Death of Nicola Bulley

Nicola Bulley
Born	Nicola Jane Bulley 1977 (1977) Chelmsford, Essex, England
Disappeared	27 January 2023 (aged 45) River Wyre, Lancashire, England
Status	Missing for 1 year, 8 months and 22 days
Nationality	British
Occupation	Mortgage Adviser

Nicola Jane Bulley (born 1977) disappeared without a trace on 27 January 2023 in Lancashire, England while she was walking her dog near the River Wyre at age 45 .

Background

Having lived in Lancashire for 25 years, Bulley was a mother of two young daughters and was the Partner of Paul Ansell, she was also the owner of a brown springer spaniel named Willow.

Disappearance

On 27 January 2023, Bulley drove from her home in Inskip to the nearby village of St. Michael's on Wyre where, after dropping her children off at school, she walked down Garstang Road with her dog, Willow where she began her walk along the River Wyre. At 8:53, Bulley sent an e-mail to her boss and at 9:01 she logged into a Microsoft Teams call. At 9:30 the call ended, only for Bulley to stay logged on. Willow's harness and Bulley's mobile phone, still connected to the call, were found at a bench by another dog walker at 9:35 AM, not too long later, a distressed Willow was found running around nearby, with no trace of Nicola Bulley.

Subsequent investigation

The initial focus was put on a woman spotted on CCTV wearing a bright red jacket and walking a white dog seen near the site of Bulley's disappearance as a potential eyewitness. The woman was later identified as a 68-year-old woman named Christine Bowman, who confirmed she had not seen Bulley and had no link to the case. Intense searching of the river did find anything of interest, but police believed that no crime or suspicious activity had been committed and that Bulley's disappearance was not linked to suspicious activity.