Nicola Bulley: It's like torture, says friend of missing mum

A friend of Nicola Bulley has said the search for the mother-of-two without any answers is "almost like torture" - a fortnight on from her disappearance.

Despite "unimaginable frustration", Emma White said Ms Bulley's friends and family would never give up hope.

Ms White has joined others in St Michael's on Wyre later, holding placards to jog people's memories.

Residents have had to bring in private security following an increase in people coming to the village.

It comes after Lancashire Police issued two dispersal notices on Thursday to break up groups, including amateur investigators and people filming police activity around the area where Ms Bulley disappeared.

Ms Bulley was last seen on a dog walk by the River Wyre on 27 January.

Police believe she fell into the river but underwater searches have failed to find her so far.

They have been extended to Morecambe Bay and Knott End after Peter Faulding, head of a specialist diving team, said Ms Bulley was "categorically not" in the section of river where police think she fell in.

Ms White told BBC Radio 4 Today: "We just need Nikki home for her two beautiful girls who want their mummy.

"It's just rollercoaster, it's almost like torture - just unimaginable frustration in the sense that everyone's come together working so hard, from the police community to people on the ground looking, you expect to be rewarded for when you put hard work in.

"So we just need something, anything - a piece of information that can lead us down a different inquiry."

Ms Bulley dropped off her daughters, aged six and nine, at school before she took her springer spaniel Willow for the riverside walk.

Her phone, still connected to a work Teams call, was found on a bench on a riverbank overlooking the water, along with the dog lead and harness on the ground.

Police have dismissed suggestions Ms Bulley was a victim of crime, but detectives said they remained "fully open-minded" to any information that indicates where she is or what happened to her.

Officers previously warned members of the public not to "take the law into their own hands" by breaking into empty or derelict riverside properties to try to find Ms Bulley.

Security service owner Spencer Sutcliffe, who offered his services for free after being approached for help by a local residents group, said local people were "frightened".

"People have had property broken into and people have been aggressive towards residents," he said.

He urged people not to come to the village if they don't need to and "let the police do their job".

Lancashire Police also said it may take legal action "where appropriate" after a number of "grossly offensive" comments were made on social media.

Ms White added: "A dispersal order - what a misuse of police time and wasting valuable resources that almost take away from ultimate goal to bring Nikki home.

"So we say don't speculate, don't make any conspiracy theories up and certainly don't take the law into your own hands.

"If you can't be kind, don't say anything on social media."

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