Missing Nicola Bulley daughter’s ‘cried their eyes out’ after father told them: ‘Mummy’s lost’

The distraught partner of the missing mother, Nicola Bulley, has tried to break the news that “Mum is missing” to their two daughters, aged nine and six.

Ms Bulley’s daughters ‘wept her eyes out’ as their father, Paul Ansell, tried to comfort them as he himself was wracked with fear and grief this week.

It has been five days since the mother-of-two disappeared while walking her dog, the springer spaniel Willow, on a towpath alongside the River Wyre at St Michael’s on Wyre, Lancashire.

The 45-year-old woman’s phone was found in a nearby bank, still marked on the business call she was on when she was last seen.

And while Mr. Ansell is trying to be “as strong as possible” for his daughters’ sake, he has tried to explain the basics to them.

Their father, David, said: “The children have been told: ‘Mommy is missing’, but they haven’t been told all the details,” according to The Sun.

“When told, they absolutely cried.”

And Mrs Bulley’s mother said: ‘Paul had to tell the girls what was going on. He simply told them: ”Mommy is lost”. It’s heartbreaking.

Speaking from the family home in Inskip, Lancashire, Ansell said he spent all of Sunday looking for his partner of 12 years.

The engineer said: ‘It’s just perpetual hell. It is pure disbelief. We’re living this, but it doesn’t feel real.

All we can say is that we have to find her. She has two little girls who need her mom at her house. We have to receive good news now.

Kev Camplin, from Bowland Pennine Mountain Rescue, sprang into action hours after she went missing, leading a team of 25 trained volunteers to search the area that same day.

He said Mirror: ‘The abandoned house is directly opposite the bank on the other side of the river, on a 10 foot garden wall. It’s quite elegant.

“We don’t go into the house, as a volunteer search and rescue team, we don’t actually go into the buildings. We could go to a barn or something. We leave that to the police.

“While the team was searching the grounds, the owner was there for some reason, and we asked her to come in and she took a quick look and she wasn’t there.”

The team arrived at the location around 1 p.m. after receiving a noon alert and searched tirelessly until around 8 p.m.

The revelation comes after Lancashire police said today they had found a “key witness” who they believe could help find the missing mother.

Police said the witness, who was walking a fluffy white dog in the area, was “talking to it.”

The man “spoke to the woman in the area who found Nicola’s dog near a bench in the field,” the force said in an earlier statement.

Ben Pociecha, director of Exclusively Mortgages, said Ms Bulley had checked in to a team meeting at 9:01 am ‘It sounds like she’s on mute and doesn’t have her camera on. She was listening while she was walking her dog,” she told MailOnline.

‘There were numerous parties involved in this. Many people attended the call. Police are investigating the call.

Ms Bulley was walking Willow in the area, who was later found loose between the river and the bank.

The mortgage adviser has lived in Lancashire for 25 years, but is originally from nearby Chelmsford, Essex, and has a southern accent.

Nicola’s brother-in-law, Stephen Cunningham, said: “The whole family, unsurprisingly, is struggling to understand what happened and is concerned beyond words.”

In a statement, Ms Bulley’s family said: “We have been overwhelmed by the support of our community and would like to thank everyone for their continued efforts in helping us find Nicola.” The girls are desperate to have their mom back home safely with them, and her continued efforts have brought them comfort as we wait for news about Nicola.

“We ask anyone who thinks they may have any information that could help police find Nicola to come forward and help them with their investigations.”

It came as a social media post surfaced where Ms Bulley shared photos of herself walking her beloved dog Willow, near where she went missing on January 27.

In it, he said: ‘Cold walk with a lot of fog this morning, not a day to forget your gloves! Kind of creepy too! However, she set me up for the day and Willow had a blast.

Specialist search teams today combed the River Wyre, off Garstang Road in St Michael’s in Wyre, Lancs., and the surrounding countryside in an effort to locate the mortgage adviser.

The villagers also joined the search for the mother of two Nicola.

Mick Peter, 37, spent his lunch hour searching. He said: ‘He has impacted the entire community. I’ve come just to help. This is a lovely area that is popular with dog walkers.

“I walk my dog ​​here every day and I always see other people walking. Someone must have seen something. I hope he turns up safe.

A neighbor said: ‘The family is very close. They are very affectionate and will be in absolute pieces. It’s a mystery. They just have no idea where it is.

“We went out searching on Sunday and she has taken the dog there many times, but the river banks can be very slippery.”

She added: ‘You just don’t know, but I do know that she would never have left those children willingly. The whole family is loving.

“I imagine Nicola was a loving mother. They are the loveliest people you could ever wish to meet. I think everyone is devastated because she seemed like the type of girl who didn’t have a bad bone in her body.

‘She was extremely nice and homey. She lived for her and Paul’s daughters. The family will be heartbroken.

Every week her parents go to Nicola’s house, pick up their grandchildren and come back here. I can’t imagine what they’re going through and just have no idea where it could be.

‘We have been quite upset. Nicola had a good family and a good job and she was a lovely person.

The police ask for any information about his whereabouts. Ms. Bulley is described as white, 5 feet 3 inches, with shoulder-length light brown hair.

At the time of his disappearance, he was wearing a long black vest with a hood, black jeans, and olive-green wellies. His hair was tied up in a ponytail.

In an update on Monday, police said they are keeping an “open mind” about what happened, but do not believe Ms Bulley was targeted.

Ansell said either he or Bulley, also known as Nikki, would drop the children, ages nine and six, at a local elementary school before taking Willow for a walk along the nearby river.

Ms. Bulley did the school run before heading to the dog walk on Friday, police said.

“I got a call from the school about someone finding Willow, Nikki’s phone and the dog’s leash and harness in the bank,” said Mr Ansell, who then called police.

Lancashire Police Superintendent Sally Riley told the Mirror that Ms Bulley’s phone was still on an active call when they found it: “It was on a meeting call and it was still live.” He was connected to the conference call and that was not over.

The officer told a news conference that fears for Ms Bulley are growing as time goes on.

She said: ‘The police are keeping a very open mind about what might have happened, but we believe Nicola is most likely missing and this is not a criminal investigation.

We’ve set up a really intensive operation to try to find Nicola. We have a large area to search. People disappear, but clearly, as time goes by, we care more and more for Nicola.

“But we are very hopeful that we can find something to try to get her home safely soon.

“We are appealing to anyone who was driving through the village of St Michael’s last Friday morning around 9:15am on the towpath, to move forward. You can call 101 or if you have seen Nicola , to 999.

Searches have been carried out by Lancashire Police, using a helicopter, drones and dogs with support from the Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service, the Bowland Pennine Mountain Rescue Team and the North West Underwater Search Team.

Locals have also organized searches in the area.

• Anyone with information can call 101, citing log 473 from 27 January, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.