A minute-by-minute look at the crucial 24 hours when Nicola Bulley vanished

Fresh details have emerged of the first 24 hours of Nicola Bulley’s disappearance, as Lancashire Police revealed she suffered with "significant issues with alcohol".

The force, who have been criticised by former detectives for their approach to the investigation, released a minute-by-minute timeline of where the 45-year-old was on the morning of her disappearance on January 27.

After nearly two weeks of unanswered questions and speculation, detectives at Lancashire police revealed the mother-of-two was vulnerable and at "high-risk" due to a battle with alcohol addiction.

Amid growing criticism of their investigation, the force made the extraordinary decision to reveal Ms Bulley also had "ongoing struggles with the menopause" and is facing questions as to why it had changed its approach now.

In a chaotic press conference, police detailed the last moments of Ms Bulley before she vanished on January 27, while walking her springer spaniel Willow in St Michael's on Wyre.

Police detailed the different partner agencies involved in extensive search, including forensic expert, Peter Faulding. Mr Faulding has suggested the police decided Nicola had fallen into the River Wyre too early, rather than keeping other lines of enquiry open.

Ms Bulley’s partner Paul Ansell, 44, said “people don’t vanish into thin air” and believes “something has happened”. Her sister, Louise Cunningham, also disputed the idea Nicola fell into the river and said there is no evidence for this.

The latest statement from the police gives the clearest picture yet of Nicola’s movements on the day she disappeared, yet they are still no closer to discovering her whereabouts. Officers dismissed speculation, including claims a glove found near the scene was linked to Ms Bulley’s disappearance and said false information and rumours cooked up by amateur sleuths have hampered the investigation.

Police said their lines of enquiry had not changed following the discovery of the blue ski glove, which was found by two walkers on February 7.

8.26AM | NICOLA LEAVES HER HOME

8.43AM | NICOLA WALKS TO THE RIVER PATH

Nicola dropped her daughters, aged six and nine, off at St Michael’s on Wyre CE Primary School.

Ms Bulley is originally from Essex but moved to Blackpool where she was briefly married to businessman Simon Booth. She has been with Mr Ansell for 12 years. After meeting him and starting a family, the pair bought their current home in the village of Inskip, around three miles from the site of her disappearance.

The path through quiet countryside is popular with dog walkers and Superintendent Sally Riley, from Lancashire Police, has said it is “highly unlikely” criminal activity took place in such a tiny window of time which is currently unaccounted for.

“This is a low-crime area,” she said. “It’s genuinely a safe, tight-knit area, people look out for each other. A third-party [being] involved that we haven’t yet had sightings of, we haven’t caught on CCTV or dash-cam or all the other things I’ve mentioned, is just not likely.”

8.50AM | A DOGWALKER SEES NICOLA WITH HER DOG

Nicola was seen with her dog Willow, who she walked frequently. She set up a charity fundraiser in September 2022 pledging she would walk 100km with her dog in October “to raise funds to help the amazing work of Marie Curie”.

8.53AM | SHE SENDS AN EMAIL

Nicola sent an email to her boss and shortly afterwards texted a friend to arrange a playdate.

9.01AM | SHE LOGS INTO A TEAMS MEETING

Lancashire Police said that she remained on mute with her video off throughout the conference call, which was “not unusual for her”. Nicola worked as a mortgage advisor.

9.10AM | NICOLA IS SEEN WALKING HER DOG BY SOMEONE WHO KNOWS HER

A witness who knew Nicola saw her walking Willow on the upper field. Experts have since criticised the police’s approach in searching the area where she was last seen. A retired Lancashire Police officer who knows the area well said that river banks and fields are “not very forensically friendly areas” and that without knowing the exact shoes Nicola was wearing on the day of her disappearance it would have been nearly impossible to track her footprints.

9.20AM | NICOLA’S PHONE IS ON THE BENCH BY THE RIVER

Nicola’s phone was on the bench while her dog was off-lead nearby. Police were criticised for not removing the bench from the scene, with former detective Martyn Underhill warning that it should have gone to a forensic laboratory.

“If Nicola had been attacked there could be blood spatterings on it. Sadly it’s still in situ. It’s questionable, to put it bluntly.”

Mr Ansell suggested the mobile phone left on the bench could have been a “decoy” left by a third party, although Lancashire Police remain convinced that there are no third parties involved.

9.33AM | HER PHONE AND WILLOW ARE FOUND BY ANOTHER DOG WALKER

A dog walker finds Willow, Nicola’s springer spaniel, and the mobile phone, which was still connected to a teams call that had ended three minutes previously.

Ben Pociecha, director of Exclusively Mortgages where Nicola worked, said that she had been “listening in while walking her dog”.

10.50AM | THE CHILDREN’S SCHOOL IS NOTIFIED

Mr Ansell said he realised something could have happened to Nicola at around 10.30am. Prior to that, he thought she was “later than usual” but was not “particularly worried” as she had come back from walking Willow at 10.15 or 10.20 sometimes.

By 10.30, he had called her phone and WhatsApp and said he began to panic somewhat. He planned to go down to the river and check on her but before he could do so, the children’s school rang him saying that Nicola’s phone and the dog had been found. He told Channel 5 that he knew straight away at this point that something had gone wrong and called the police.

11.00AM | THE POLICE ARE NOTIFIED, NICOLA LISTED AS MISSING AND CATEGORISED AS ‘HIGH RISK’

Nicola was ranked as “high risk” because of “specific vulnerabilities” that Mr Ansell had made police aware of, a press conference was told on Wednesday. Detective Superintendent Rebecca Smith said she would not go into any more detail about these vulnerabilities out of respect for Nicola’s family at a time of “unimaginable pain and distress”.

But later on Wednesday, Lancashire Police released a further statement explaining that: “Sadly, it is clear from speaking to Paul and the family that Nicola had in the past suffered with some significant issues with alcohol which were brought on by her ongoing struggles with the menopause and that these struggles had resurfaced over recent months.”

“This caused some real challenges for Paul and the family,” the police added. They said that as a result of these issues, both police and health professionals had attended a report of concern for welfare at Nicola’s home address on January 10.

“No one has been arrested in relation to this incident, but it is being investigated,” police said.

12.00PM | SPECIALIST POLICE OFFICERS BEGIN THEIR INVESTIGATION

At midday, police officers began their investigation into her disappearance. Lancashire Police said this had included foot patrols as well as evidence gathering and speaking to friends, family and witnesses.

12.18PM | A POLICE DRONE IS DEPLOYED

Police used a drone to search fields and the immediate vicinity of where Nicola had gone missing. Police and trained Counter Terrorist officers were also deployed to search the area on foot and were later joined by 24 Bowland Pennine Mountain Rescue volunteers.

Police told The Telegraph that Aeryon SkyRanger “quadcoptors” were used in this part of the investigation.

1.10PM | THE NATIONAL POLICE AIR SERVICE ARRIVE

1.14PM | LANCASHIRE FIRE & RESCUE SERVICES ARRIVE ON THE SCENE

Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service arrived on the scene using thermal images, search dogs and searches on land to look for Nicola.

2.30PM | PARTNER AGENCIES, SUCH AS MOUNTAIN RESCUE, ARRIVE

A police search investigator said that the search had been thorough and included a land search.

“The area around the bench has been searched thoroughly by police search teams, search dogs, drones and the fire and rescue service,” he said.

“We work off datasets and evidence. We are guided by procedures and we categorise missing people. We pick the appropriate category and that's how we decide what areas we need to focus on.”

THE SEARCH IS DRAMATICALLY WIDENED

Police continued to search “at this intensity” over the following days, Lancashire Police said.

At a press conference on Wednesday, lead investigator Rebecca Smith said that she could not be certain that Nicola had fallen into the river, although this remained the police’s working hypothesis.

“I have told you that my working hypothesis is, at the moment, through all the information that we have gathered, that the likelihood is that Nicola has unfortunately gone in the river,” she said.

But she added that she needed to stress she could not be “100 per cent certain of that at the minute” and that this had been “continually misconstrued”. She said the search continued to be a live investigation with new information coming in.

“But we are in the 20th day, we have had a thorough, dedicated, meticulous investigation and there is not one single piece of information that’s come to note that would suggest that Nicola has left those fields.”

Police extended their search in the water to Morecambe Bay near Knott End on February 9 but have confirmed that the land search has come to end.

Officers have now received more than 1500 pieces of information, searched 300 premises and spoken to 300 witnesses. They have identified 700 vehicles and trawled over footage from 50 dashcam footage.

Detectives had hoped to glean clues from Ms Bulley's Fitbit but it had not been "synced for a number of days". At the insistence of the family a three day search of the Wyre by Mr Faulding, a forensic and rescue expert, was launched but also failed to find any trace of Ms Bulley. Mr Faulding had been unaware of Ms Bulley's vulnerabilities and said this would have changed his strategy.

Ms Bulley's friends launched a Bring Nikki Home campaign and left yellow ribbons and messages of hope near to a bridge where she disappeared unaware that officers had been holding back details to support their theory she fell in the river.

Officers acknowledged that hope of finding Ms Bulley was slim but they were doing all they could to find her.

"I hope with all my heart that we find Nicola Bulley alive more than anything," Det Sup Smith said.