A family friend of Nicola Bulley claims that the missing mum's partner has begged Mercedes to help track her car keys. The 45-year-old disappeared on the morning of January 27 where she was last seen walking her brown spaniel Willow near the River Wyre in St Michaels on the Wyre, Lancashire.
The search has now moved into its third week as police were seen looking around Wyreside Farm Caravan Park and last week extended their River Wyre search down to Morecambe Bay. However, Nicola's partner Paul Ansell has repeatedly said he doesn't believe that his wife is in the river, the Mirror reports.
Nicola's loved ones are desperate for answers and are continuing to appeal for anyone who may remember anything to come forward. A neighbour and friend of the missing mum, Charlotte Drake previously addressed speculation that the dog walker's keys had been left in the ignition as she said Nicola 'would have put them in her coat pocket'.
According to Paul Ansell, the keys are described 'with a couple of Mercedes keyrings on it, one black and one blue, a round wooden key ring with paw prints on it, and a couple of normal keys'. Another close friend of the couple, Heather Gibbons said that Paul had contacted Mercedes very soon after it became apparent that Nicola was missing.
She said: "Paul has been clear about Nikki's keys being missing from the get-go. In the local searches, he specifically asked people to keep their eyes open for them and even organised for people to go out with metal detectors.
"One of the first things he did was to contact Mercedes to see if they could be tracked." Peter Faulding who led a private underwater search of the River Wyre shares a similar view to Paul as he says he is '100 per cent' sure that Nicola is not in the waters that he searched.
The SGI team scoured several miles of the river over a period of three days last week but left the village after they found no trace of the missing 5-year-old. Faulding has now reportedly launched his own 'low-key' search as he claims he has spoken to Ms Bulley's family about 'deposition sites' where Nicola could potentially be buried.
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