Fresh details have emerged about two men reportedly seen acting suspiciously close to where Nicola Bulley disappeared after it took police nine days to contact a key potential witness.
A local spotted the men by a church in Lancashire at 7.45am not far from the mum-of-two's dog-walking route the day before the 45-year-old disappeared on January 27.
He also told officers he saw one of the men, who were carrying fishing rods and apparently "seemed to want to hide their faces" close to her route with spaniel Willow on the morning she vanished.
READ MORE: Nicola Bulley diving expert says she 'could have been targeted or run off with lover'
He told The Sun: “I was away all that weekend so only heard about Nicola Bulley going missing on Sunday.
“I saw the police were appealing for information and it struck me that I should tell them what I saw, so I rang them on the Monday.”
The witness said no-one called him back so he followed up on February 3 – a week after Nicola vanished.
He called again on Monday (February 6), a week after his first call, saying: “I couldn’t understand it – there's a woman missing and I’ve seen these men in the area – why haven’t they called me?
“Then they called me back last Wednesday and took all the info," adding: "It’s frustrating – it would have been much better if I had been spoken to straight away as it was fresher in my mind.”
To get more stories from Daily Star delivered straight to your inbox sign up to one of our free newsletters here.
Search teams have trawled the River Wyre in St Michael's on Wyre following the mortgage adviser's disappearance, and are following that further down to the sea.
The search has been aided by specialists and divers from HM Coastguard, mountain rescue and Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service, with sniffer dogs, drones and police helicopters.
But Ms Bulley’s partner, Paul Ansell, said he wants to keep “all options open” about her disappearance, but his “gut instinct” told him she was not in the river.
Paul, along with Nicola's friends and family have been leaving yellow ribbons with handwritten messages on a bridge close to where she disappeared, with notes including: “We need you home Nicola.”
READ NOW:
- Loose Women's Denise Welch under fire after comments about missing mum Nicola Bulley
- Nicola Bulley cops question river theory and widen probe as garage CCTV emerges
- Cold case cop explains why Nicola Bulley 'is in river' based on three key factors
Source: Read Full Article