‘Disappeared into thin air’ – My mother’s disappearance shocks Britain

The search for 45-year-old Nicola Bulley has kept Britain in suspense for more than a week. The circumstances surrounding her disappearance are a mystery even to hardened forensic scientists. The mother-of-two’s family has questioned police’s theory that she drowned.

Nicola disappeared without a trace on Friday 27 January while walking her dog. Literal. “As if she had vanished into thin air,” her partner said on British television. He and his family have been going through hell since his girlfriend disappeared. The girls, the couple has two daughters, complain that their hair is not so beautiful anymore. They know their mother is gone, but they can’t really understand.

Everything was as usual on that fateful Friday. The mortgage broker walked her dog, Willow, after taking her kids to school. She was walking along a bank path of the River Wyre in Lancashire. A path she has walked many times. Alone in the fog, she found the climb “a bit scary,” as she once wrote on Facebook in the fall.

Team call not ended
As was apparently her habit, she used the time in the fresh air to do some work and write WhatsApp messages. A friend reported that before she disappeared, Nicola made a play date for her daughters with their children.

Then Nicola called into a team meeting. But she never ended this team meeting. When her cell phone was found on a bench, it was still connected to the meeting.

Using cell phone records, police were able to reconstruct an approximate timeline of Nicola’s disappearance. Her dog was found thirteen minutes after her last sign of life by another dog owner. The dog was fine, dry and did not jump into the water during the team meeting, as was initially suspected.

“No Signs of Falling”
A ball or other dog toy that Nicola had wanted to retrieve from the river has not been found or has not yet been found. There were no footprints or evidence that she slipped and fell into the river.

Her father Ernest told The Mirror newspaper that there was “no sign of slipping or falling”. Nicola Bulley’s sister, Louise Cunningham, also said there was “no evidence” that the missing mother had slipped into the river. According to her, “not all traces have yet been investigated.” She is convinced that something has been overlooked.

She asked the public to report their sightings, “no matter how big or small”, to bring her sister back. “Someone must know something.”

Expert: “Very strange case”
The police, who have been searching the river with boats and divers for more than a week, are convinced that Nicola must have perished immediately because of her clothing.

Because she was dressed warmly in several layers and wore a black sleeveless quilted jacket over a waist-length jacket, which could have been soaked. She also wore rubber boots, which could also quickly fill with water.

Peter Faulding, a forensic search and rescue expert, told Sky News he was not entirely convinced by the police theories. He explained that the highly unusual details of the case baffled him.

“It’s a very strange case,” he said. “I’ve worked on hundreds of cases and this one is really weird. I mean the phone was found on a couch, normally someone who trips has their phone in their hands,” he explained.

And further: “You know, the dog is dry. Because of this, many people drown chasing dogs. They jump after their dogs. But the dog was found dry, so obviously it didn’t end up in the river and that makes this case so suspicious to me because it’s very, very strange.”