Nicola Bulley search: Latest on police search for missing mother

Nicola Bulley search updates: Latest as hunt continues for missing mother-of-two who vanished seven days ago as she listened to work conference call while walking her dog beside river

This is MailOnline’s live coverage as the search for missing mother-of-two Nicola Bulley enters its sixth day:

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Neighbours of Nicola Bulley have raised fears about the ‘slippery riverbank’ near to where the missing mother was last seen as police continue to probe her disappearance.

Police say they remain ‘open minded’ as to Ms Bulley’s disappearance, but insist they do not believe at present that she was attacked or that there was any ‘third-party involvement’. 

While the river is just 18 inches deep in some areas, the section where Ms Bulley’s phone was found is near a sign which reads: ‘Danger – deep water.’

With the local community wracked by fear, her neighbours confirmed that the doting mother would have never willingly left her family. 

A neighbour said of Ms Bulley last night: ‘The family is extremely close-knit. They are very loving and they will be in absolute pieces. It’s a mystery. They just have no idea where she is.

‘We went out on the search on Sunday and she has taken the dog there loads of times but the banks of the river can be very slippery.’

She added: ‘You just don’t know do you but I do know that she would have never ever left those children voluntarily. The whole family is doting.

Ms Bulley’s disappearance comes more than two decades after a toddler drowned in the same river and less than six miles from where the dogwalker was last seen.

In 2000, the body of two-year-old Reece Maybury washed up half a mile downstream from the riverside camp site he had been staying at with family.

It’s been six days now since Nicola Bulley vanished while walking her dog, springer spaniel Willow, on a towpath by the River Wyre in St Michael’s on Wyre, Lancashire

Ms Bulley had dropped her two daughters off at primary school in the village of St Michael’s on Wyre, Lancashire, at about 8.45am last Friday.

She then walked Willow to a nearby towpath by the River Wyre at around 9.15am, but has not been seen since.

The alarm was raised among the local community by around 10am after Ms Bulley’s springer spaniel Willow is seen running loose by a walker. The dog’s lead and harness were later found on a nearby park bench, which had her mobile phone on it which was still connected to a work call.

This map below, produced by MailOnline, reveals the last known movements of the missing dogwalker and mother-of-two on the day she disappeared.

‘When is Mummy coming home?’ Father of missing dog walker Nicola Bulley reveals heartbreaking question her daughters keep asking that leaves him ‘unable to hold it together’

The father of missing mother-of-two Nicola Bulley is struggling to ‘hold it together’ for the sake of his family as the search enters its seventh day.

Ms Bulley, 45, was last seen walking her spaniel Willow at about 9.15am last Friday along the River Wyre in Lancashire while dialled into a business call.

Ernest, her father, broke down as he told how hard it was to be in the same room as his granddaughters, aged six and nine, as they continue to ask questions about their mother’s whereabouts.

‘When I look at the kids, I have to go out of the room because I can’t hold it together,’ he told The Mirror. ‘They are asking where Mummy is and when is Mummy coming home? It’s so hard.’

The family say the girls were ‘sobbing their hearts out’ when their father, Paul Ansell, tried to explain to them that ‘Mummy is lost’. 

‘We don’t know how long we can keep going before they realise. They think Mummy is coming home soon, but if this keeps going on I don’t know what we’re going to say to them.’

Read MailOnline’s extensive coverage by clicking the link below:

Police search teams remain at the scene and have continued to scour the banks of the River Wyre for any clues as to the missing mother-of-two’s whereabouts.

We’ll be bringing you all the latest updates via our live blog today.

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