A dog walker who mysteriously went missing while out with her pet had previously described the path she took as 'spooky'.
Nicola Bulley, 45, vanished on Friday after last being seen at around 9:15am while walking along a footpath to a river in Lancashire, the Mirror reports.
A huge search has been launched as specialist search officers were seen trawling the river on a small boat. The family's brown cocker spaniel, Willow, was discovered running around off the lead alone an hour after the mother was last seen and a member of the public who recognised the dog phoned the police at 10:30am.
The mum-of-two is believed to know the route she took very well having shared snaps of her previous walks on social media. In November, she uploaded a selfie with the river in the background which was captioned: "A very foggy cold walk this morning, not a day to forget your gloves!
"Bit Spooky too! Set me up for the day though and Willow had the best time." Nicola was last seen near Garstang Road in St Michael's on Wyre, Lancashire as officers continued the search for the 45-year-old.
She is described as a white, 5ft 3ins tall female with light brown shoulder-length hair that speaks with an Essex accent. The mum was last seen wearing a long black gilet coat with a hood, black jeans and olive green ankle wellies.
Her hair was tied up in a ponytail. Nicola's panic stricken partner, Paul Ansell made an emotional public appeal for help yesterday as he said: "We need to find her. She’s got two little girls that need their mummy home."
Lancashire Police previously confirmed that Nicola's phone had been found on a bench with a work team's call still on the screen. Superintendent Sally Riley said that upon discovering the discarded mobile device that was still 'active' they had begun searching for her immediately.
Supt Riley said: “It was on a meeting call, and that was still live; it was connected to the conference call and that hadn’t been terminated.” She added there is currently no evidence of any criminal activity or that Nicola has been attacked.
“There are no reports of anything like that but clearly all scenarios are tested and checked for but in the absence of anything to suggest there was anything criminal was there anything to suggest she was attacked, absolutely not.”
Ben Pociecha, the director of Exclusively Mortgages, confirmed that the missing woman had logged onto a team meeting at 9.01am on Friday. He said: “It seems as if she was muted and didn’t have her camera on. She was listening in whilst walking her dog.
“There were numerous parties involved in this. A lot of people attended the call. The police are investigating the call.” Ch Insp Chris Barton, of Lancashire Police, said: “Nicola has now been missing for two days and we are extremely concerned about her.
“Firstly, if anybody saw her on Friday morning and has not yet been spoken to by police, or if anybody has any other information about where she might be, please get in touch with us straight away.
"Enquiries are very much ongoing and we have a team of detectives working tirelessly to establish the circumstances around her disappearance, in addition to a large team of police officers, partner agency and volunteer groups on the ground searching the area around where she was last seen.
“We are following a number of lines of enquiry and are keeping an open mind at this stage about what has occurred. We appreciate there is a great deal of concern in the local area and that people want to help, however we would ask that nobody puts themselves in any danger.
“If anybody has any questions or concerns they are welcome to speak to officers in the area.” Anybody who has seen Nicola, or has information about where she might be, is asked to call 101, quoting log 473 of January 27th. For immediate sightings please call 999.
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