The partner of Nicola Bulley has said he is not losing hope as the search continues for the mum who went missing while walking her dog.
Bulley, 45, disappeared last Friday (27 January) in Inskip, Lancashire after dropping off her daughters, aged six and nine, at school.
Her mobile phone was found alongside the lead and harness for her dog on a bench close to the River Wyre in St Michael's on Wyre, though Lancashire Police have said they do not believe any crime has been committed.
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The case is being treated as a missing person inquiry, with Bulley's partner Paul Ansell describing her disappearance as 'insane'.
Speaking publicly for the first time since Bulley disappeared, Ansell said: "We're never going to lose hope, but right now it’s as though she vanished into thin air, it’s just insane.
“I can’t believe we're a week on and of yet it seems we're no further on, it seems absolutely impossible. It’s like a dream, I can’t get my head around it.”
As the search continues, Ansell said that his focus is on 'staying as strong as [he] can' for his two young girls.
"I'm scared that if I put focus into anything else it's going to take my focus off that," he added.
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Speaking near the scene where the mother-of-two was last seen, Ansell said he kept playing 'every scenario' in his head 'around and around'.
"Every single scenario comes to a brick wall," he said.
Ansell is joining Bulley's parents and sister, Louise Cunningham, in continuing to plead for information about Bulley's bizarre disappearance.
Speaking to Sky News, Cunningham commented: "Something has got to have been missed. Somebody must know something. People don't just vanish into thin air.”
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Bulley's father, Ernie Bulley, addressed his daughter directly as he also commented on her disappearance, saying: “There are two young children there waiting for their mummy to come back and we want her back obviously also, but if Nicola is out there, if she's watching this, then all we'd like to say is: ‘Come home, contact the police, contact ourselves and we just want you back.’
“And they know that mummy's missing but they know that she's going to be coming home and everyone is looking for her, so it's only a matter of time, that they're thinking in their minds that she's going to walk through that door.”
Police divers have been using specialist equipment to searching the River Wyre below where Bulley's items were found on the bench.
Anybody with information can call 101, quoting log 473 of January 27, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
Topics: UK News
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Emily Brown