CCTV footage from the day before Nicola Bulley went missing from a local garage as the search for the mother-of-two in Lancashire expands.
Police have requested footage from St Michael’s Garage, which is located on the main road through the village where the mortgage adviser disappeared on 27 January.
Staff at the garage have been asked to provide CCTV covering the 24 hours before Ms Bulley was last seen, and have been asked to make statements about any activity seen that day, The Sun reports.
A witness also told police about two men acting suspiciously outside the village church in St Michael’s on Wyre the day before she disappeared, according to The Sun.
The men were also seen around a nearby bridge on January 26.
The witness allegedly told police that one of the men was seen near Ms Bulley’s usual dog walking route on the morning she was last seen.
It is also alleged that a red van was seen near a wooden shed when Ms Bulley went missing.
Police were seen walking along a footpath in St Michael’s on Wyre as they continued their search on Sunday.
The developments followed an elaborate search around the River Wyre, where the 45-year-old was last seen walking her dog Willow.
Police have also extended their search to Morecambe Bay amid fears the missing mother may have been washed out to sea.
Ms Bulley dropped her daughters, aged six and nine, at school and was on her usual walk when she left, her phone – still connected to a work call – was found on a bench overlooking the river.
The main working hypothesis of the police that Ms Bulley fell into the river has been questioned by her family and friends over the last few days as they become increasingly desperate for answers.
She was Paul Ansell’s partner said Friday he was “100 percent sure” she’s not in the river, and friend Heather Gibbons said there is “no concrete evidence whatsoever”.
Meanwhile former Met detective Simon Harding said witnesses could be discouraged from coming forward after police went public with their theory.
He added that they should not rule out the involvement of a third party unless every inch of where she went missing was covered by CCTV footage.
“Unless all the routes in and out of that area are covered by CCTV – as they probably are in the countryside – you can’t be sure that someone else isn’t involved,” he told the Sunday Times.
Mr Harding also urged the police to share any information they have with the public to stop speculation.
He added that it was clear that the police had lost the trust of Ms Bulley’s family and friends who had made it clear that they did not believe the river theory.