Nicola Bulley's partner Paul Ansell has given a TV interview to Dan Walker as the search for the missing mum reaches its 15th day. Nicola vanished 15 days ago, on January 27, in St Michael's on Wyre, while walking her pet dog Willow, a spaniel, and having just dropped off her children at a nearby school.
The Birmingham Mail reports that Nicola was spotted by dog walkers along the River Wyre, and since she vanished, police have worked under the theory she fell into the river while the dog got into trouble. But Paul told Dan, the BBC Strictly Come Dancing star and Channel 5 favourite, that he was certain Nicola was not in the body of water.
It comes after dive squads and specialists this week failed to find her body. Nicola's disappearance has sparked a police search, while Lancashire Police probing the mysterious circumstances of her vanishing. Paul spoke to Dan on Friday night as part of a 75-minute TV documentary on Channel 5.
Mr Ansell said he wants to keep "all options open" about her disappearance, but his "gut instinct" tells him she is not in the river. He described Ms Bulley as "fun", "loving", "the most loyal friend you could ever have" and an "exceptional mum" who "absolutely adores our girls".
Police have discounted foul play and are treating the incident as a missing person inquiry. But Mr Ansell's interview threw up 10 key questions - and he is desperate for the answers as he continues to keep spirits up for her two daughters.
What did Willow witness?
Paul spoke of his frustration at knowing dog Willow was a witness to the disappearance. "It's a hellish situation with the layer of hell that, no, not knowing what's happened yet. And then also having Willow who probably does know what happened. But she can't, she can't tell us, can she?" he said.
"And she’s a very sensitive dog. I did take her back there first thing on the Saturday, the day after. I was obviously, I was praying and hoping that once we got to the gate, that she would do something different, you know.
"I was saying to her, where's mummy? Where's mummy? You know? And she was just looking at me like, you know, let's go for a walk.
"I would've thought that if something had happened by the riverbank, I would've thought that she'd had gone through the gate and gone that way. But she didn't, whenever we go on that walk, we go through the gate and we always go left. And that's what she did. She just went left down, you know, ready to do the normal thing."
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Is Nicola in the river?
Paul said he does not believe Nicola is in the river but wants to keep “all options open” about her disappearance. He said: “We’ve always been very careful that we don’t want to say, ‘Oh, we think it’s that’, and then push that when it might not be.
“The most obvious thing, of course has always been the river. It’s always been my gut instinct and her sisters, and family that, that isn’t the case. Extensive searching, as you know, has gone on in that river.”
He added: "The fact that the divers and underwater rescue team and all that were in that river on the day, and thankfully found absolutely nothing, in the part where you would have to presume is her last known location. Personally, I am 100 per cent convinced it’s not the river, that’s my opinion.”
Why was the phone left?
On receiving a call telling him Nicola's phone had been found, Mr Ansell added: “In an instant it’s like your whole… I knew straight away that it wasn’t normal. I said: ‘Well where is she?’ I knew she would never in a million years leave Willow. Willow is like our third child… the fact that Willow is just in the field on her own off the lead is concerning.
"I’m just in a mad panic then… I got hit by that weird, it’s like your world just drops out because you know something weird has happened. I got in the car, drove down there, ran down the river to where the bench is… someone had Willow, there were a few other dog walkers, handed me Willow, handed me Nikki’s phone.”
Was the phone a decoy?
He said: "We always felt that the mobile phone and the harness could possibly be a decoy. Again, we don't have evidence.
"I mean, the only thing we're bothered about is finding her - nothing else matters. So you're gonna be thinking this, these, these things."
How are Nicola's children coping?
"It is impossible," he said to Dan Walker, on trying to shield the kids from Nicola's disappearance. "As any parent knows, all you want to do this is make everything better for your children, isn’t it?
"Whenever they’re worried or they are scared or anything like that you just you want to make it better for them and I can't. I can't do that. So all I can do is be as strong as I can so that they don't see the level of like worry on my face and reassure them as much as I can with what we know which isn’t much and then try and distract them so that their minds aren’t focused on it.
"I find that that’s the best way of doing it so reassure them as much as I can, to distract them. The only thing that I can do is tell them that everybody is looking for mummy.
"The best people in the world are looking for mummy, just to give them that you know that that level of hope that they can understand that everything that can be done is being done.
"I just have to hope that that is enough for them, to sort of put them at rest at that particular moment before the questions come again. There isn't really anything else I can say because I don't know anything else.
"They’re obviously seeing the posters around. At first I tried to like shelter them from that but obviously you can’t. I was trying to keep things as normal as I can for them but it’s everywhere. So they've obviously seen all that now. But they've looked at it in a positive way."
Is a local person involved?
Dan told the presenter that everyone in the town is familiar to them - but says "it has to be somebody who knows the local area".
"We've walked down there for years and I mean years, you know, when we, me and Nikki, met 12 years ago, we used to walk our dogs that we had, you know, that Nikki had, when I met her," he said.
"We used to take the dogs down there 12 years ago. Since the children have gone to the school, we've done it every week. It's about as well known a walk to us as you could possibly do. You see the same faces every single day, and on the very odd occasion when you see somebody that you don't know they stand out like a sore thumb.
"Everyone's the same. So whatever has happened, in my eyes, has to be somebody who knows the local area. The fact that nothing's been seen or heard, I just truly believe that it's something in the village."
What is the relationship between police and Nicola's loved ones?
“I have to categorically say I cannot fault the police in any of this, they have been incredible, and the relationship that we have working on this is still very, very strong, it’s very good," he said.
"So this isn’t any criticism of them at all, I just want to make that clear.
"What we’re going through now is like unprecedented hell. But that hope and that positivity in me is stronger than ever, and I’m never, ever going to let go. Nicky would never give up on us ever. She wouldn’t give up on anybody. And we’re not gonna ever give up on her like, we’re going to find her.”
Will police get more resources?
Mr Ansell has said he is "100% convinced" Nicola is not in the water, and has called on police to give more resources and widen the search on land.
He said: “It is the police’s job to find the evidence that will let us know what has happened and where she is. If the current strategy and lines of enquiry are not working, it’s time to do something different and expand out."
Will the search be widened to all homes, gardens and outbuildings?
“What they’ve done so far is fantastic but my only aim is to find Nikki and as yet that’s not happened," Paul told Dan. “There’s so much ground to cover that hasn’t been searched yet.”
He added: “It’s time to widen the search because we don’t want any stone left unturned. We just want to know what happened to Nikki and if that means searching every house and outbuilding in the village and surrounding area then that’s what needs to be done.”
And, finally, what happened?
"Because people don't just vanish into thin air, it's absolutely impossible. So something has happened," Paul told Dan.
"Something has happened. Find out what it is. There has to be a way to find out what happened, there has to be. You cannotwalk your dog down a river and just vanish into thin air. Something happened that day, something.”
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