Body found during search for Nicola Bulley, missing mother of 2: report

Bulley's family notified of developments as identification efforts underway

Police searching for Nicola Bulley have found a body in a river, reports say.

Lancashire police said they "sadly recovered a body" after being called to the River Wyre near Rawcliffe Road at 11:35 GMT on Sunday, according to the BBC.

Although formal identification has not yet been made, Bulley'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," Lancashire police said in a tweeted statement.

Bulley, 45, vanished on Jan. 27 after dropping her children off at school. She was last seen walking her springer spaniel on a path by the river, but her cellphone was found on a nearby bench still connected to a work conference call and her dog was found between the bench and the river. 

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"The body was found about a mile from where she was last seen in the small village of St Michael's on Wyre," BBC states.

A specialist dive team ended its involvement Feb. 8 after two exhaustive days and some speculated that Bulley did not, in fact, fall into the river. 

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A body has been found in the search for a missing British mother of two who went missing Jan. 27. (Facebook/Nicola Bulley)

Workers from Specialist Group International, a private underwater search and recovery company, on the River Wyre, near St Michael's on Wyre, Lancashire, as they assisted in the search for missing woman Nicola Bulley, 45, who was last seen on the morning of Friday January 27, when she was spotted walking her dog on a footpath by the river. (Photo by Danny Lawson/PA Images via Getty Images)

A search dog from Lancashire Police and a crew from Lancashire Fire and Rescue service search the River Wyre for missing woman Nicola Bulley, near the bench where her mobile phone was found. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

Peter Faulding, who led the search in the River Wyre in Lancashire, England, said his team had done all it could before pulling out of the search. The team used sonar equipment to search roughly three miles of the river but found nothing. 

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Leanne Grace, a close friend of Bulley who now lives in Australia, begged police and the public to consider other angles as she insisted there was "no evidence" to back up the theory that Bulley fell into the river. 

Fox News' Peter Aitken and Ian Leonard contributed to this report.

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