Nicola Bulley's daughter's 'deflated' after response to heartbreaking questions as search continues

As the search continues for missing Nicola Bulley, a friend of the mother-of-two made a new appeal for information and detailed the heartbreaking impact the search is having on Bulley's daughters.

The 45-year-old mortgage advisor was last seen two weeks ago on January 27 at around 9.10am walking her dog on a footpath near the River Wyre after she dropped her daughters, aged six and nine, at school.

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Bulley was still dialled into a work conference call when her phone was discovered on a park bench, with the dog's lead and harness also being found.

Lancashire Police's "main working hypothesis" is that she accidentally fell in the river, as searches have been conducted by police divers and underwater search experts who have found no trace of Bulley.

The force said it is examining all "potential scenarios" and admitted there is still a “possibility“ she left the area by a path not covered by CCTV cameras.

Two weeks on, Bulley remains missing and now one of her friends, Emma White, has shared on Good Morning Britain how her daughters "need their mummy" to return home and ask their father when she is coming back.

"It's just been this rollercoaster of emotions", White said, telling GMB that Bulley's loved one remain hopeful that she is still alive.

"The girls, when they get home from school, ask 'any news on mummy?' and Paul [Nikki's partner] has to say 'no' and he can see the little girls just deflate. The little girl is saying 'Is my mummy famous?' I didn’t quite know how to answer that myself… for the wrong reasons."

She added: "Bring Nikki home, come to the sofa, with the girls, with Willow and you can have that happy story because that’s what we’re keeping hope for."

In recent days, the search has since moved to Morecambe Bay with two boats with specialist police teams spotted in the sea.

Lancashire Police said in a statement on Thursday (9 February) that they had moved their search downstream.

"People may have seen less police activity today than previously in the area of the river above the weir but that is not because we have stepped down our searches," it read.

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