Nicola Bulley's partner says 'people don't just vanish into thin air'
‘Something happened that day… I’m 100 per cent convinced it’s not the river’: Nicola Bulley’s partner says his family have still not given up hope they will find her two weeks after she vanished as he says he feels ‘like he is in the Truman show’
- Paul Ansell said he is ‘100 per cent’ Ms Bulley did not fall into the River Wyre
- The mother-of-two went missing while walking her dog on January 27
Nicola Bulley’s partner today declared ‘something happened that day’ as the search for the missing mother hits the two-week mark.
Paul Ansell said he is ‘100 per cent’ the mortgage advisor, 45, did not fall in the River Wyre in Lancashire, as police believe.
Speaking to 5 News’s Dan Walker, he said the family is going through ‘unprecedented hell’ but vowed to ‘never let go’, adding: ‘Nicky would never give up on us ever. She wouldn’t give up on anybody. And we’re not gonna ever give up on her like, we’re going to find her.’
Mr Ansell said: ‘People don’t just vanish into thin air, it’s absolutely impossible. So something has happened. Something has happened. Find out what it is. Find out what it is.
‘There has to be a way to find out what happened, there has to be. You cannot, you cannot walk your dog down a river and just vanish into thin air. Something happened that day, something’.
Nicola Bulley’s partner today declared ‘something happened that day’ as the search for the missing mother hits the two-week mark
Lancashire Police’s working hypothesis has long been that Ms Bulley (pictured with her partner) ended up in the water after she mysteriously vanished from St Michael’s on Wyre on January 27
Describing the impact the disappearance has had on his children, Mr Ansell said: ‘What any parent knows you know, that all you wanna to do is make everything better for your children isn’t it… and I can’t you know, I can’t do that.
‘The only thing, the only thing that I can do is tell them that everybody is looking for mummy. The best people like, in the world are looking for mummy, just to give them that, you know, that level of hope that they can understand that everything that can be done to find mummy, is being done.’
He added: ‘It just doesn’t feel real… I feel like I’m in the Truman show. Like.. I honestly believe I’m going to wake up at any moment…how are we even in this? We are good people.’
It comes after a close friend of the missing mother-of-two told of the ‘agony’ of waiting for news, following an emotional vigil at their local village church two weeks after she vanished.
READ MORE: Second witness claims they saw ‘shabby and suspicious red van’ in area where Nicola Bulley went missing as police hunt continues
Ms Bulley, 45, and her family would attend medieval St Michael’s Church on the banks of the River Wyre in Lancashire, just a couple of hundred yards from where she disappeared.
The silent vigil was held before a small altar, with candles lit around a photo of smiling Ms Bulley and her partner, Paul Ansell.
Outside, lining the road through the village, friends of Ms Bulley again gathered for another roadside appeal.
They held up placards featuring her photograph, in a plea to ‘bring Nikki home’ and appealing for information.
Heather Gibbons, a family friend who attended the church vigil, said: ‘It’s the hub in the community, it’s a place where we’ve frequently been with Nikki. She would often be here with her girls and with Paul.
‘So yes, I’m sat in there thinking of the times where I’ve sat next to her, in the church, and really wishing I could go back … just, yeah, wishing she was here.
‘That’s exactly what it is, it’s an agonising wait, it’s almost a hell above hell, because the unknown is unbearable.
‘So, this morning at 10 o’clock we just opened the church for people to come and to light a candle, just to have a chance to come, a space to collect their thoughts, to be together.
‘It’s not a vigil in that we’ve lost hope, it’s almost trying to create that moment of hope for everybody to keep supporting one another.
‘We just needed a space to be able to think and pray and collect our thoughts for the family and for Nikki.
A police Search and Rescue team in Knott End-on-Sea, Lancashire, on the southern side of Morecambe Bay, as police continue their search for Nicola Bulley
A police Search and Rescue team in Knott End-on-Sea, Lancashire, on the southern side of Morecambe Bay this morning
An RNLI lifeboat was deployed on the water earlier today in the hunt for the missing mother
Search teams in a dinghy were out on the water this morning looking for the missing mother
A Nicola Bulley candlelit vigil is being held today in the local church as the hunt continues
Friends of missing Nicola Bulley hold missing person appeal posters along the main road in the village in St Michael’s on Wyre, Lancashire
‘There’s been a lovely little turnout of people who just wanted to come and have that moment.
‘The family are on the worst rollercoaster of their lives, they are still holding on to hope, that there’s a chance we will get Nikki home safe.
‘They have the same thinking that nothing is making sense. They are just desperate for some evidence that will pinpoint exactly what has happened.’
Ms Bulley vanished while walking her springer spaniel dog Willow, alongside the River Wyre in St Michael’s on Wyre on January 27.
She had dropped off her daughters, aged six and nine, at school and was on her usual walk when she disappeared, her phone – still connected to a call for her job as a mortgage advisor – was found on a bench overlooking the river.
Despite a huge search of the river and surrounding countryside by Lancashire Police, no trace of her has been found.
The group home someone will have seen her alive
People are being urged to call police if they have any dashcam footage from the time she vanished
Ms Bulley, 45, was last seen two weeks ago on the morning of Friday January 27, when she was spotted walking her dog on a footpath by the nearby River Wyre
Friends of missing woman Nicola Bulley hold missing person appeal posters along the main road in the village in St Michael’s on Wyre
The force has discounted foul play and are treating the incident as a missing person enquiry, believing that Ms Bulley has fallen into the water.
But police say they are still keeping an ‘open mind’ and appealing for information.
Mrs Gibbons added: ‘At the moment the police have been clear as to what their working hypothesis is, but it is exactly that, it is a hypothesis.
‘I have spoken to police along with other friends and family and they have made it clear all avenues are still open.
‘They are encouraging everyone to keep open-minded, the words were, they have not got their blinkers on.
‘We are hopeful, we’re still holding on to hope.’
Focus of the police search on Thursday switched from St Michael’s to around 10 miles downstream where the river empties into the sea at Morecambe Bay, with police patrol boats and rescue boats spotted on the river and in the bay.
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