A dog walker who found the phone of missing woman Nicola Bulley has said he 'knew something wasn't right' when he came across it.
The man, known only as Ron, was walking his dog when he came across the phone on a bench near the River Wye on January 27 - the day Nicola vanished. Ron described how he initially thought the phone belonged to a fellow dog walker who had disappeared briefly to use the toilet.
But when it became apparent that nobody was returning, he spoke of how he opened the phone's wallpaper and recognised the picture of Nicola and her partner Paul Ansell. Ron, who walks his own dog in the same area almost every day, said he didn't know the couple by name, but did know them as fellow dog walkers, MirrorOnline reports.
READ MORE: Nicola Bulley's dad says 'every day a struggle' three weeks on from when she went missing
He told Sky News: "I got to about this red brick building here and I thought 'this is not right'. Then it was just a progression of things happening, you know.
"Because of the wallpaper on the phone we found out who the couple were, and the school was contacted and Paul arrived."
It comes as today, February 17, marks three weeks since Nicola Bulley was last seen. This week, police revealed details of Nicola's reported personal "struggle" with the menopause and how it led to 'issues with alcohol'.
Police held a press conference where they said Nicola was categorised as "high risk" due to "a number of specific vulnerabilities". At the time, they did not elaborate and sparked further speculation despite trying to use the press conference to squash any unhelpful theories.
However a few hours later they disclosed she had suffered "some significant issues with alcohol" in the past, which had resurfaced over recent months due to the menopause.
The disclosure of such personal information about a missing person has caused outrage with the force being heavily criticised. Nicola's family have now released a statement in response to the disclosure.
They said: "We, as a family, believe that the public focus has become distracted from finding Nikki, and more about speculation and rumours into her and Paul’s private life.
"As a family, we were aware beforehand that Lancashire Police, last night, released a statement with some personal details about our Nikki. The police know the truth about Nikki and now the public need to focus on finding her.
"Due to the peri menopause Nikki suffered with significant side effects such as brain fog, restless sleep and was taking HRT to help but this was giving her intense headaches which caused Nikki to stop taking the HRT thinking that may have helped her but only ended up causing this crisis.
"The public focus has to be on finding her and not making up wild theories about her personal life. Despite what some media outlets and individuals are suggesting, we are being updated daily and receive support from our family liaison officers.
"Nikki is such a wonderful daughter, sister , partner and mother and is missed dearly - we all need you back in our lives. Nikki, we hope you are reading this and know that we love you so much and your girls want a cuddle. We all need you home. You can reach out to us, or you can contact MissingPeople.org.uk.
"Don’t be scared, we all love you so very much."
READ NEXT:
