Nicola Bulley: Police release image of new witness they want to speak to in search for missing mum

Charlie Herbert

Police believe the woman was “in the area at the time” of Nicola Bulley’s disappearance

Police have released a picture of a woman they want to speak to in the search for Nicola Bulley.

The 45-year-old mum was last seen walking next to the River Wyre off Garstang Road, in St Michael’s on Wyre, at about 9.15am on January 27.

Lancashire Police said the further potential witness they want to speak to was walking a small white dog.

Officers said the woman, who was captured on CCTV at about 08:50 on Allotment Lane, close to where Bulley was last seen, might have information to help the investigation.

She was wearing a red and white coat with a fur hood, light-coloured trousers and a light bobble hat and was walking a small white dog.

https://twitter.com/LancsPolice/status/1621151341405163523

An alarm was raised when Bulley’s brown cocker spaniel, Willow, was found walking around off its lead.

Police later found her phone on a bench, still connected to a work call, next to a dog lead and harness. The camera was off and she was muted.

A major police search has since been launched and has also seen hundreds of local residents scouring the area for any sign of the missing mum.

The force says it remains “open minded” as to Nicola’s disappearance but insist they do not believe at present that she was attacked.

BREAKING: Lancashire Police have released an image of a potential witness in the disappearance of Nicola Bulley.

Ms Bulley was last seen on Friday at around 9.15am on a towpath by the River Wyre off Garstang Road in the village of St Michael's on Wyre.https://t.co/PAiZ4D1RJB pic.twitter.com/HIw1dA3lRb

— Sky News (@SkyNews) February 2, 2023

Supt Sally Riley said: “We know that Nicola going missing has caused a great deal of concern for the wider local community, as well as obviously being an awful time for her family.

“I appreciate that there are unanswered questions about what has happened to Nicola, but I would urge people not to speculate or spread false rumours.”

Officers are “extremely concerned” for her welfare but stressed the investigation is still a missing person inquiry, and that there is currently nothing to suggested third-party involvement in her disappearance.

Police are already speaking to a “potentially key” witness, a 70-year-old man who is believed to have been in the area at the time of Bulley’s disappearance.

Bulley’s parents told the Mirror that her daughters, aged six and nine, who she had just dropped off at school, were “sobbing their hearts out” because “mummy is lost”.

They said her disappearance was out of character, and she was in good health and enjoying her job.

Meanwhile, her partner of 12 years, Paul Ansell, 44, has said the family is in “perpetual hell.”

The mum was last seen wearing a long, black gilet jacket with a hood, black jeans and olive green ankle wellies.

Her light brown shoulder-length hair was tied into a ponytail when she was last seen and police have described her as white and 5ft 3 ins.

Police said she speaks with an Essex accent.

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