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I’m an ex-detective – I’m convinced Nicola Bulley IS in the river where she went missing based on three factors
AN EX-detective says she's convinced missing mum Nicola Bulley is in the river based on three factors.
Julie Mackay said she agrees with the cops' main theory - that the 45-year-old ended up in the icy Lancashire waterway on January 27.
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The retired Detective Superintendent, who once solved a 32-year-old cold case, said there were three main reasons she believes the hypothesis.
Julie said they included the fact no new information had given her a reason to think otherwise and that Nicola's disappearance was unlikely to be a criminal act due to the time it unfolded.
She also said winter could be playing its part and making it harder to find the mum-of-two.
Julie told : "I still believe she's gone in that river.
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"Today, when you look at the last two weeks and review it, nothing has changed."
The former detective said that although Nicola hadn't been found near where police believed she fell in, it didn't mean she wasn't in the water.
She continued: "If she's then sadly gone over that Wyre it becomes tidal and then the possibility that she's gone out to sea is still quite possible."
Julie also explained why she didn't think there was a third party involved, despite part of the path not being covered by CCTV.
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She said: "I don't think it criminal - there would have been a clue along the way."
The former detective said a criminal act is "usually from an opportunist", adding: "Where women are attacked by a stranger and sexually assaulted and or sadly murdered it's spontaneous.
"It's rare they would camp out the area, check the route, the CCTV and do it at all around 9am."
She also said with the time of year being winter, it could make it harder to find Nicola - for two reasons.
Julie said if the mum was in the water her winter clothes could be weighing her down - with the cold water playing its part, too.
She explained: "It's also how the body operates in the water, it sinks until decomposition sets in and because it's so cold it may be a bit longer."
It comes as a dive expert said if Nicola had been in the water he would have found her - and that her body couldn't be in the sea.
Peter Faulding also claimed the mum could have been targeted, taken, or run off with a lover.
The experts were speaking after Nicola's partner Paul Ansell sat down yesterday for his first television interview.
In it, Paul said he was "100 per cent" convinced the mother of his children was not in the river.
The dad-of-two said he thought a local was behind the disappearance of Nicola, and that he expected to be a suspect.
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He also revealed the moment he "panicked" after being told how his partner's phone was found on the bench - and how the morning she vanished felt "different".
Paul was speaking on the day that marked two weeks since Nicola vanished without a trace.
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