Nicola Bulley was alive when she entered the River Wyre, and died from drowning - an inquest into her death has revealed. Home Office pathologist, Alison Armour - who carried out the 45-year-old's post mortem - concluded that evidence showing water in Nicola's lungs and stomach leads her to believe that her cause of death was drowning, and that there was no 'third party' involvement in her passing.
Nicola vanished from the village of St Michael's on Wyre, Lancashire, on January 27 after dropping her two daughters - aged six and nine - off at school before embarking on her usual dog walk near the River Wyre. Her phone was later found on a bench overlooking the water, still connected to a work Teams meeting.
Her body was found just over three weeks later in the river, around a mile from the bench where her phone was discovered. Ms Bulley's partner, Paul Ansell, her sister, Louise Cunningham, and her parents, Ernest and Dot Bulley, sat in the public gallery this morning as Ms Armour was called as the first witness to give evidence at Nicola's inquest hearing.
