The ramblings of a Bulley fool!

My cat has gone completely mad,
Or perhaps it's just a silly fad?
She treats the house as if it's spooked.
The ghosts are rightly in a rage,

For being sussed by feline sage
And being over-looked. TTV.

A Right Puzzle

In common with millions of other people around the world, I have an interest in inexplicable events often involving end of life. People like puzzles. They also have a morbid curiosity knowing it is the end of all flesh and an experience common to all, yet to be deferred as long as possible.

One such event I have been mulling over, is the still unexplained disappearance and death of an attractive forty five year old mother of two in Lancashire. The search for Nicola Bulley gripped the nation for three weeks in January and February last. Although after finding her body in the River Wyre on the 19th February, and being laid to rest on the 8th March, the strange circumstances surrounding it haven't been.

Down to the Wire

I have discussed them at length in three articles on my blog that quite a lot of people have seen and maybe even read. There are a lot of idiosycrasies and anomalies surrounding the case that have yet to be resolved, not least the very strange approach of the local constabulary summed up in the Crime Commission's observation, "It's a rap"!

Of course the case is not unique in any number of respects, but the way it is handled by the authorities has much wider implications for our own well-being and protection. Basically can we trust the police to discover the truth in such instances and deliver a sense of justice if a crime has been committed? I and many others feel Nicola has been badly let down by the Lancashire force.

Going with the Flow

I hadn't intended to write all of this, and who anyway will read it? But you just have to follow the flow to see where it leads. All I had intended to do was focus on just one querky feature of the case.

As everyone must know, despite a huge search that lasted twenty-three days (A number that appeared on the bench!) Nicola's body was actually discovered by a couple, one of whom was an established Spiritualist Medium, ostensibly making a living from contacting the dead. He claimed his psychic 'gift' had directed him to the spot and that he had done it before. However difficult that may be to believe, there is no doubt he found the body, when hundreds of professionals and public had failed to do so.

Twenty-three to Thirty-three

He is thirty-three (33!) year old Jason Rothwell, a gay Spiritualist from Oldham. Having located what proved to be Nicola's body in bank vegitation and reed, he later modified his account on-line to say he had followed the body in the stream on the flood tide before it got lodged, suggesting it was travelling in an easterly direction when he spotted it. He does not say how much time elapsed before he rang the police at 11.25 a.m.

What's in a Name?

Ever since I studied the unsolved Al Hilli 'Chevaline' murders in the 'Combe d'Ire', 'Martinet' layby, I have been interested in certain cases, how names seem to coalesce with the event. In the Bulley case the links are tenuous to say the least but I couldn't help noticing the phonetic similarity of 'Roth' to 'wrath' although having no real connection; the 'Grapes' (of Wrath?) being the local public house, whose CCTV was incredibly not checked for two weeks by police; 'Wyre' sounding very close to 'Ire'; 'St. Michael' the avenging angel; or even the name Bulley itself!

These of course are all the mental ramblings of a fool with little or no substance and should be imbibed with a large pinch of rationalist salt.

It's a Crime!

Less semantic and more germane to the subject in hand, is the police failure to treat this disappearance as a crime. Indeed throughout the detective in charge, Det. Supt. Beccky Smith, has claimed there was no evidence of third party involvement or any crime, despite the overwhelming circumstantial evidence to the contrary. This is quite inexplicable.

Supt. Sally Riley admitted that after two weeks of searching, they had found nothing to support their 'hypothesis' - a rather grand title for a theory - that Nicola had fallen in the river. No clothes or personal items or most importantly, a body. Indeed all the evidence was to the contrary. Neither detailed and extensive searches by experts using the latest technical equipment, had revealed a body in the river or on its banks. Indeed the presence of a weir and the characteristics of the river made it a physical impossibility, her body could have travelled unaided, to the place it was eventually discovered, twenty-three days later, nearly a mile down-stream.

Person or Persons Unknown

The only realistic way it could have got there was by the intervention of a person or persons unknown. Yet incredibly with the assistance of said 'Psychic', even when it was discovered, the police did not change their view as demonstrated by the fact that the recovery point was not treated as a crime scene or treated to any forensic examination, in obvious contrast to the unexplained treatment of the car park at Skippool Creek carpark.

Side-kick Stories

The body, identified the next day from dental records as that of Nicola Bulley, was found lodged in reed and the brances of a fallen tree on Sunday 19th February, 2023. The police were notified by telephone apparently at 11.25 am. It is not clear how much before this time the body was actually spotted, because in a subsequent statement Jason Rothwell says he spotted the body not where it was eventually recovered, but in mid-stream being carried by the incoming tide.

Many people on social media sites noted the glaring coincidence that her final resting place was adjacent to the only point at which the road came close and where there was a passing place or informal lay-by, where a vehicle carrying a body might park. Rothwell's later amended version, undoubtedly posted (on Twitter ?) with police approval, was intended to undermine the suggestion that she was placed where she was found, or entered the water at that point. It was designed to counter the idea that the layby was used to deliver the body to that spot.

Not so fast!

However, not so fast! Even if the body was afloat mid stream and only got entangled in branches and reed for a few minutes as Rothwell confidently predicts the Inquest, set for the 26th June, 2023, will find, this still does not rule out the possibility was placed in the water at this or some point further West.

The Tide Always Turns

The reason for this relates to recovery expert Peter Faulding's 'dead sheep' experience, namely that an object in a river subject to tides, tends to move backwards and forwards, returning to roughly the same spot every day on a thirteen hour cycle - 6 1/2 out 6 1/2 in. This means because it was high tide, the body could still have been placed in the river at the spot she was found, if it had been placed there 13 hours previous - i.e. 10.30 pm the previous evening or any place further down stream within the six hour time frame, either of which would have been in the hours of darkness.

Soggy Soil

It is perhaps not wholly irrelevant that the property that abuts this section of the river on its North bank is Marsh Farm, owned by Nicola Bulley and Paul Ansell's friend Emma White, front and centre in the media reporting of the missing person search and where inexplicably interviews of Ansell and other members of the family took place.

"A Wrap"

Despite all of this, the police appear not to have changed their opinion that for 23 days, despite an intensive search, Nicola against all odds got from the bench to where she was found and remained in the water all that time without being spotted, until a man with psychic powers arrived on the scene on the 19th February, which the Crime Commisioner ridiculously and inappropriately described as "A wrap"! The Lancashire police, headed by this man, may be gullible and incompetent but the public is not so easily fooled or placated. END

6.4.23: There are psy-op indicators in this case, whether they have substance is the issue. What are they? The basic features are suspicious. A very attractive woman. How the story immediately gained traction and blanket coverage. All the apparent 'coincidences'. All the theatrical elements as detailed by EW. A classic 'who dunnit'. How it ties into national issues - the control of social media even concurrent Parliament hearings on menopause! The use of 'macdonald yellow' which managed to get a plug at the memorial. (Anyone who knows anything about terrorist events knows how macdonalds keeps cropping up purely from coincidence) All the yellow daffodils tied to the bridge - was it genuine and spontaneous or organised. The way the police have handled it. Were they following INSTRUCTIONS not to treat as crime. The stage managed interviews and unfortunate accident to interviewer and his subsequent preferment. The staged nature of the scene, obviously designed to support an untenable drowning explanation. The two mysterious men on the day and prior. (Note neither these or Dan's driver have come forward) The choice of a 'psychic' to discover her body - straight out of central casting and how he modified his account, obviously with police approval. The heavy handed way they treated Curtis Media, very typical of a certain approach (apro pos Alex Belfield) "That's enough indicators: Ed.) And one last point, a psyop doesn't have to be all pretend. It is invariably a skillful mixture of real and unreal. There seems no doubt NB is is dead (unless the dental surgeon cannot be relied upon!) Though I find it strange the Home Office Pathologist was referred to by the Coroner almost as an after thought. Why wasn't in on the autopsy? The control of the media now she has been found is so sudden and complete it makes me wonder if a D-Notice was involved. I have never got over the announcement at the beginning, that 'anti-terrorist officers were on scene' whilst police stated it wasn't even a crime. That alone suggests something very strange.

8.4.23:  It is a fundamental and serious failing of the police investigation, that their preferred hypothesis is the ONE option that was proved to be physically impossible within days, yet they refused to abandon it. That I think was pure conceit. As they admitted there was NO evidence she had gone in the river or was in it, in fact all the evidence pointed the other way. It was physically impossible she had passed the weir and she was not anywhere above it. All they had was an absence of alternative explanations and CIRCUMSTANTIAL evidence of her suggested mental state and the abandoned dog and phone. In other words, nothing. As soon as it was clear she was not in the river and could not have passed the weir, they should have abandoned their 'hypothesis' and followed every other possible scenario. That they didn't was a flaw that lost valuable time and possible opportunities. Her body appearing twenty three days later almost a mile down stream, can only mean others unidentified were implicated in her death.

12.4.23: If only we knew what the police know (or don't) If I had been in charge of this operation I would have plotted ALL the people who admitted and could prove their movements on or in the vicinity between at least 8.30 and 9.30. Every such person was not stationary but mobile and blazed a trail. This is an important factor in a mobile situation. The fields are relatively open with views across. However memories are fallible, subject to distortion and subsequent influence and so must be treated with caution but should still provide fairly reliable information where Nicola was and wasn't, at what time. The information of sightings coming from the police was widely disseminated but has proved unreliable. Why if the police are convinced there is nothing suspicious about her disappearance should they treat this information so preciously? Why not be fully transparent, limited only to protecting the privacy of individuals if requested? There is a great deal of open space but also very confined space. For example anyone walking the path between those times could not avoid noting Nicola as she passed, either towards or away from, the bench. In contrast open vistas would allow people to see one another over distance. When walking it is natural to visually track others, even if far away, especially if there is something distinctive about them such as a dog. Have the police actually done this exercise? Their dilatory and blinkered approach - for example the person who reported the 'two fishermen' had to badger to get a response; the caravan park was not inspected and cursorily for over two weeks; the CCTV at the 'Grapes' was not checked for two weeks despite its obvious importance; similarly the garage by two rather mysterious unidentified 'assertive' men - does not inspire confidence, leaving aside the fact that it was a 'psychic' who eventually located the body, not the police themselves. We (the public) still do not know precisely where the CCTV cameras are or were, which ones were working and what fields of view they covered. Did any of them capture Nicola walking past or not? If they recorded others but not her, that has implications. Clearly the Constabularly view is that the public should be kept in their place and be 'fed only the crumbs that fall from the master's table'. They don't like being monitored, evaluated and certainly not on camera. Can we trust their statements and approach that is the question? This case does not fill us with confidence that's for sure, particularly in the light of the smug comments of that 'Crime Commissioner' or the fact that public information and partisipation has been effectively shut down pending the Coroner's Inquest, whilst the questions remain pertinent and unanswered.

"Then it was that Amathea lifted herself once more, and with delicate, discreet, unweighted movement of perfect limbs leapt tightly to the floor as lovely as a wave. She walked slowly away from me without so much as looking back over her shoulder; she had another purpose in her mind; and as she so gracefully and so majestically neared the door which she was seeking, a short, unpleasant man standing at the bar said "Puss, Puss, Puss!" and stooped to scratch her gently behind the ear. With what a wealth of singular affection, pure and profound, did she not gaze up at him, and then rub herself against his leg in token and external expression of a sacramental friendship that should never die."

~Hilaire Belloc: A Conversation with a Cat, and Others

Matilda (1907)

Matilda told such Dreadful Lies,
It made one Gasp and Stretch one's Eyes;
Her Aunt, who, from her Earliest Youth,
Had kept a Strict Regard for Truth,
Attempted to Believe Matilda:
The effort very nearly killed her,
And would have done so, had not She
Discovered this Infirmity.
For once, towards the Close of Day,
Matilda, growing tired of play,
And finding she was left alone,
Went tiptoe to the Telephone
And summoned the Immediate Aid
Of London's Noble Fire-Brigade.
Within an hour the Gallant Band
Were pouring in on every hand,
From Putney, Hackney Downs, and Bow
With Courage high and Hearts a-glow
They galloped, roaring through the Town
'Matilda's House is Burning Down!'
Inspired by British Cheers and Loud
Proceeding from the Frenzied Crowd,
They ran their ladders through a score
Of windows on the Ball Room Floor;
And took Peculiar Pains to Souse
The Pictures up and down the House,
Until Matilda's Aunt succeeded
In showing them they were not needed;
And even then she had to pay
To get the Men to go away!

It happened that a few Weeks later
Her Aunt was off to the Theatre
To see that Interesting Play
The Second Mrs Tanqueray.
She had refused to take her Niece
To hear this Entertaining Piece:
A Deprivation Just and Wise
To Punish her for Telling Lies.
That Night a Fire did break out-
You should have heard Matilda Shout!
You should have heard her Scream and Bawl,
And throw the window up and call
To People passing in the Street-
(The rapidly increasing Heat
Encouraging her to obtain
Their confidence)-but all in vain!
For every time She shouted 'Fire!'
They only answered 'Little Liar'!
And therefore when her Aunt returned,
Matilda, and the House, were Burned.

Poem © 'Matilda, Who Told Lies and was Burned to Death' by Hilaire Belloc from Cautionary Tales for Children (© Hilaire Belloc 1907) is reproduced by permission of Peters Fraser & Dunlop (www.petersfraserdunlop.com) on behalf of the Estate of Hilaire Bell

Back in the day, Good Friday meant a circular jaunt with pram and picnic. Up the steep hill climb to Broad Oak, through Stanton Wick, past the remnant narrow track that joined the Bromley and Pensford collieries, to our favourite picnic stop next to the stream that ran under the road. Then on to Upper Stanton Drew and back down the ancient winding lane, past querky footbridge, sharp bends, open Old Down and familiar oak trees, until the imposing viaduct came again in sight, resplendent in afternoon sunshine, demanding the obligatory shout and echo. Hardly a car or tractor to be seen for the whole trip, the only accompaniment the song of the birds, the warmth of the sun and the perfumed air of spring. Hot cross buns and tea from a flask were the half-way reward. Cares were cast to the wind and just the simple joys of youth and friendship powered the journey. The ugly scenes of Golgotha were far from our minds, as were wars and rumours of wars. They were for others, as we carved indelible memories of our own little heaven amidst those Somerset lanes. TTV.