Huge Nicola Bulley development as cops focus search on specific river path after analysing phone and Fitbit

POLICE searching for Nicola Bulley are focusing efforts on a specific river path where the mum-of-two may have travelled.

The track from the fields, where she was last seen, to Garstang Road in St Michaels on Wyre, may hold vital clues.

Lancashire Constabulary are now appealing to drivers and cyclists to come forward who may have footage from the morning of January 27 when Nicola vanished.

In a statement, the force added: "We have also spoken to numerous witnesses, analysed Nicola’s mobile phone and Fitbit.

"And searched the derelict house on the other side of the river as well as any empty caravans in the vicinity.

"We have already done a lot of work around this.

"But every piece of footage helps us build up a picture of movements on that morning."

They will also be sending letters to travellers who they think may have been driving down Garstang Road that morning.

Only drivers with dashcam footage are asked to email NicolaBulleyInvestigation@lancashire.police.uk to let police know.

Nicola's pal Emma White said police had been working to get data off the missing mum's Fitbit fitness watch.

Speaking on Saturday, she told The Sun: “The Fitbit had not been synced since Tuesday.

"The police are trying other ways to try to get information from it.”

Cops are confident, after reviewing CCTV, that Nicola did not leave the field near the river via Rowanwater.

This is the case for leaving either through the site itself or the piece of land at the side.

And she did not return from the fields along Allotment Lane or via the path at the rear of the Grapes pub onto Garstang Road.

They continue to work on the hypothesis that the mortgage worker fell into the River Wyre.

Until now, police say sightings of Nicola have been by witnesses who knew her.

These have enabled cops to plot her movements from the school, along the river path and into the field.

Peter Faulding, leader of Specialist Group International (SGI) who are scouring the river for the mum, now has a "gut" feeling a third party could be responsible.

The diver told BBC Breakfast today: “If Nicola is not in that stretch of river today my view is that there is a third party involved and this was a decoy placed by the river.

“It could have been placed as a decoy, there is not enough CCTV to cover particular areas here. The police are working hard in the background to cover everything.

“It’s so unusual, we’ve got no clear information to go on."

SEARCH CONTINUES

Yesterday's search for Nicola, 45, focused downstream on the tidal area of the River Wyre in Lancashire but Tuesday's search will take place further upstream.

The search area will include and go beyond the area where the mum's belongings were found on a bench near Garstang Road, in St Michael's on Wyre.

The mum, from nearby Inskip, disappeared after dropping her children off at school on Friday January 27.

She was last seen around 9.15am that day.

On Monday Lancashire Police released fresh CCTV images of Nicola from the day she disappeared.

In a statement released the same day through cops, partner Paul Ansell said: "I have two little girls who miss their mummy desperately and who need her back."

And a heartbreaking video of her kids looking at search helicopters heard Sophia, six, say: "Them helicopters, they're looking for mummy."