In the hours after the mum-of-two's disappearance, police failed to cordon off the Lancashire field she was last seen in.
Failure to do so left the riverbanks and paths in St Michael's on Wyre "not very forensically friendly" and "no use", the anonymous ex-Lancs Constabulary cop said.
The retired-bobby, who knows the area well, explained: "There will be fingerprints and boot prints from all kinds of people in the area, which would be no use to the police."
And without the exact shoes Nicola wore on the day, it will be near impossible to have tracked her footprints, he stressed.
The mistake was not helped by the fact the alarm was only raised with cops two hours after Nicola, from nearby Inskip, vanished....<<<Read More>>>...
