Image source, PA Media

The BBC’s disinformation and social media correspondent Marianna Spring has retraced the steps Nicola Bulley took along a river in Lancashire before going missing.

As she explains in this article, this has also become a well-trodden route by droves of amateur social media sleuths who’ve come to look into the case themselves.

Marianna discovers they’ve been prompted by rumours, speculation and conspiracy that have gained traction online.

Police have called ill-informed speculation a "distraction" - and have condemned social media abuse of those helping with the inquiry as "totally unacceptable".

Nick Garnett
Reporting from Lancashire Police HQ

I’m at Lancashire Police headquarters on the outskirts of Preston.

The press conference will be held at 17:30 GMT and Lancashire Police's Assistant Chief Constable Peter Lawson is expected to give a brief statement to reporters outside the front doors of the HQ.

It’s very unusual for a news conference to be held outdoors. Last Wednesday’s was held in a room inside the building, and with light fading the location could make things difficult for news teams.

Reporters have been gathering for the last hour outside the gates and have now been allowed in – but only journalists and camera crews carrying accreditation from bona fide news organisations, perhaps highlighting the somewhat frosty relations between the police and people referring to themselves as journalists for social media.

The press team from Lancashire Police say Lawson will give a short statement but won’t be taking any questions from reporters.

Rowan Bridge
Reporting from St Michael's on Wyre

On the bridge over the River Wyre, close to where Nicola Bulley was last seen, yellow ribbons hold out hope she’ll be found alive.

“COME HOME SOON YOUR FAMILY NEED YOU” reads one, all in capitals.

Police are still trying to establish if the body found in the river yesterday is that of the missing mother of two.

It was found around a mile down stream of where her phone was discovered and where police think she fell into the water.

It’s an area that has been searched previously by both the police and the specialist search team SGI which came in at the request of Nicola’s family.

Some are asking why, if it does prove to be Nicola Bulley's body, was it not found earlier?

The river at the point where the body has been found is tidal, and it’s possible it has been submerged, only to come to the surface at the weekend.

It was also found amongst reeds and undergrowth, which the chief executive of SGI says would have made it impossible for his sonar system to find and difficult for police searches to spot.

Image source, Family Handout

Here’s a quick look at the chronology of the search for Nicola Bulley.

• 27 January: Nicola Bulley goes missing during a riverside dog walk in St Michael’s on Wyre, Lancashire – after dropping off her two daughters at school
• 4 February: Police say their "main working hypothesis" is that she fell into the River Wyre and this was "not suspicious”.
• 8 February: Police widen their search from the River Wyre to the coast
• 10 February: Bulley’s partner Paul Ansell says he is convinced she is not in the river. Police say they are keeping an open mind but their“belief remains that Nicola may have fallen into the river for some reason”
• 15 February: Lancashire Police say Bulley suffered from alcohol issues and had “ongoing struggles with the menopause”.The force says it was called to a"concern for welfare report" at her home on 10 January and health professionals also attended.
• The police face criticism revealing personal information about her.The missing woman’s family call for an end to“appalling” speculation over her private life
• 17 February: Home Secretary Suella Braverman asks police for an explanation over their disclosures, a source close to her says. The force says it will conduct an internal review into their investigation
• 19 February: Lancashire Police say they have recovered a body but say identification has not yet been carried out.

Image source, .

Nicola Bulley, who worked as a mortgage adviser, disappeared on 27 January while walking her springer spaniel, Willow, after dropping off her two daughters, aged six and nine, at school.

Bulley walked along the path by the River Wyre at 08:43 GMT and was seen by a fellow dog walker, who knows her.

She went on to send an email to her boss and logged into a Teams conference call for her job as a mortgage adviser, as she would normally do.

She was last seen by another dog walker at about 09:10, when she was on the upper field.

About 25 minutes later her phone, still connected to the call, was found on a bench on a steep riverbank overlooking the water, along with the dog lead and harness on the ground.

On 19 February, police recovered a body about a mile from where she was last seen.

Image source, PA Media

Sunday marked a potentially significant milestone in the three-week search for Nicola Bulley. Here’s a rundown of what happened.

Lancashire Police are called to a section of the River Wyre, near Rawcliffe Road in the village of St Michael’s on Wyre, at 11.36 GMT. It's understood two people walking their dogs by the river had spotted a body.

Officers later announce they have “sadly recovered a body” at the scene and were working to identify who it is. The death is currently being treated as“unexplained”, the force adds.

Bulley’s family are told about the development, police say, while appealing for their privacy “at this most difficult of times”.

Her partner Paul Ansell later tells Sky News he has “no words right now, just agony” to describe how the family feels following the update. “We’re all together, we have to be strong,” he adds.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman describes the developments as “heartbreaking and distressing”. Today she has told the BBC she is not “wholly satisfied” with the force’s explanation of why it released private information about Bulley’s struggles with the menopause and alcohol.

Hello and thanks for joining us as we wait to hear from Lancashire Police, who yesterday found a body in the River Wyre, about a mile from where missing mother-of-two Nicola Bulley was last seen.

The force will give an update at 17:30 GMT, a day after it was announced that officers had “sadly recovered a body” near Rawcliffe Road, in St Michael’s on Wyre.

Yesterday's statement also said formal identification had not yet been carried out, so police were “unable to say” if the body was that of Bulley. The family were notified, and her partner Paul Ansell told Sky News last night that they had “no words… just agony”.

Stay with us for live updates and analysis.