LOOSE Women star Denise Welch has sparked fury over comments about the Nicola Bulley investigation.
The dog walker, 45, disappeared 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 despite extensive searches.
Earlier this week Supt Sally Reily warned amateur detectives from trespassing in empty properties.
And she urged the public not to "take matters into their own hands" and refrain from speculating online as it could "hurt" Nicola's family.
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And today TV presenter Welch weighed in on the internet sleuths trying to crack the case at home.
She said: "This is the problem, we’ve created globally all of these armchair detectives.
“And I am partly responsible because I’ve made no bones of the fact that in my mind I’m the 'Crime Minister'.
"You know I’m obsessed with true-life crime. When I was young and you had the news at 6pm and a couple of newspapers, all of these things went on and you didn’t know very much about it.
“But now we see it played out in real life and Lincoln and I are responsible for it because we know now, well we think we know, a lot about forensics."
She admitted speculating on the case herself this week.
She said: "I was guilty of the other day, screaming at the television: ‘Why are people walking along that area?
“That should still be a crime scene. That should still be evidence.’
“Then I thought hang on a minute, there’s obviously a reason why they haven’t kept that.
"But you think that you know because you watch so many crime shows."
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Fuming fans rushed to social media to give their two cents.
One wrote: "There has to be some speculation; how is Nicola going to be found if theories are being ruled out because they make people uncomfortable to consider."
It comes as the search for Nicola moved to the sea yesterday amid the possibility she was swept 20 miles downriver.
Officers scoured Morecambe Bay as it emerged she was last spotted nearly two hours before police were called.
Police are also probing reports of a “shabby and suspicious” red van near where Nicola Bulley disappeared.
The vehicle was spotted close to the mum’s walking route on the morning she went missing.
It was seen parked in a lane — a few hundred yards from the school where Nicola, 45, had dropped off her young children.
A man in his 50s described the van as a high-sided Renault or Transit in a faded red.
The witness said: “It was a shabby looking van, an older model, the kind you can live or work in.
“It was on a quiet lane near a barn, with a couple of houses dotted around.
“Obviously, I don’t know whether this van is related to Nicola’s disappearance. All I know is that something grabbed my attention. I felt compelled to tell police about it.
“Even though it was down the road, as the crow flies it’s quite close to where Nicola was last seen.”
