A missing dog walker has two young daughters who "need their mummy home".
Paul Ansell, the partner of missing woman Nicola Bulley, issued a heartbreaking plea as he said he and his family are living in "perpetual hell" after his girlfriend vanished on Friday morning when she took her dog for a walk. The 45-year-old is believed to have last been seen at around 9.15am after setting out with her brown spaniel, Willow, from her home in Inskip, Lancashire.
Police confirmed they are still keeping an "open mind" around the disappearance and believe that Ms Bulley went missing rather than any crime being committed. Mr Ansell, speaking at their family home, told the Mirror: "It is just perpetual hell. It is just utter disbelief.
READ MORE: EncroChat drug runner 'Ladbrookes' given away when contact calls him 'Kurt'
"We are living through this but it doesn’t feel real. All we can say is we need to find her.
"She’s got two little girls that need their mummy home. We have got to get some good news now.”
Mr Ansell revealed that he or Ms Bulley, better known as Nikki, would regularly drop off the children, aged six and nine, at primary school before taking their springer spaniel for a walk along the river nearby. But after dropping their children off at school on Friday, he then got a call that something was wrong.
He said: “I rang police, I got a call from the school regarding somebody who had found Willow and Nikki’s phone and the dog lead and harness on the bench.
“We take the kids to school and take the dog down there, either myself or Nikki, nearly every day.”
Ms Bulley, a mortgage advisor, has lived in Lancashire for 25 years but is originally from near Chelmsford, Essex and still has a southern accent. A member of the public saw her at around 9.15am on January 27, police said, and her family informed police she had gone missing.
She was seen walking along a footpath to a river. Lancashire Police said her phone was found on a bench with a work teams call still on the screen.
Willow was found loose from her lead and harness an hour later by a member of the public. A member of the public recognised Willow and raised the alarm with police at 10.30am.
Superintendent Sally Riley told the Mirror that police found Nicola’s phone still "active" on the bench and began 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.”
A massive search has been launched as specialist search officers were seen today on a small boat trawling on the river. Nicole was last seen near Garstang Road in St Michael’s on Wyre, Lancashire, and police said the search would continue for her.
She is described as white, 5ft 3ins tall, with light brown shoulder-length hair. She speaks with an Essex accent. Nicola was last seen wearing a long black gilet jacket with a hood, black jeans, and olive green ankle wellies. Her hair was tied into a ponytail.
Anybody who has seen Nicola, or has information about where she might be, is asked to call 101, quoting log 473 of January 27. For immediate sightings please call 999.
Receive newsletters with the latest news, sport and what's on updates from the Liverpool ECHO by signing up here
READ NEXT:
Live updates M62 still closed through rush hour after lorry fire
A Place in the Sun's Jasmine Harman supported over 'tremendously sad news'
Woman shouts in dock as she's jailed for cathedral arson attack
