Nicola Bulley’s tragic final moments from hopeful text to desperate fight for life
After weeks of frantic searches and cruel conspiracy theories, Nicola Bulley’s body was found in the River Wyre, Lancashire, leaving her loved ones in agony
Nicola Bulley dropped her two daughters off on the morning of the tragedy
A normal dog walk turned into a complete tragedy when Nicola Bulley never came home.
The 45-year-old had been walking along the River Wyre, Lancashire, when she seemingly vanished. Specialists searched the river for any sign of the mother-of-two, with their frantic hunt gripping the nation as people anxiously awaited updates.
It wasn’t until three weeks later that her body was tragically discovered in the water, and it was subsequently confirmed that Nicola had fallen in and drowned. Just moments before her death, she had been on a work call, and her phone was found left on the bench where she had been sitting – just a mile from where her body was found.
At an inquest into her death, the court heard a complete timeline of the final hours before Ms Bulley vanished. A police video recreated what might have happened after she fell into the river, demonstrating just how easily she could have been swept away.
Nicola was walking her dog when she went missing(Image: Lancashire Police / SWNS)
On the morning of the tragedy, Nicola, a mortgage adviser, dropped her daughters, aged six and nine, at St Michael’s School before taking their family dog Willow for a walk along a nearby towpath from around 8.45am.
It is then understood that she logged into a work conference call on Teams close to 9am. Her phone, still connected to the call, was found on a bench overlooking the water. Her dog was later discovered wandering alone “bone dry” and distressed on the trail, with her harness on the ground.
Minutes before the meeting, during which she had switched off her camera and microphone, Nicola texted a friend about meeting up with her daughters. A close friend told the Mirror at the time of her disappearance: “She booked a playdate, 8.57, she sent a text message to a friend whose mortgage she had just recently signed off on to arrange for the girls to go for tea this week.”
Meanwhile, a friend revealed she had appeared in good spirits during the walk, according to a passerby. They said she was “laughing and joking” as she went by, just minutes before she vanished.
At the inquest, bodycam footage was shown from PC Matthew Thackray – who recreated what is believed to be her final moments. In the water, he travelled downstream from the bench where Ms Bulley’s phone was last seen, to where her body was discovered.
It was stated that Ms Bulley would have moved at a “metre a second” downstream in the river’s flow. In the footage, PC Thackray showed how powerful the current was and when entering the water, said: “You can see it’s fairly clear at the point of entry.
“I’m in the middle of the river now and it is pushing me down towards the weir. If she did fall in she would probably be floating and be pushed along.” He added: “If I were to sit down in that water now you can see that it’s taking me along faster. It’s now probably at a slow jogging pace.
The part of the River Wyre where police recovered the body of the missing mum(Image: PA)
“As you come around the corner you can see the weir in front of us. It’s around about 300 metres from the point of entry. As you get towards it, water is now shin-deep on me but we do think it is down a little bit from the day in question.
“But if you’re floating it is still more than enough water to push you along. As you get to the weir you can see there’s a lip but there’s a lot of water going over it. The water is now down from how it was on the day. But it can comfortably push me over and I can float over.”
Two women told the inquest they heard a scream near the riverside on the morning Ms Bulley vanished. Nurse Helen O’Neill said she was in the garden of her Allotment Lane home with her dogs, not far from a path leading to the bench overlooking the River Wyre.
She said: “I heard a scream, it’s not an alarming noise, it was just over in a couple of seconds. I’m quite used to hearing the children in the school out back, but it was not that noise. I vividly remember thinking it’s unusual at this time.
“In my head, I had two females, walking along by the river and one jumped out on the other. I didn’t think anything of it until later on. There were no other sounds for me to be concerned about.”
A second witness, Veronica Claesen, a housewife and club secretary for the village tennis club, said: “I was just about to get into the car and I heard a scream. A very short scream and my immediate thought was, ‘Somebody is having a bit of fun at the back of the graveyard’.” Ms Claesen described it as an “inhale scream” resembling a sharp intake of breath.
Nicola had been with partner Paul for 12 years
These heartbreaking accounts support Mr Thackeray’s assessment that cold water shock would have likely occurred. On the day Nicola drowned, the water temperature was approximately 4C. In the clip, he was heard saying: “That would feel very very cold, almost freezing if you fell in.
“The cold water shock would have probably taken effect and cause you to gasp for breath, cause your muscles to seize up so you can’t swim properly.” It’s thought she entered the water between 9.18am and 9.30am.
DC Keith Greenhalgh told the inquest that examination of her iPhone and Fitbit watch data indicated she “very possibly” went into the water at 9.22am. DC Greenhalgh said the mum’s Fitbit watch stopped recording steps after 9.30am.
Home Office pathologist Alison Armour, who conducted the post-mortem examination on Ms Bulley, said the presence of water in her lungs and stomach led her to determine the cause of death was drowning. She said: “I conclude the cause of death as drowning. The lungs themselves showed classical features we see in drownings. In my opinion Nicola Bulley was alive when she entered the water.”
Ms Armour explained that water found in the lungs indicated swallowing the liquid was an “active process”, therefore suggesting Ms Bulley was alive when she went into the river.
Nicola Bulley and sister Louise Cunningham(Image: Sky)
There were no brain bleeds or natural diseases present, and only normal therapeutic levels of medication were found in Ms Bulley’s body, she added. A low level of alcohol was consistent with the natural decomposition process, the inquest was told. Professor Michael Tipton, a world-leading drowning expert, confirmed he agreed with the pathologist’s conclusions.
A report examining the police investigation into finding Nicola found that officers could have done more to preserve evidence during the crucial “golden hour” following her disappearance.
Those in the village came out in force to help find Nicola, while the case also captivated those across the country, with ghoulish TikTok ‘sleuthes’ taking it upon themselves to solve Nicola’s disappearance, even travelling to St Michael’s on Wyre to retrace her final steps. Cruelly, many tried to falsely implicate Nicola’s partner Paul Ansell in the tragedy.
Now, three years on from the tragedy, Paul l has given a rare update on the trauma his family experienced and his utter devastation as he desperately tried to find his wife.
Nicola’s partner has spoken out on his grief(Image: PA)
“It was the 27th January, 2023, and Nikki left for school with the girls, and never came home. I became a subject with the media, in the sense of, ‘where’s the partner? Why’s he not talking?’ sort of thing,” he said at a lecture held at the London School of Economics (LSE) on Monday.
“I got out of the car, and I don’t think I knew what I was doing, really. I got out of the car, then I got collared by Sky, and the next minute, I was doing this interview. But then of course you’re, you know, psychoanalysed, analysed. Your eyes aren’t right, you’re smirking. It wasn’t the papers or the news. It was more TikTok.”
“It’s very, very intrusive, which was a horrible thing to experience on its own, let alone when you’re experiencing everything that we were. It can engulf you.”
For those who knew and loved Nicola, the intensity of this fascination only added to their anguish, with her best friend Heather Gibbon telling reporters it felt as though the village had turned into a macabre “tourist spot”.
report published by the College of Policing (COP) in November 2023 concluded that staff in the Lancashire Police press office struggled to cope with the tidal wave of interest the missing person’s case had generated.
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