead and Bulley's mobile phone on a bench nearby.
She adds that the phone was still logged into a Teams call and that Willow's harness was halfway between the bench and the riverside.
The witness then made a number of phone calls. She made enquiries with a local vet in an attempt to find out who owned the dog, but the vet was unable to help.
Smith turns now to questions raised around Bulley's phone – whether it would've been in her possession when she vanished.
She says it's normal for Bulley to have held her phone out in front of her when on a Teams call, so she could listen to it properly.
A witness who saw her that morning confirmed that is what Bulley was doing, Smith says.
Bulley was last seen in the upper field at about 09.10 GMT that morning and everything seemed normal, Smith says.
She was walking her dog Willow, who was off the lead.
"A number of inconsistencies have been raised in relation to Nicola's dog," Smith says, adding that "it was really normal for Willow to not have her harness on".
"It would been taken off when they entered the field and only put back on when they were ready to leave the field," she tells reporters.
Smith says there were a number of dog walkers in the area when Bulley disappeared and that police have also viewed a "substantial amount of CCTV".
"While we can't cover the whole area with CCTV, we've been really fortunate in that we've had a lot," she says.
She says the amount of footage has helped police "pin down" Bulley's movements as well as the movements of key witnesses.
Smith says there's been a lot of speculation over the work call Bulley logged on to at 09:01 GMT, while walking her dog Willow.
She stresses this was a normal occurrence and Bulley would never normally have had her microphone or video turned on, because it was more of an informative meeting.
Bulley dropped her children off at 08.40 GMT on Friday 27 January, which "was normal," Smith says, detailing the morning of Bulley's disappearance.
After chatting to people in the school yard, she walked up Garstang Road and on to the river path over a bridge that takes you down to these fields, Smith says.
"We know that because of witnesses that identified her and her phone data," Smith adds.
Image source, .Nicola Smith restates what her Lancashire Police colleague Peter Lawson said earlier.
She says there's "not a single piece of information or evidence to suggest that there is any third-party involvement" in Bulley's disappearance.
Smith says there are a range of hypotheses that were formed in Nicola's case – that she could have gone into the river, that there was third-party involvement or she could have left the field voluntarily.
These have remained in place throughout and are reviewed regularly, she says.
Early on in the investigation, Smith says, her main hypothesis, based on the information gathered at that stage, was that Nicola could have gone into the river.
This has been misconstrued in the press, Smith tells reporters.
Smith is now recapping Bulley's disappearance from the moment she was reported missing.
She says as soon as police were alerted to this, and on the back of information provided to them by her partner Paul and a number of "specific vulnerabilities" they were made aware of, Bulley was graded as high risk.
"That is normal in a missing person investigation," Smith says.
Becky Smith, the detective superintendent leading the investigation, says she'll run through the incidents that led to Bulley being reported missing, as well as a timeline of the events and a number of other topics of interest.
She also says she'll talk about a number of issues that have been highlighted in the press that she wants to "explain in detail".
Lawson says it's important to stress that the investigation is ongoing.
Police are reviewing all information gathered from Bulley's family, the public and digital devices, such as dashcam footage.
They are consulting with experts from the National Crime Agency, who are providing tactical and strategic advice, he says before handing over to Supt Smith.
Police are still extensively searching the River Wyre and surrounding area down stream and out in to the sea, Lawson tells reporters.
He says an extensive land search has been carried out around some properties around the area where Bulley went missing.
Lawson says police officers have visited more than 300 premises, spoken to almost 300 people, and received around 1,500 pieces of information.
He adds that the search has used specialist services on the river and on land as well as police drones, horses, dogs, and a police helicopter.