Nicola Bulley latest updates: Fresh lead emerges as police told of ‘red van’ seen on day dogwalker went missing

Police may be looking for a “shabby red van” after a local resident noticed the vehicle parked in the village on the morning of Nicola Bulley’s disappearance.

The 55-year-old witness, who was not named, testified The times that they saw “a dingy red van in Hall Lane in front of a barn”.

“I didn’t think anything at the time, but when I saw Nicola gone I called 101 and spoke to an operator.”

The witness said they contacted police again, saying the van could have been a Renault, adding it was the “kind of van you can live in”.

A second witness said The sun that they had reported seeing a red van that “looked suspicious” around 9.40am on the day of Ms Bulley’s disappearance.

The man called police three days after the mother-of-two’s disappearance and was asked if he had dashcam footage of the vehicle.

It has now been 14 days since Nicola Bulley, mother of two, was last seen – leaving her family, friends and police baffled at her disappearance. To be clear, people don’t just disappear, there’s always an explanation.

So what could have happened to her?

Former detective and TV investigator Mark Williams-Thomas writes:

An underwater search expert has said the case of missing mother-of-two Nicola Bulley is a “complete mystery” after his team was unable to locate her.

Peter Faulding, who was called by the family to help find Ms Bulley, met her partner Paul Ansell on Wednesday and told him she still hadn’t been found.

Five hundred lines of inquiry, three potential witnesses have been approached and a private diving expert team deployed – but there’s still no sign dog walker Nicola Bulley is missing.

The partner of the missing mother-of-two, Nicola Bulley, visited the riverbank where she disappeared on Wednesday.

Paul Ansell spent about 10 minutes near a bench overlooking the River Wyre in St Michael’s on Wyre.

The focus of Thursday’s search for Nicola Bulley shifted miles downstream from the site near St Michael on Wyre where her phone and beloved dog Willow were found on the morning of January 27.

Footage showed lifeboats searching the estuary at the mouth of the River Wyre where it joins Morecambe Bay, a boundless body of water that empties into the Irish Sea.

The wife of a man who went missing a year ago has urged Nicola Bulley’s family to “keep the faith” and said “people don’t just disappear”.

Lucy Creaney said she still believes her husband Finn Creaney, who disappeared almost a year ago after embarking on a solo trek in Loch Naver, Sutherland, is still alive.

She has urged Ms Bulley’s family to speak out positively as the search for the missing dog walker has been extended to the sea – some 12 miles downstream from where she was last seen.

As the search broadens, there are still more questions than answers in the mysterious case of a missing dog walker. Thomas Kingsley reports.

The search for Nicola Bulley has now reached the sea as police were forced to issue a dispersal order to stop vigilantes searching riverside properties for the missing mother-of-two.

The 45-year-old mortgage adviser disappeared on January 27 while taking her dog on a routine morning walk along the River Wyre in the village of St Michael’s on Wyre after dropping off her daughters, aged six and nine, at the nearby school .

Her cellphone was spotted on a riverbank bench, still connected to a work call from Microsoft Teams, while her springer spaniel was loosely roaming nearby. The ensuing search for her, now on day 13, has “stunned” investigators and garnered widespread national attention.