Nicola Bulley news – latest: Divers return to river where missing mother’s body was found

Police divers have returned to the River Wyre six weeks after Nicola Bulley’s body was found in the water.

Footage has been shared on social media showing the divers in the water.

Officers are seen wading through the water next to the weir close to where the 45-year-old’s phone and her dog Willow were found on the morning she disappeared on 27 January.

My colleague Thomas Kingsley has the details:

A body was found in the search for Nicola Bulley after a tip-off by members of the public in February.

The 45-year-old, was last seen on Friday 27 January at around 9.20am while walking her dog alongside the River Wyre in St Michael’s on Wyre, Lancashire.

Ms Bulley’s phone was found, apparently still connected to a Microsoft Teams work call, on a park bench nearby, along with the harness and lead for her dog, Willow, a springer spaniel.

Her body was found in the river 23 days after she went missing, around a mile farther downstream from the bench on 19 February.

Questions still hang over the circumstances of the protracted search for Ms Bulley as we await the results of an inquest and a long list of investigations.

In the meantime, here is a timeline of how the case unfolded:

Police divers were spotted wading through the River Wyre on 4 April and a brief clip was uploaded to YouTube.

The diving team was seen in the water not far from a weir and downstream from a bench where police believe Ms Bulley went into the water in St Michael’s on Wyre on 27 January.

In a statement shared today, Lancashire Police said: “We can confirm we are carrying out some work on the direction of HM coroner.”

Footage shared to social media by YouTuber Maria Solarz shows the divers returning to the scene, with one diver filmed “floating on his back” along a stretch of river.

Ms Solarz shot the video while on a “nice quiet walk” with her son and friend.

The divers are seen wading through the waist-level water before floating down the river near a weir, close to where the mother-of-two went missing.

A map showing the exact location where a body was found in the search for missing dog walker Nicola Bulley, compared to where she was last seen and where her phone was found has been released.

Martha McHardy reports:

A body belonging to missing mother Nicola Bulley was finally found on 19 February, around a mile away from where she was last seen on the river in St Michael’s on Wyre in Lancashire.

Ms Bulley had disappeared on 27 January while walking her dog Willow after dropping her children off at school earlier that morning.

Police said two walkers, who used a path well trodden by officers, found her body, which was formally identified the following day.

Matt Mathers reports:

Social media algorithms that reward and encourage controversial content fuelled the waves of online interest in the Nicola Bulley case, experts have claimed.

More here:

A man was arrested last month over footage shot from inside a police cordon on the day Nicola Bulley’s body was found in the River Wyre.

The 34-year-old man from Kidderminster was arrested on suspicion of malicious communications offences and perverting the course of justice in connection with the investigation to find Ms Bulley.

My colleague Martha McHardy has the full report:

The inquest into Nicola Bulley’s death is scheduled to take place on 26 June at County Hall in Preston.

Confirming the presence of officers at the River Wyre some six weeks after her body was discovered on 19 February, Lancashire Police said it had been “carrying out some work on the direction of HM coroner”.

We have compiled this up-to-date timeline of events in the days, weeks and months since Nicola Bulley’s disappearance:

At 8.26am on 27 January, Nicola Bulley left her home with her two daughters, dropping them off at school and engaging in a brief conversation with another parent around 15 minutes later, according to Lancashire Police.

She then took her spaniel Willow for a walk along the River Wyre at 8:43am, and was seen by a dog walker who knew her at around 8.50am, with their pets interacting briefly before they parted ways, according to the force.

At 8.53am, Ms Bulley sent an email to her boss, followed by a message to her friends six minutes later, before logging on to a Microsoft Teams call at 9.01am. She was seen by a second witness at 9.10am, the last known sighting.

Her phone was back in the area of the bench at 9.20am before the Teams call ended 10 minutes later, with her mobile remaining logged on after the call. At 9.33am, another dog walker found her phone on a bench beside the river, with Willow darting between the two.

At 10.50am, Ms Bulley’s family and the school attended by her children were told about her disappearance. Lancashire Constabulary launched an investigation into Ms Bulley’s whereabouts on the same day and appealed for witnesses to contact them.