Nicola Bulley: Body found in River Wyre in Lancashire

The 45-year-old mortgage adviser vanished in St Michael’s on Wyre while walking her dog after dropping her daughters, aged six and nine, at school on January 27.

A Lancashire Police spokesman said officers were called to reports of a body in the river close to Rawcliffe Road at around 11.35am on Sunday.

A statement said: ‘An underwater search team and specialist officers have subsequently attended the scene, entered the water and have sadly recovered a body.

‘No formal identification has yet been carried out, so we are unable to say whether this is Nicola Bulley at this time. Procedures to identify the body are ongoing. We are currently treating the death as unexplained.

‘Nicola’s family have been informed of developments and our thoughts are with them at this most difficult of times. We ask that their privacy is respected.’

The investigation into her disappearance has attracted widespread speculation as well as criticism of the police response.

The force came under fire after making Ms Bulley’s struggles with alcohol and peri-menopause public three weeks after she vanished.

In a press conference on Wednesday, they revealed the mother-of-two was classed as a ‘high-risk’ missing person immediately after her partner Paul Ansell reported her disappearance, ‘based on a number of specific vulnerabilities’.

They later added in a statement that Ms Bulley, from Inskip in Lancashire, had stopped taking her HRT medication.

A public backlash and interventions from both the government and shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper followed, with Lancashire Police confirming a date had been set for an internal review into the investigation.

A police spokeswoman said: ‘A review of the investigation is diarised and will be conducted by our head of crime detective Chief Superintendent Pauline Stables.’

Police have just made the announcement. She went missing three weeks ago while walking her dog

It comes after Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt described the disclosure of private information about missing mother-of-two Nicola Bulley by police tasked with investigating her disappearance as ‘shocking’.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman has contacted police leaders about the investigation as the Prime Minister said he too was ‘concerned’ by the revelation.

Appearing on the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme, Ms Mordaunt described the ordeal as ‘horrific’ for the family, saying: ‘It’s quite shocking. And I think that both the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary are right to raise concerns about this.’