POLICE are said to be examining Nicola Bulley's Fitbit data in the hopes of finding the missing mum.
The dog walker, 45, vanished after dropping her children off at school in St Michael's on Wyre, Lancashire, on Friday January 27.
Since then there has been no trace of the mum-of-two, leaving her family in agony.
The search has today reached its eighth painstaking day.
Cops yesterday revealed their "main working hypothesis" was that Nicola had "sadly fallen" into the icy River Wyre.
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Police explained they thought she may have plunged in while trying to retrieve her dog Willow's tennis ball.
They said that if the mum did fall into the water, she may have been weighed down by the "heavy" clothing she was wearing.
What Nicola was wearing was listed - including her pale blue Fitbit.
Her pal Emma White has now said police were working to get the data off the fitness watch.
Emma told The Sun: “The Fitbit had not been synced since Tuesday.
"The police are trying other ways to try to get information from it.”
The Insider reported there were ways to track where a Fitbit is using its app, or third-party tracking apps.
It explained there are ways to use any smartphone's Bluetooth to try link up with fitness watches up to 100ft away.
In the cops' update yesterday, they confirmed detectives were working behind the scenes analysing CCTV, dashcam "and carrying out other digital enquiries".
When asked about Nicola's watch today, police said they had "no info to give out on the Fitbit".
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Speaking this morning, pal Emma also rejected the police's theory that the missing mum could have fallen into an icy river trying to retrieve her dog's ball.
Speaking this morning, Emma said Nicola no longer took a tennis ball on her walks with Willow because the pooch would "pester" her for the toy.
'NO EVIDENCE'
The pal told Sky News: "Willow used to love a tennis ball very much but it used to disturb their walks so they haven’t had a tennis ball since way into last year.
"Obviously she loved the tennis ball so she’d always be by you, pestering you for the ball - but it wasn’t a nice walk when the dog’s pestering - so there was definitely no ball."
Emma also said there was no evidence backing up the cops' theory that Nicola has fallen into the river as it was based on "limited information".
She added: "When we’re talking about a life we can’t base it on a hypothesis - surely we need this factual evidence.
"That’s what the family and us are all holding onto - that we’re actually no further on the sadly last Friday.
"We still have no evidence and that’s why we’re out again in force."
Emma continued: "You don’t base life on a hypothesis, do you? You absolutely can have hypotheses, but you need something to back that hypothesis up to make it factual."
'JUST A THEORY'
The pal's concerns mirrored what Nicola's sister Louise Cunningham had said hours earlier.
Louise took to social media last night and said there was "no evidence" to back the police's hypothesis.
She wrote on Facebook: "Off the back of the latest police media update, please can I add there is no evidence whatsoever that she has gone into the river, it's just a theory.
"Everyone needs to keep an open mind as not all CCTV and leads have been investigated fully, the police confirmed the case is far from over."
And, despite the police's theory, around 100 volunteers still turned up this morning to scour the landscape for the missing mum.
Emma said the family had been “overwhelmed” by the continued support from the community.
She told The Sun said: “We have an extensive team searching. By 10am we had 100 people at the tennis club ready to join in the search.
“Everybody has continued to rally around and we can’t thank them enough.
“It has made us more determined than ever to find Nicola.”
