DID NICOLA SLIP INTO THE RIVER GOING AFTER DOG’S BALL?

A week on, police give their tragic theory

Nicola Bulley may have been trying to retrieve her dog’s tennis ball when she fell into a river, police said last night.

The mother of two was wearing two heavy coats that could have ‘filled with water’ and weighed her down. Officers gave the bleak assessment after an agonising week for her family.

Police are ‘as sure as we can be’ that the 45-year-old did not walk away from the Lancashire riverbank where she was last seen. Although there was no trace of her, anything ‘suspicious’ has now been ruled out.

As divers extended their grim search along a 13-mile stretch of the River Wyre leading to the coast, Ms Bulley’s tormented partner branded the mystery ‘insane’.

Choking back tears, heartbroken Paul Ansell said he was trying to stay

strong for the couple’s two daughters, who are aged six and nine.

Police revealed more details of the fateful Friday morning last week when the mortgage adviser vanished while walking the family’s beloved spaniel Willow at St Michael’s on Wyre, near Preston, after dropping the children at their primary school.

Since then Ms Bulley’s distraught family have been clinging to hopes she may still be alive, perhaps having staged her own disappearance or even being kidnapped.

Last night they were finding the candid police assessment ‘hard to contemplate’ but continued to hope, the Mail was told.

The popular mother was seen several times on her walk but officers have disclosed a technical analysis of her phone now shows that at 9.20am it was placed on a bench on the riverbank, still connected to the business conference call she had been on.

Police said it was ‘possible’ she might have been trying to retrieve Willow’s tennis ball which Ms Bulley had said on social media the spaniel was ‘never far away from’. No ball has been found.

Superintendent Sally Riley told a village hall press conference that CCTV had helped rule out foul play or a disappearing act.

She said: ‘Our main working hypothesis is that Nicola has sadly fallen into the river, that there is no third-party or criminal involvement and that this is not suspicious,

‘Ruled out foul play or a disappearing act’

but a tragic case of a missing person. Several of the exits are locked or covered by CCTV, we have looked at the CCTV and negated the possibility of Nicola leaving the area.’

The superintendent said: ‘It is possible, as the dog was loose and off the lead, that there may have been an issue with the dog that led her to the water’s edge, she puts her phone down to go and deal with the dog momentarily – and Nicola may have fallen in.’

She said Ms Bulley could swim but added: ‘I don’t wish to speculate but the facts are that she was wearing a quilted, ankle-length gilet, which is a big coat, and underneath that there was another coat and then under that coat more clothing. She was also wearing ankle-length wellingtons. One would assume they fill with water when someone enters a river so all of that clothing is heavy, particularly on someone who is of slight build and only 5ft 3in.’

Willow was found 13 minutes later wandering close to the bench in a ‘worried’ state. The dog was ‘bone dry’, although her harness had been removed and it was lying on the bank between the bench and the cold water, which was over 6ft deep at that point.

Ms Riley said it was normal for Willow to be out of her harness and running free along the river. She said specialist officers had conducted an ‘unprecedented’ search of the river which would continue over the weekend between the village and Morecambe Bay using divers, underwater drones, search dogs and tidal experts. Ms Bulley’s desperate parents, sister, partner and daughters have all been living a nightmare over the past week. Mr Ansell, a 44year-old company director, said he shared the bewilderment of millions who had followed the agonising mystery since his partner of 12 years disappeared.

At the scene he said: ‘My whole focus is my two girls, just staying as strong as I can for them. I’m scared that if I put focus into anything else it’s going to take my focus off that. I just can’t believe we’re a week on, and it seems like we’re no further on. It just seems absolutely impossible. Like a dream. I cannot get my head around it. Right now it’s like she’s vanished into thin air, it’s insane.’

Family friend Emma White told ITV’s Good Morning Britain of the strain Mr Ansell was under, saying: ‘We have the two most beautiful little girls out there asking where’s their mummy – we can’t give them answers.’

Another friend, Luke Sumner, acknowledged the evidence pointed to the river.

‘It’s very, very wet, the banks can be quite steep in certain areas, and the current can be quite fast,’ he told Radio 4’s PM. But he said family and friends continued ‘clinging to any hope there is’.

Ms Bulley grew up in Essex but moved to Lancashire in her late twenties, marrying and divorcing before meeting Mr Ansell in 2011.