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Nicola Bulley’s family today slammed ‘wildly inaccurate speculation’ on social media over the dog walker’s disappearance as a coroner concluded she drowned after accidentally slipping into an icy river.
After hearing that an exhaustive police inquiry had ruled out the possibility of suicide or third-party involvement in the mother-of-two’s death, they hit out at internet trolls who continue to send them ‘negative targeted messages’.
And they appealed to the public to ‘look at the facts’, to ‘ignore any amateur views and opinions’ and to be ‘mindful of the impact words bring’.
Their plea was reiterated by the top detective at the force which probed the 45-year-old’s death.
Detective Chief Superintendent Pauline Stables, head of crime at Lancashire Police, said she hoped the coroner’s ‘clear and definitive findings will put an end ill-informed speculation and conspiracy theories which have been so damaging to Nikki’s family’.
Mother-of-two Nicola Bulley, 45, vanished while walking her dog in Lancashire on January 27
Ms Bulley alongside her partner Paul Ansell
They hit out after senior coroner for Lancashire Dr James Adeley returned a conclusion of accidental death, saying the mortgage adviser fell into the River Wyre at around 9.22am on January 27 and ‘died almost immediately’.
Ms Bulley’s partner Paul Ansell told the hearing he believed it happened after she put her mobile phone down on a bench to put their spaniel Willow in his harness after the walk.
But Dr Adeley said there was ‘no evidence’ which enabled him to say exactly why she ended up in the water, which was so cold that she would have lost consciousness within seconds.
His conclusions came after it was revealed for the first time that Ms Bulley’s sister had called an ambulance 17 days before her disappearance over worries about her alcohol consumption and comments about ‘not wanting to be here’.
The inquest was also told that Ms Bulley had struggled with side-effects from taking hormone replacement therapy after being diagnosed as menopausal the year before, including headaches and difficulty sleeping.
But her family insisted she had been ‘full of beans’ the night before her disappearance after securing a business deal, and was making plans for the coming days and weeks.
Ms Bulley’s disappearance after dropping her two daughters – aged six and nine – off at school in the Lancashire village of St Michael’s-on-Wyre sparked a massive search.
Her spaniel was found running loose near the River Wyre, with her mobile phone – still connected to a work Teams call – placed on a nearby bench.
With no sign of her body despite the huge search efforts, amateur sleuths took to social media and even began harassing villagers as they spread outlandish theories.
Ms Bulley’s sister, Louise Cunningham, broke down as she told how her sibling had been struggling with the menopause and her ‘increased alcohol use’
As police tried to explain why they believed she had ended up in the water, they faced a storm of criticism after revealing Ms Bulley had been experiencing ‘significant issues with alcohol’ brought on by her struggle with the menopause.
The mortgage adviser’s body was finally found in the water more than three weeks later and just over a mile downstream.
After hearing two days of evidence at County Hall in Preston, coroner Dr Adeley said he was basing the time she slipped into the water on data from her Fitbit, which was recovered along with her body, recharged and synchronised.
It revealed that her heartrate had peaked at 9.22am that morning, with no further steps recorded after 9.30am.
The inquest heard the river bank beneath the bench where Ms Bulley’s phone was found shortly after was ‘almost vertical’, meaning that anyone who fell would end up in the water, which was 15ft (4.6m) deep.
Dr Adeley said he had accepted evidence from leading experts on drowning that cold water shock would have set in immediately on plunging into the 3.6C (38.5F) river.
The coroner said that ‘whether or not Nikki’s first breath was above or below the water, she would have lost consciousness and have died before reaching the first point in the River Wyre where she could have touched the bottom’.
Earlier the hearing was told an ambulance was sent to her home in Inskip on January 10 after her sister, Louise Cunningham, raised concerns about her escalating alcohol consumption and not wanting to ‘engage’ with her two daughters.
She had also made comments about ‘not wanting to be here’, her inquest heard.
It came after what she described as a ‘blip’ over Christmas last year when she stopped taking HRT medication she had been given for menopause symptoms because of the side-effects.
Giving evidence today, Mrs Cunningham said she had been ‘concerned’ and wanted ‘peace of mind’.
But the 42-year-old insisted: ‘She’s never, ever confided in me about any suicidal thoughts or anything like that at all.’
Saying it had been ‘a bit of a wake-up call’ for her sister, she said Ms Bulley reduced her alcohol consumption afterwards and seemed more herself.
Asked what she thought happened on the morning of her disappearance, she said: ‘There’s no way Nikki would leave Willow unattended by choice.’ Ms Bulley was in bed when mental health nurse Theresa Lewis Leevy went upstairs to see her on January 10 and was clearly ‘intoxicated’, she told the hearing.
‘She didn’t want to engage in conversation,’ she said. ‘The interaction it’s fair to say was quite brief.’ The following day Ms Bulley was seen at A&E at Blackpool Victoria Hospital after injuring the back of her head in a fall the previous evening, the inquest was told.
Terry Wilcox delivering the family’s statement outside County Hall in Preston today
A CT scan was carried out on her head but there was no sign of injury.
Giving evidence, Mr Ansell broke down in tears and had to leave the chamber to compose herself after agreeing that Ms Bulley was ‘an incredible mum’ who had ‘adored’ walking Willow.
The 44-year-old said she had seemed ‘normal’ as she got their daughters ready for school on the morning she vanished.
Asked if she had ever expressed suicidal thoughts, Mr Ansell said she had made ‘a couple of throwaway comments’ in the run-up to her disappearance, ‘but nothing that gave me concern’.
He said she was ‘looking forward to the future’, adding: ‘Everything was on the up.’
The Information Commissioner’s Office said last month it would be taking no action over the disclosure about Ms Bulley’s health.
It said it had heard about the ‘challenging’ task of deciding what information to release during a ‘fast-paced’ investigation.
An independent review of Lancashire Police’s handling of the case is under way by the College of Policing.
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