Nicola Bulley was identified by dental records after being discovered on Sunday, the opening of her inquest at Lancashire Coroner's Court has heard.
The mum-of-two was identified on Monday as the body recovered from the River Wyre on Sunday February 19, more than three weeks after she went missing. Ms Bulley had last been seen walking family dog Willow alongside the river in St Michael's on Wyre, Lancashire, at around 9.10am on January 27.
Lancashire Live reports that her family was aware of proceedings beginning on Wednesday, but chose not to attend. Senior coroner Dr James Adeley said: "The family have been informed of the date and place and have chosen not to attend and for reasons I can quite understand."
Opening an inquest into the death of the mortgage advisor, Dr Adeley said he had contacted consultant maxillofacial surgeon Ian Edwards to ask him to compare dental records obtained by police from the Great Eccleston dental surgery. He said: "He examined the body that was located in the River Wyre near Rawcliffe Road in St Michael's on Wyre at 2.15pm on February 20."
Dr Adeley said the surgeon found restorative work carried out was identical. He said: "I am satisfied on the balance of probabilities, and more, that positive identification has been made."
Ms Bulley's disappearance sparked nationwide interest, with intensive police searches conducted along the Wyre and further out to Morecambe Bay, at the edge of the Irish Sea. Ms Bulley's body was found around a mile from where she disappeared, in scrub at the edge of the waterway.
Two walkers had called the police at around 11.35am on Sunday after spotting the body in the water. Police closed off roads to allow divers and crime scene investigation officers to attend and remove Ms Bulley from the scene.
Her family paid tribute to the 45-year-old in a statement read by the force's head of crime Detective Chief Superintendent Pauline Stables, where they said: "We love you, always have and always will."
The statement read: "We will never be able to comprehend what Nikki had gone through in her last moments and that will never leave us. We will never forget Nikki, how could we, she was the centre of our world, she was the one who made our lives so special and nothing will cast a shadow over that."
Questions have been asked over the time taken to find Ms Bulley and how she was missed in earlier searches along the Wyre close to where she was found. But Graham Wettone, a former police officer, told the PA news agency that he was confident searchers had done their best and would have been "gutted" she was not found sooner.
Mr Wettone, a Met officer for 30 years, said: "That was a really difficult search. Really challenging conditions, you wouldn't have been able to see much when you were underwater with the air tanks on, you'd have been almost doing it by touch, by feel.
"So it's a really challenging searching environment. And it's tidal, so it goes backwards and forwards. There'll be channels and crevices and gaps in the riverbank as you go along where things can get lodged."
Ms Bulley's family was also highly critical of both the public and media in how the case was covered. Conspiracy theories and malicious allegations about her family were shared on social networks such as Twitter and TikTok, prompting a family statement urging armchair detectives to "stop" speculating.
Ofcom has written to ITV News and Sky News, which were called out by name by Ms Bulley's family, over how they reported on Ms Bulley's disappearance. The broadcasters are alleged to have ignored the family's requests for privacy as the search was carried out.
In addition Lancashire Police has been criticised for the way it has conducted its investigation, particularly over disclosures about Ms Bulley's struggle with alcohol and the menopause. It has vowed to conduct an internal probe into the disclosures, despite her family being aware of the force's intention to release the information beforehand.
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