An inquest into the death of Nicola Bulley will be opened today (February 22).
The mum-of-two had been missing for more than three weeks when her body was found banks of the River Wyre close to Rawcliffe Road in St Michael's On Wyre on Sunday (February 19). Police were called to reports that two walkers had spotted a body, reported Lancs Live.
The discovery came more than three weeks after the 45-year-old mum-of-two was reported missing, on the morning of Friday January 27. She went missing after she had dropped off her daughters at the village primary school and took her springer spaniel Willow for a walk by the river.
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The dog was found wandering loose while Nicola's mobile phone was found on a bench next to the river. The body was formally identified as Nicola's on Monday at a press conference held at Lancashire Police headquarters.
Nicola's family said in a statement: "Nikki, you are no longer a missing person, you have been found, we can let you rest now. We love you, always have and always will, we will take it from here."
Lancashire's Senior Coroner Dr James Adeley has confirmed to LancsLive that an inquest into Nicola's death will be opened today at 12 noon at Preston Coroner's Court. The hearing is likely to be brief with a full inquest to take place at a later date.
What is an inquest?
Inquests are held when a death is non-natural, unexpected or in any way suspicious. Once a death has been reported to the coroner an investigation will commence which usually starts with a post mortem. In Lancashire, post mortems are usually non-invasive and are carried out simply by undertaking a CT scan, but occasionally a full internal post mortem is required.
'Interested parties' are identified at the beginning of the investigation. These can include relatives of the deceased, the executor(s) of the deceased’s will or person appointed as the deceased’s personal representative, solicitors acting for the next of kin, insurers with a relevant interest, anyone who may, in some way, be responsible for the death such as an NHS trust and others at some special risk or appearing to a coroner to have a proper interest.
A person's next of kin, or even friends, may be allowed to speak at the inquest with coroners in Lancashire often preferring to hear from someone's loved ones to get a better picture of that individual. This is not usually compulsory and the coroner will always allow you to submit a statement or references in writing.
At the conclusion of the inquest a coroner will aim to answer four questions: who has died, when have they died, where have they died and how they came by their death. A coroner will not apportion blame or make a decision of criminal or civil liability although the outcome of an inquest may play a role in future proceedings.
As well as answering the statutory four questions a coroner must return what is known as a conclusion. Conclusions can be either what is known as short-form or narrative; with short-form conclusions including suicide, accidental death, industrial disease (for example where someone has died from an illness caused by exposure to asbestos in the workplace), natural causes, drug- or alcohol-related death, misadventure (where an intended act has resulted in unintended consequences), lawful or unlawful killing and road traffic collision.
An open conclusion will be given if there is insufficient evidence to record any other suggested conclusion or where there is other evidence but the required standard of proof is not reached. Narrative conclusions are given where a short-form conclusion would not be sufficient or, if there is evidence of very serious failings, a coroner might combine a short-form conclusion with the phrase ‘contributed to by neglect’.
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