A missing mum was making plans for the future the night before she disappeared on a dog walk, her devastated parents have revealed.
Nicola Bulley had been excitedly planning a spa break with her younger sister Louise before the mum-of-two went missing last Friday (January 27). The 45-year-old, who "lived for her children", had also recently booked tickets to watch them perform at choir and gymnastics shows.
Ernest and Dot Bulley have also spoken of their "dread" at the thought of never seeing their daughter again and of hearing their grandchildren “sobbing their hearts out” after being told “mummy is lost”. Nicola, a mortgage advisor, was last seen at around 9.20am while walking her dog alongside the River Wyre in St Michael’s on Wyre, Lancashire, after dropping off her daughters, aged six and nine, at school.
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Ms Bulley’s phone was found, apparently still engaged on a work call, on a park bench nearby, along with the harness and lead for her dog, Willow, a springer spaniel. The dog running loose alerted a member of the public and police were called, but despite a huge search, no trace of Ms Bulley has been found.
Dot, 72, said their daughter was in good spirits and her disappearance was totally out of character, the Mirror reports. Both Nicola and Louise had been planning a spa trip and were thinking about the treatments they could get.
She said: "Louise had just booked Ribby Hall because they both had spa vouchers, she had just sent Nicola the night before the treatments. Louise booked it on Friday morning and sent it to Nicola but she never got back to her. They are very close."
The missing mum's father Ernest added Nicola was happy with her job and had a meeting with an important client before she went missing. Nicola's devastated parents have described their constant pain as they promised "we will never stop looking for her".
A major search involving drones, sniffer dogs, specialist divers, and a police helicopter has been unable to turn up any more clues. But as the operation enters a seventh day, Nicola's parents said they must keep getting up and endure "another day of hope".
Ernest, 73, said: "We will never stop looking. We just dread to think we will never see her again, if the worst came to the worst and she was never found, how will we deal with that for the rest of our lives?"
The couple, who are joint owners of a freight transport company, have split their time between caring for their grandchildren, Nicola's two young daughters, and looking for their own daughter. Just over an hour after Nicola's last confirmed sighting, a member of the public raised the alarm with police when they found Nicola's dog Willow running loose by the river.
Police arrived at the scene and found Nicola's phone on a bench, still connected to a work conference call. They began searching for Nicola immediately, but since then her family have endured an excruciating wait for answers.
For mum, Dot, the nights are the hardest. She said: "Our worst time is when it gets dark. "We find it really hard to think about wondering 'is she ok' and 'where is she?'
"But [the police] tell us 24 hours a day they are on it and still working. You wake in the night and you can't get back off to sleep."
Recalling their last conversation with Nicola before she disappeared, Ernest said his daughter had no health problems and was in good spirits enjoying her job. "Her mind was great, we picked the children up the Thursday before she went missing, as we do every Thursday.
"We took them home, Nicola had had a meeting with her boss in Garstang and she said can you stay a bit later because I have an important client coming in on Zoom. We said no problem and stayed. She had done her work and she was very upbeat about getting her mortgage sorted.
"I said we better go now and Nicola came to the front door, and I gave her a kiss and told her I loved her and that was the last conversation I had with her."
On Monday, Nicola's long-term partner Paul Ansell, 44, described the situation as "perpetual hell". But on that same day, grandad Ernest described his heartbreak at hearing the girls "sobbing their hearts out" when they were told "mummy is lost".
He added: "We don't know how long we can keep going before they realise, they think mummy is coming home soon, but if this keeps going on and on I don't know where we are going to go or what to say to them."
All members of the family have been involved in the search for Nicola in some way, particularly her younger sister, Louise, who has been out every day according to her parents. The family applauded the efforts of Lancashire Police as "marvellous" but are just desperate for clues to beloved Nikki's whereabouts.
Lancashire Police are keeping an 'open mind' but said they do not believe Nicola has been attacked.
Ernest said: "I think the police thought initially when they saw the phone on the bench and the dog wasn't tethered that she may have gone into the river and that was their main line of search. There was no sign of a slip or falling in so our thought was 'has somebody got her?'.
"I asked the Sergeant from Fleetwood a few days ago, 'is there any chance of her being taken' and she said 'I don't think that's the case'.
"I said 'how can you know that?', it's such an isolated area, the only way that has happened is if it was someone who knew her."
Now their hope is that with all the media surrounding Nicola's case, someone will spot her and report a sighting.
Ernest said: "There's so much coverage, it's like a manhunt and at this moment in time we're still no further down the line there's still no clues. If we found a part of clothing, a scarf, anything that was found somewhere then there would be a different line of inquiry but there isn't. We have found nothing.
"Louise asked the police the other day, when do you stop looking and he said 'we don't, we keep going until we find somebody'."
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