Nicola Bulley’s partner reveals he feels like he’s ‘living in the Truman Show’ as her disappearance ‘doesn’t feel real’
MISSING Nicola Bulley's partner revealed he feels like he's living in the "Truman Show" as her disappearance "doesn't feel real".
Nicola, 45, was last seen in St Michael's on Wyre, Lancashire, at around 9.15am on January 27.
Police believe she fell in the River Wyre while walking her dog Willow.
Her partner Paul Ansell has now told Channel 5's Dan Walker that "something happened that day" as people do just "vanish into thin air".
He also spoke of his torment at her disappearance two weeks after she was last seen.
In a preview ahead of tonight's show Vanished: What happened to Nicola Bulley? at 9pm, Paul said: "It just doesn’t feel real. I feel like I’m in the Truman Show.
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"Like, I honestly believe I’m going to wake up at any moment…how are we even in this? We are good people.”
Paul also said he feels "anger, loads of frustration, confusion, disbelief, surrealism" as the family goes through "unprecedented hell".
He told how he is "100 per cent convinced" Nicola is not in the river as police believe.
Paul added: "People don't just vanish into thin air, it's absolutely impossible.
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"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."
The dad also opened up on how Nicola's disappearance has affected their two young daughters.
He said he tells them "everybody is looking for Mummy" to give them a "level of hope" that everything that can be done to find her is being done.
Paul added: "What we’re going through now is like unprecedented hell. But that hope and that positivity in me is stronger than ever, and I’m never, ever going to let go.
"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.”
It comes as the search for Nicola moved 20 miles down river to Morecambe Bay.
Two boats with specialist police teams were seen scouring the water with police suggesting finding her in the sea is becoming more of a "possibility".
Officers are also probing reports of a “shabby and suspicious” red van seen near where Nicola disappeared.
The vehicle was spotted close to the mum’s walking route on the morning she went missing.
A man in his 50s described the van as a high-sided Renault or Transit in a faded red.
The witness said: “It was a shabby looking van, an older model, the kind you can live or work in.
“It was on a quiet lane near a barn, with a couple of houses dotted around.
“Obviously, I don’t know whether this van is related to Nicola’s disappearance. All I know is that something grabbed my attention. I felt compelled to tell police about it.
“Even though it was down the road, as the crow flies it’s quite close to where Nicola was last seen.”
It also emerged police are probing a two hour gap between Nicola's last sighting and when she was reported missing.
The mum was last seen walking Willow along the River Wyre at around 9.10am.
But the first call did not come in until 11am - meaning there is a two hour window before officers started looking for her.
The search could also have been hindered by three CCTV blindspots in the area where Nicola vanished.
Police have admitted she could have left via a path not covered by cameras as they keep an "open mind" regarding her disappearance.
However they say their "main working hypothesis" is the mortgage broker "sadly fell in the river".
Officers previously released a timeline of the missing mum’s final movements before she disappeared.
Nicola began her walk along the towpath to the River Wyre at 8.43am after dropping her two children off at school.
Police say around seven minutes later, a dog walker who knows Nicola saw her walking around the lower field with her springer spaniel Willow.
The witness said their two dogs interacted briefly before she left Nicola via the river path.
At 8.53am, the mum sent an email to her boss at Exclusively Mortgages.
She then logged into a Teams call at 9.01am and was seen around nine minutes later on the upper field walking Willow.
Police say at 9.30am, the work call ended but Nicola stayed logged on.
At around 9.35am, the mobile and Willow were found at a bench by the river but there was no sign of Nicola.
Nicola has been described as white, 5ft 3ins tall with light-brown shoulder-length hair.
She was last seen wearing an ankle-length black quilted gilet jacket with a black Engelbert Strauss waist-length coat underneath and black tight-fitting jeans.
She had long green walking socks tucked into her jeans, ankle-length green Next wellies, a necklace and a pale blue Fitbit on.
Nicola has an Essex accent and links to the Thornton-Cleveleys area near Blackpool.
Anybody with information about where she might be is asked to call 101, quoting log 473 of January 27, or ring 999 for immediate sightings.
