Police have said ‘every single potential third-party line of enquiry’ had been followed up by officers investigating the disappearance of Nicola Bulley.

Superintendent Sally Riley was speaking at a special press conference this afternoon (Tuesday) and continued to appeal to anyone who may have noticed anything to get in touch.

Mother-of-two Ms Bulley, 45, went missing while walking her dog, after dropping her children off at school in St Michael’s on Wyre, on January 27.

Police were asked to comment on views from friends and commentators and conflicting theories of what may have happened.

Supt Sally Riley said: “We will not be conducting all elements of the investigation in the public eye. You would not expect us to.

“That would not be the normal way things are done anyway.

“I would like to reassure the community that nothing in this investigation so far - it has been checked out if it has come in suggesting crime - it has been checked out and discounted.

“So, every single potential third-party line of enquiry – any potential suspicious or criminal element - has been looked at and discounted.

“People who observe and make comment in the media or even if they have experience of policing are not in the enquiry team and would not be privy into that.”

Asked about Mr Faulding’s comments on how he did not believe Ms Bulley was in the water, Supt Riley said: “Our search has not found Nicola in the river and then a re-search in parts by SGI has found the same.

"That does not mean that Nicola has not been in the river.

“In the light of other inquiries being discounted from the investigation so far… clearly our main belief is that Nicola did fall into the river.

“Clearly Mr Faulding isn’t included within all the investigation detail any more than the members of the public are that I’m briefing through these sorts of press conferences.”

Asked about amateur investigators breaking into properties near where Ms Bulley was last seen, Supt Riley said: “There are some properties along the riverside which are empty or derelict and whilst it may be well-intentioned that people think that that could be a line of inquiry, I would ask them to desist from doing that.

“In some cases it may be criminal if they are breaking in, causing damage or committing a burglary.

“We have gone into derelict property – including ones on the riverside, (and) any under renovation that were empty – with the permission of those owners and their knowledge.

“We have now searched houses matching that sort of profile on the riverbank, including their grounds.

“Because there is no criminal evidence yet identified and we don’t expect there to be in this inquiry, then we are not starting to go into houses because that is not where the inquiry is leading us.”

Police said their extensive inquiries into the disappearance of Ms Bulley have “so far not found anything of note”.

Supt Riley said: “Throughout this investigation… we remain fully open to any information that is credible and factual to try and trace Nicola and bring answers for her family but it does remain our belief that Nicola sadly fell into the river and that this is a missing persons inquiry.

“Any information that comes in that indicates otherwise is being checked out all the time and negated as each inquiry comes up. We’re not closed in any way to any particular line of inquiry and we remain genuinely open to that.

“All these extensive inquiries however have so far not found anything of note.”

The force has been working with the Coastguard, Lancashire Fire and Rescue and underwater search experts Specialist Group International (SGI) to search the river and riverbank using sonar, pole cameras and underwater drones.

The Bolton News:

Lancashire Police Superintendent Sally Riley speaks to the media at St Michael's on Wyre Village Hall to give an update on the search for missing woman Nicola Bulley.

Supt Riley added: “As I said on Friday, the river is a complex area to search, it’s not a still water, it’s a fast-flowing moving water that is tidal in parts, and as acknowledged by some of the many national search advisers and experts… this makes it particularly complex.

“We have already discounted particular areas of the river but as they are tidal we have re-searched them to ensure that nothing has been washed back into those searched areas.”

It was revealed that officers are speaking to more than 700 drivers who travelled through the town of St Michael’s on Wyre around the time she went missing.

Supt Sally Riley said: “We have now identified around 700 vehicles that drove through the village on that morning on the 27th January at around 9.10am, 9.15am.

“We are in the process of speaking to all of those drivers to try and find out if they have any dashcam footage, what they saw on that day or anything else that may be of value to the police inquiry.”

Ms Riley said thousands of pieces of information had been received from members of the public, with a team of 40 detectives currently investigating approximately 500 different lines of enquiry.

She said: “This is normal in a missing person inquiry and does not indicate that there is any suspicious element to this story.

“The inquiry team remains fully open-minded to any information that may indicate where Nicola is or what happened to her.”

Supt Riley also said she wanted to end her address by “holding Nicola’s family in our thoughts”, calling it an “agonising time” for them.