Nicola Bulley police trying to trace NEW key witness seen on CCTV pushing pram

Police have made a fresh appeal for a new potentially key witness in their ongoing search for missing mum Nicola Bulley.

This marks the third call Lancashire Police have made for a specific witness in their efforts to locate the mum who vanished on the morning of Friday, 27 January.

Nicola, 45, had been out walking the family dog Willow, in St Michael’s on Wyre near where she lived, after dropping her two daughters off at school.

But after a last sighting sometime around 9.10am, whilst she was on a work call, the mum seemingly disappeared before her phone was found on a bench at 9.35am, with her dog running free.

In the eight days since then there has been no sign of the mum, leaving loved ones growing more concerned for her well-being.

This evening, police released another appeal for a new witness they hope could be vital in locating her.

The witness is a woman who had been pushing a pram along Garstang Road/Blackpool Road in the village, close to where Nicola went missing around the same time as the last sightings.

Officers believe she may have walked along the river path where Nicola had been walking the family dog, Willow, so want to speak to her.

In a statement, Lancashire Police said: “It is believed that the female in question may have walked along the river path during these times and so detectives want to speak to her and urge her to get in touch.

“We are also appealing to anyone who was driving down Blackpool Lane/Garstang Lane on the morning of Friday 27th January between the times of 9am and 10am who has dash cam footage on their vehicles to make contact.

“Whilst you may not think that you hold any relevant information, it is really important that we gather as much footage as possible from the area that morning so we can review every piece meticulously to establish whether Nicola can be seen.

“We know from the footage we are currently reviewing, that this is a busy road, particularly at that time in the morning.

“There will be many people who were in that area at the time who may not think they can help, however we would urge you not to make that decision yourself and to come forward so we can have as much material as possible to assist the investigation.

“If you were in a car or cycling in the area and have footage, please get in contact.”

On January 27, after dropping her two daughters aged six and nine, off at school, the mum took the family dog Willow for a walk along the River Wyre.

The mortgage advisor from nearby Inskip, walked along a path by the river shortly before 9am when another dog walker, who knew her, spotted the mum.

Around 8.53am the mum sent an email to her boss before she logged onto a work call at 9.01am with her camera off and microphone muted.

Nicola was seen by a second witness around 9.10am, the last known sighting of her, but by 9.30am when the work call ended, Nicola’s phone stayed connected.

Around five minutes later another dog walker found Nicola’s phone on a bench by the river, with dog Willow running around off her lead.

It is in the brief window between the last known sighting and the work call ending that officers are desperately investigating.

Yesterday, police said that their “main working hypothesis” was that the mum had fallen into the icy river.

But her family contested that, and Nicola’s sister Louise Cunningham urged the public to keep an “open mind” as her desperate family pleaded for any info that could help them locate her.

Speaking to Sky News, pal Emma White pushed back on the police’s hypothesis, saying Nicola no longer took a tennis ball on her walks.

She said: “Willow used to love a tennis ball very much, but it used to disturb their walks, so they haven’t had a tennis ball since way into last year.

“Obviously she loved the tennis ball so she’d always be by you, pestering you for the ball – but it wasn’t a nice walk when the dog’s pestering – so there was definitely no ball.

“When we’re talking about a life we can’t base it on a hypothesis – surely we need this factual evidence.

“That’s what the family and us are all holding onto – that we’re actually no further on the sadly last Friday.

Anyone with information or footage is asked to call 101, quoting log 565 of January 30. For immediate sightings, please call 999.