The partner of Nicola Bulley has admitted the morning she went missing was “different” to others. Paul Ansell made the claim in a new interview on Channel 5.
Mr Ansell spoke out to Dan Walker, the former BBC Strictly Come Dancing star, as part of a 75-minute documentary over the missing mum’s disappearance. Nicola went missing a fortnight ago, and the search enters its 15th day today (Saturday February 11).
Nicola vanished in St Michael’s on Wyre, in Lancashire, having dropped her children off at school half an hour before. In his chat with Dan on Channel 5, Mr Ansell – who hinted a local could be to blame – said: “Yeah totally normal, the only difference that morning was, you know usually, when you’ve got children, getting up on a school day.
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“You probably know yourself is 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. 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.”
Mr Ansell has said he is “100% convinced” Nicola is not in the water, and has called on police to give more resources and widen the search on land. The police are currently sticking with their theory Nicola fell into the river when her pet dog Willow ran into trouble.
He said: “It is the police’s job to find the evidence that will let us know what has happened and where she is. If the current strategy and lines of enquiry are not working, it’s time to do something different and expand out. What they’ve done so far is fantastic but my only aim is to find Nikki and as yet that’s not happened.
“There’s so much ground to cover that hasn’t been searched yet.” He continued: “It’s time to widen the search because we don’t want any stone left unturned. We just want to know what happened to Nikki and if that means searching every house and outbuilding in the village and surrounding area then that’s what needs to be done.”
