Nicola Bulley's daughters asked same heartbreaking question daily after mum's disappearance

Paul Ansell fought back tears as he recalled the youngsters innocently quizzing him about their missing mum

Nicola Bulley's daughters asked the same heartbreaking question each night following her disappearance, her partner has revealed. Paul Ansell fought back tears as he recalled the youngsters innocently quizzing him about their missing mum.

A frantic police search was launched when the mother-of-two vanished while walking her dog in the village of St Michael’s on Wyre, Lancashire, last year. The pet was found wandering alone, and Nicola's mobile phone discovered on a bench beside the River Wyre.

Three weeks later, the 45-year-old's body was recovered from the river, the Mirror reports. Her death was ruled as an accidental drowning.

READ MORE: Frank Skinner teases comeback with four-word post following Absolute Radio axe

Details of Nicola's disappearance, and the search to find her, will be the focus of a BBC documentary, set to air on BBC One at 9pm tonight, Thursday, October 3. Her devastated relatives spoke on camera about the difficult days that followed, with her mother, Dorothy, recounting how her youngest granddaughter broke her heart with an innocent observation. She said: "One morning, I got up. The youngest one, she says: 'Cold, isn't it, Nanny?' She said: 'I hope mummy's not cold and hungry.'"

Nicola's partner of 12 years, Paul, also fought back tears as he revealed the question the girls would ask him each night: "Where is mummy?" He continued: "The nights were the hardest. In the morning the hope would be strong. It used to go dark at like 4pm. It used to get to about 3pm and then I'd start panicking that I knew it would start going dark in an hour. So we had an hour to find her.

"And then obviously I'd have the girls. The first they'd do when they came out of school was run over and say 'Have we found mummy?'"

In a statement released on the back of the documentary, Nicola's family said: “Only we can speak about her as a mummy, partner, daughter and sister. In addition, if our experience of being in the eye of a media storm makes people think twice about how they act and what they say online, then we will have achieved some further good.”