The partner of Nicola Bulley has spoken of the moment he first realised something could have happened to the mum-of-two as the search continues.
Paul Ansell spoke to Channel 5 presenter Dan Walker about the family's ordeal, two weeks on from Nicola's sudden disappearance on January 27. Recalling the day she went missing, Paul relayed the events of the fateful morning and what first caused him to "panic".
Explaining that Nicola is usually back to work from home at around 9.45am after dropping her two children off at school, as she did that day, Paul recalled: "I got into the office at 10 saying: 'She’ll be back in a minute.' I was doing some emails, setting my day up… it got to say, 10.15 and I thought 'she’s later than usual' - but I wasn’t particularly worried because she has come back at 10.15, 10.20 sometimes."
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However, when the time reached 10.30am, Paul began to suspect that something wasn't right. Police say the last sighting of Nicola was at around 9.10am, and her phone was found on a bench by the river at 9.20am connected to a Teams work call.
"It got to 10.30 and that’s when I thought: 'She’s quite late now, more late than usual'," Paul said. "I tried ringing her phone, ringing her on WhatsApp - no answer. I started to get a bit panicky, I think."
When he couldn't get hold of Nicola, Paul planned to go down to the river to check on her, admitting he "still expected to see her there". But before he could, he received a phone call from the children's school saying that Nicola's phone and their dog Willow had been found.
Paul told Dan that he then knew "straight away" that something had gone terribly wrong. "I knew she would never in a million years leave Willow," he explained. "Willow is like our third child… the fact that Willow is just in the field on her own off the lead is concerning."
He went on: "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." Paul then phoned the police at 10.45am.
In their latest statement on the case, Lancashire Police have said they are "keeping an open mind" about what might have happened to Nicola. The force reiterated that it remains their belief that Nicola "may have fallen in the river".
The statement emphasised: "It remains the case that at the present time there is absolutely nothing in all the extensive enquiries we have made that suggests anything untoward has happened or that there is any third-party involvement in Nicola’s disappearance, but the investigation is ongoing."
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