Nicola Bulley police chiefs turned down search help from experts at the height of their 23-day hunt
POLICE chiefs leading the search for Nicola Bulley turned down vital help at the height of their 23-day hunt — in a move branded bizarre and inexcusable.
Other forces as well as search and rescue organisations offered to send resources and manpower to assist Lancashire Police in finding the 45-year-old mum.
But in an extraordinary rebuff, the force said the “relevant areas” had already been cleared and did not need to be redone.
Mortgage adviser Nicola was eventually recovered from a river on Sunday morning — less than a mile from where she vanished in St Michael’s on Wyre, Lancs.
A search and rescue source said of the police’s decision: “It’s inexcusable. To say they have covered off areas when a missing person is still missing is just bizarre.
“You go back and recast those areas. It’s completely strange to decline free resources.
“There could have been hundreds of trained people helping.
“Search people should have found her body — and it should have been dignified.”
In a final humiliating indictment of Lancashire Police’s search, it was not their officers who found her lodged in the riverbank’s reeds but a tarot-reading psychic who claimed to be using his “gift”.
Lancashire’s assistant chief constable Peter Lawson and Det Chief Supt Pauline Stables confirmed it was Nicola’s body on Monday.
But there were growing demands for an independent review to be conducted into their bungled search and the decision to release personal details of Nicola’s struggles.
And an email seen by The Sun appears to show police chiefs refusing to revisit search areas despite ever-changing tidal flows and the possibility she could still be in the area.
Lowland Rescue, which has 36 teams and 1,800 qualified volunteers covering a third of the UK, offered to send everything they had to assist as the search entered its third week.
But an emailed reply from Mr Lawson said: “Many thanks for your message and offer of support. It has been genuinely heart-warming to receive the offers we have from across both the policing family and UK Search and Rescue organisations.
“Land searches were conducted in the initial stages of the search — before there was any real media interest, so largely unreported.
“These searches include police officers, mountain rescue, search dogs and the fire service.
“At this time there are no plans for further land searches as we are satisfied we have cleared the relevant areas with appropriate resources.”
Lowland Rescue was formed in 1991 and has worked on dozens of missing person cases involving vulnerable people like Nicola.
Our search and rescue source added: “It’s shocking. We are all trained, qualified and equipped.
“We don’t work unless the police tell us to. Police aren’t trained to search and fire services fight fires.
“We use specific techniques and we have resources they don’t have access to. Hundreds of people would have been instructed to go to Lancashire and it wouldn’t have cost them anything. We exist for precisely this reason.”
Former Det Chief Insp Martyn Underhill, who served nine years as a police commissioner, said Lancashire Police has serious questions to answer and only an independent review would suffice.
He said: “These are crucial issues that go to public confidence.
“I may well be totally wrong and Lancashire might be completely vindicated. But I have never known a force to be so reluctant to seek external help — the Met and other forces all offered.
“The Home Secretary must get to the bottom of it.”
Nicola was reported missing by her partner Paul Ansell, 44, on January 27 after she had gone to drop her daughters at school.
Her mobile phone was left on a bench overlooking the River Wyre and her dog Willow was off her lead nearby.
Police were adamant Nicola had fallen into the river and insisted their search had been thorough and exhaustive.
But after using sonar equipment to scan the riverbed they and private diver Peter Faulding could find no trace of her.
Last week, searches of the stretch of water where Nicola vanished — and was later found — were noticeably scaled back.
Only police community support officers remained in the area to offer public reassurance and to walk the route along the riverbank.
Despite daily patrols that took in the very spot where Nicola was recovered, they drew a blank.
The decisions made by officers are now subject to intense scrutiny amid claims she could have been found quicker had the force not been so reluctant to accept outside help.
‘Watershed moment’
Bob Eastwood, a former chief superintendent with Lancashire Police, described the fallout as a “watershed moment” for officers.
He also said that he cringed when he heard officers divulge Nicola’s struggles with the menopause and alcohol.
Last night, Lancashire Police defended its search and said dozens of teams joined officers, police dogs, marine units, mountain rescue workers and firefighters in carrying out extensive searches.
A spokesman added: “Our search of the river included an intense search around the bench location, using sonar, underwater cameras and police divers.
“All searches carried out followed the nationally established search procedures.
“Our investigation visited 300 premises, spoke to 300 people, received 1,500 pieces of information, identified 700 vehicles and received 50 dashcam submissions.”