The daughters of missing Nicola Bulley have devastatingly asked if their mummy is famous as police continue to search for the 45-year-old after she disappeared on January 27. Speaking on Good Morning Britain, Ms Bulley's close friend Emma White said the mortgage advisor's two girls have appear "deflated" every day as they ask where their mum is.
Describing the ongoing search as "torture", Emma revealed that the girls, aged six and nine, are now wondering if their beloved mummy is famous. She said: "I think children are quite resilient aren't they, but they are obviously asking questions each day.
"You know when the girls get home from school they say 'any news on mummy?' and Paul has to say 'no'. And you can just see the little girls just deflate and the little girls are saying 'is my mummy famous' and I didn't know how to answer that myself because it's for the wrong reasons."
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The search for the missing mum-of-two has now entered its 14th day. Ms Bulley was last seen walking her dog, Willow, along the River Wyre after dropping her children off at school in St Michaels on Wyre, Lancashire.
Police initially worked on the theory that she had fallen into the river as her phone - which was still connected to a work call - was left on a nearby bench with Willow running around the area without a lead or harness. But underwater search specialists have yet to find any trace of her.
On Thursday (Feb 9), dive experts extended their search to Morecambe Bay in hopes of finding her. Police have also been forced to warn members of the public from taking law into their own hands when getting involved in the search, with a group last night understood to have been given a dispersal order.
Police are said to now be following a fresh lead as a 'tatty red van' was seen on the same day missing Nicola Bulley disappeared. As the search for the mum-of-two - who vanished on January 27 - enters its 15th day, it has now emerged that a concerned resident noticed a suspicious-looking vehicle in the area.
The vehicle is said to be a Renault, outside a barn in St Michael's on Wyre - near to River Wyre in Lancashire, where Nicola Bulley was last at. According to the Mirror, the witness contacted Lancashire Police to report a suspicious "red van" parked in the village.
Speaking to The Times, the 55-year-old witness, who had not been named, said she was heading towards a bakery when she clocked the "tatty red van" located "outside a barn on Hall Lane". She said: "I didn’t think anything at the time, but when I saw Nicola had gone missing, I called 101 and spoke to an operator.
"I contacted the police again on Friday and spoke to a police officer. It could have been a Renault van." The witness also said that the van appeared to be one that "you can live in".
Emma White is appealing for anyone who may have seen something to come forward. Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, she said: "It is just a rollercoaster, it is almost like torture - the despair, the unimaginable frustration in the sense that everyone has come together, working so hard: the police, the community, people on the ground.
"You expect to be rewarded for when you put hard work in, so we just need something, anything, a piece of information that can lead us down a different inquiry." Emma was asked about police being given the power to break up groups causing a nuisance in the Lancashire village, and urged visitors to stay away.
"People are offering to come and help but that's not really helping the situation," she added. "Ultimately, we all want to bring Nikki home but we need to do it in a logical, systematic way and we have to leave it to the police."
Anyone with information which could assist our investigation should call Lancashire Police on 101 quoting log 0565 of January 30th. For immediate sightings please call 999.
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