'You wouldn't have done that if you were going to get up and go missing.'
Nicola Bulley booked a playdate with a friend in her final text minutes before she disappeared, reports have stated.
The mortgage adviser sent the text at 8.57 am just before logging onto a Teams call while she walked her dog, a brown cocker spaniel called Willow, along the River Wyre in Lancashire, locals were told at a village meeting.
The 45-year-old was last seen at 9.10am. Some 25 minutes later her phone, still logged on to the call, but muted, and dog lead were found on a riverside bench.
A resident of St Michael's on Wyre told the
Mirror: "She booked a playdate, 8.57, she sent a text message to a friend whose mortgage she had just recently signed off on to arrange for the girls to go for tea this week."
The local, who did not want to be named, suggested the text was further evidence Nicola had no intention of voluntarily disappearing: "You wouldn't have done that if you were going to get up and go missing."
In an interview with Sky News, Howard Millington, a former police detective with a 30-year career at Greater Manchester Police, called the case "very unusual" and "very concerning".
"It will have been quickly escalated, I've no doubt. Lancashire Police have spared no expense in resourcing this properly."
On Thursday, police issued a public appeal
for a woman seen on CCTV wearing a red coat on River Wyre around the time Nicola vanished.
MailOnline reported Friday that the woman, 67-year-old Christine Bowman, told police she did not see Nicola during her walk with her own dog, Snowflake.
She told the publisher she was confused by the police appealing for her to come forward, as she had already spoken to them, and didn't know anything.
Bowman, a retired teacher told The Mirror, Nicola's disappearance had made "local women fearful".
"If they have husbands or partners, they have been taking the dogs out instead," she said.
