Nicola Bulley’s partner Paul Ansell has given a heartbreaking TV interview as the search for the missing mum-of-two enters its 15th day. Nicola was walking her dog Willow when she vanished on January 27.
Talking to 5 News presenter Dan Walker, Paul said he wanted to keep “all options open” about Nicola's disappearance. In an emotional 75-minute interview last night, Paul said he thought a local could be to blame for her disappearance.
He also said he knew he would be a suspect in the disappearance of his partner. The mum of two had taken her daughters, aged six and nine, to school before going on her usual walk when she vanished. When her phone was found on a bench overlooking the river it was still connected to a call for her job as a mortgage adviser. A huge search of the river and surrounding countryside by Lancashire Police has found no trace of Nicola.
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These are the key points from Paul Ansell's interview with Dan Walker:
Local to blame
Paul told Dan: “People don’t just vanish into thin air. It’s absolutely impossible. So something has happened. Whatever has happened, in my eyes, has to be somebody who knows the local area. You would only know that area, by local, it’s a local area.” Paul said he and Nicola had walked the path she disappeared from since they met 12 years ago. “You see the same faces every single day."
He said non-locals “stand out like a sore thumb. The fact that nothing’s been seen or heard, I just truly believe that it’s something in the village.”
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Expand the search
The father-of-two said he wanted the search for Nicola extended to all outbuildings and homes and gardens. “I want every house, every garage, every outbuilding, the land, scrutinised. I want it all searched, I want it all scrutinised, every piece of it.”
Paul Expected to be a suspect
In an emotional interview Paul also told Dan he always expected to be treated as a suspect: “I expected that. I said to them ‘do it and get that out the way’.” He said he then urged police to “focus on finding her”.
He also said he’d had to deal with unpleasant comments as the search continued: “Some of the things that people say are just, I mean, just ridiculous, aren’t they? I read one that said, ‘the police need to look at the partner’. And I’m sort of like, well, yeah, that’s the first thing that they do. Like of course it is. I knew that that would happen, you know, on the first day.”
How phone was found
Paul said Nicola usually dropped the girls at school and walked her dog before getting home by 10am.
Paul replied: “I just went in the house, put the kettle on, made a cup of tea, went into the living room, and thought I’ve got an hour now to sort of chill and get myself ready for the day. Which is what I did. So she’s usually back, like, quarter to 10, average 10 o’clock. At a push. So I’d gone up into the office at 10.
“Thinking that she’d be back in a minute, I was just going through some emails and stuff, setting my day up. It got to say quarter past 10, and that’s when I thought she was later than usual, but I still wasn’t particularly worried because she has come back at quarter past, 20 sometimes.
By 10.30am he thought :“She’s quite, quite late now. More late than usual.” Paul told Dan that when he rang Nicola on her phone and WhatsApp there was no reply.
“Now I sort of started to get a bit panicky I think. So that’s when I thought I’m gonna have to go down there and see if she’s alright. See if I can see the car or you know, see what’s going on. But I still expected that I’d just get there and, you know, there she is. I just thought basically I’m gonna go out, find her, come home do a bit of work.”
He added: “I was going to leave and then the phone rang. It was the school and it was the receptionist at school.
“She said ‘Mr Ansell, it’s a bit of a weird one. It’s a bit of a weird one. But we found Willow and Nikki’s phone on the bench, and the harness halfway down the embankment on the floor’.” He continued: “I’m about to leave thinking I’m going to see her, you know, pass her and find her. Then I get that call.”
Morning was "normal" but "different"
Paul admitted that morning was different, but "normal" at the same time.
The dad-of-two said: “Yeah, totally normal, the only difference that morning was, you know usually, when you’ve got children, getting up on a school day. You probably know yourself, it's just mayhem isn’t it. Absolute carnage. And you know, we’re always up a little bit too late sometimes and trying to get them to have their breakfast and sort all that out and then do their hair.”
Paul continued: “The only difference on that morning two weeks ago was that there wasn’t a lot of rushing. I came down and a lot of stuff was already done.” He added: “The girls were having their breakfast and everything was pretty much ready to go. I came down, Nikki went upstairs to get ready.
“The routine is basically if Nikki is taking the girls and Willow, when I hear her come down, I’ll get them in the car. It’s a well-oiled machine normally. And if it’s my job usually the roles were reversed.”
Appeal
He said: “I just, how much, how much I love her. How much us as a family love her and need her. How well thought of, how much our friends love her, and need her back. Um, and we are never, we’re never gonna be the same until, until she is back. Just come home.”
“Because all we need is that tiny something. We just need that tiny something to give us some answers you know, some answers,” he added. “So, you know, that’s all I can say is, you know, just please just, just contact the police with anything at all. Like anybody who knows anything, like, like you say, no matter how small that is, even if you think probably isn’t anything, just please just contact the police. Just please just do it.”
Nicola’s dog Willow, a silent witness
Asked by Dan how he felt about the situation, Mr Ansell added: “Anger, loads of frustration, confusion, disbelief, surrealism, nothing feels real. It just doesn’t feel real... I feel like I’m in The Truman Show. I honestly believe I’m going to wake up at any moment... how are we even in this? We are good people.”
Mr Ansell also confessed his frustration at the dog seeing what happened. Paul said the fact Willow almost certainly witnessed what happened adds “another layer of frustration” to the situation. “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. Um, 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.” Paul said he wanted to keep “all options open” about Nicola’s disappearance.
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