Nicola Bulley’s partner says family in ‘agony’ after body found

• Police are treating the death as “unexplained”.
• And the process of identifying the body has started.
• Bulley’s disappearance was not suspicious, and her body was found near the riverbank.

After a body was discovered in a river close to where Nicola Bulley vanished three weeks ago, her partner spoke of the grief the discovery has caused his family.

On Sunday, Lancashire Police said they “sadly recovered a body” from the water after being called to the River Wyre.

A statement said formal identification had not yet been carried out “so we are unable to say” if it was her at the time.

Police are presently treating the death as “unexplained,” and the process of identifying the body has started.

But Lancashire Police also said Ms. Bulley’s family “have been informed of developments and our thoughts are with them at this most difficult of times”.

In the statement to Sky, Mr. Ansell added: “We’re all together, we have to be strong.”

In the face of “an unbelievable avalanche” of criticism, former Lancashire Police chief superintendent Bob Eastwood defended the force’s inquiry.

He said to Media that the river is tidal and swift-moving when asked how it was possible that a body could be discovered a mile from Ms. Bulley’s last known location despite a comprehensive river search.

“The way the tide comes and goes…it is possible that the body could have flowed in and flowed out and has eventually been given up by the water”, he said.

“To jump in…and automatically assume that the body was there the whole time is a step too far.”

He said that during a three-week search that received widespread media attention, detective superintendent Rebecca Smith, the top investigating officer on the case, had been the target of misogynistic abuse.

Speaking to Media, Mr. Eastwood further charged that “so-called specialists” were interfering with the investigation and Ms. Bulley’s family by forcing their opinions.

He said they “fed into a lot of people’s obsessions”, adding: “I’m hoping their consciences are currently in overdrive.”

Ms. Bulley, a mortgage advisor, was last seen on January 27 after dropping off her two girls, ages six and nine, at school and walking her springer spaniel Willow.

Shortly after, her dog and her phone, which was still on a work conference call, were discovered on a bench beside a rocky riverbank.

Prior to her disappearance, the 45-year-absence old’s was not suspicious, according to the police, who thought she had entered the river.

In the tiny community of St Michael’s on Wyre, the body was discovered approximately a mile from the location where she was last seen. It’s believed that two dog walkers who were beside the river saw the body and called the police.

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