Last year, Nicola Bulley's disappearance captured the nation. The 45-year-old mortgage broker and mother of two, who vanished walking her dog in January 2023, died 'accidentally' after falling in a river and drowning, a coroner concluded. Ahead of a new BBC documentary, The Search For Nicola Bulley, airing on 3 October, we look back at her vanishing.
What happened to Nicola Bulley?
Nicola's disappearance on 27 January, next to the River Wyre in St Michael's on Wyre in Lancashire, prompted a major search. It also sparked a slew of conspiracy theories after police, her family and friends, the media and the rest of the country pored over every detail about her last known movements. Lancashire Police came under criticism for revealing Nicola's struggles with alcoholism and perimenopause. Her body was found in the River Wyre on 19 February.
During the inquest, her sister Louise Cunningham spoke of her struggles with 'increased alcohol use' due to menopause issues: 'She discussed having some symptoms with the HRT [treatment], it was back in the summer [of 2022].
'She was having headaches, she couldn't get the balance exactly right, she mentioned having struggles sleeping. She was taking lavender spray, herbal tea, anything that would relax her before bed.'
Nicola's partner Paul Ansel described a mental health blip she faced over Christmas, but that she was feeling better by January.
'She had a good day the day before [she went missing], came home full of beans, excited with work, with the meetings she had and plans for the year,' he said.
The inquest also heard that a crisis response vehicle was sent to Nicola's home in January due to concerns about her alcohol consumption. She was also admitted to hospital the following day with an injury to her head after a fall.
Louise stated that she had called the emergency services out because she was 'concerned' and wanted 'peace of mind', and that while Nicola was 'fuming' it had served as a 'wake up call'.
'She was my sister, I was concerned,' Louise added. 'She's never ever confided in me about any suicidal thoughts or anything like that at all.'
The inquest also heard from Nicola's parents, with her mother Dorothy stating that she saw her the evening before went missing and 'everything was normal' while her father described the night they spent together as 'lovely' and that he'd talked with his daughter about her plans to close a business deal.
Home Office pathologist Dr Alison Armour told the inquest at County Hall in Preston: ‘I gave the cause of death as drowning. The watery fluid identified within the stomach and also in the lungs themselves are classical features as we see in cases of drowning.’
She added: ‘Ms Bulley was alive when she entered the water - because it is an active process to swallow and inhale water into lungs. My opinion as to the cause of death is that it was drowning.’
Prof Michael Tipton, from the University of Portsmouth who supports search and rescue operators such as the RNLI, said just two breaths of water would have been a 'lethal dose'.
'We estimate the temperature would have been around 3 to 5C, so there would be a particularly powerful cold-shock response,' he said. He added that there would have been a 'fairly rapid incapacitation.'
The pathologist also said Nicola had not been drinking before her death. This comes after Lancashire Police faced backlash at the time for revealing Nicola suffered from 'significant issues with alcohol' in the past.
The coroner asked if there was any evidence of third-party involvement in Ms Bulley’s death, to which Dr Armour said, in her opinion, ‘there was not’. She also added there was no evidence Nicola had been harmed by a third-party. As the inquest confirms, she died by drowning with no evidence of foul play.
What did the coroner rule from Nicola Bulley's autopsy report?
Senior coroner Dr James Adeley found that Nicola Bulley's death was accidental. She had drowned after falling into cold water, and did not have 'any desire' to take her own life.
'Excluding a couple of comments over the Christmas period when she was acting out of character and were treated as throw away comments, there was no indication of any intention to take her own life,' he said. 'Her behaviour in the week before her death was back to normal, she had restarted her HRT therapy, stopped drinking some time before, was making plans for play dates and spa days with several people.'
He added, 'There was also no natural disease that contributed to Nikki's death. The remaining conclusion is that of accidental death.'
When did Nicola Bulley go missing?
Nicola vanished after dropping her daughters, then aged six and nine, at school, then taking her usual dog walk along a nearby river path and field. She sent an email to her boss and logged into a Teams call at 09.01am. Police enquiries suggest her phone was then left on a bench. The Teams call ended but her phone remained logged in.
At 9.35am, her phone and her dog Willow were found at the riverside bench, but that was the last known movement of hers. Her body was found on February 19 around a mile from where she disappeared.
The inquest concluded in June 2023.