The final text message sent by the late Nicola Bulley was read out during an inquest into her death last year.
The 45-year-old had been last seen walking her dog Willow along the River Wyre in Lancashire on January 27 last year. After going missing, the subsequent search to locate Nicola captured national attention. Police and emergency services searched for the missing mum until they found her body a few weeks later, concluding that she had fallen into the water and died.
At the inquest into her death last year, Dr James Adeley, senior coroner for Lancashire, recorded her death as accidental after hearing two days of evidence. The case now features in the new BBC documentary the Search For Nicola Bulley, set to air on Thursday night.
On the first day of the inquest last year, the court heard from specialists, law enforcement and a Home Office pathologist, who pieced together how she lost her life. It included a timeline of the hours before she vanished, as reported by the Mirror at the time.
A poignant segment centred on the exchange of text messages between Nicola and her friend Lucy, around planning a playdate for their daughters. It included the last text she received, and sent, from and to the other parent.
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The night prior to her disappearance, Nicola reached out to Lucy, whose response came the next morning when she saw the text, the court heard. Lucy responded at 8.13am and told the court: “I said my daughter would love to come and play.”
Nicola Bulley went missing in January last year and, after her body was located weeks later, an inquest found her death as accidental and due to drowning (
Image:
Family Handout/PA Wire)
At 8.59am, Nicola responded confirming a time alongside a smiley face emoji. Additionally, there were plans for both to meet up the following day, as Lucy added: “We were going to be meeting up, a group of mums, on the Saturday night for a few drinks.”
Home Office pathologist Alison Armour, who conducted the post-mortem on Ms Bulley, stated that the presence of water in her lungs and stomachled her to conclude the cause of death was drowning. During the inquiry, the coroner prompted Ms Armour to summarise her findings, to which she responded: “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 in the lungs indicated swallowing, an “active process”, signalling that Ms Bulley was alive when she entered the river. She also noted there were no brain bleeds or natural diseases detected, and only typical therapeutic levels of medication in Ms Bulley’s system. Additionally, a low level of alcohol was consistent with the natural process of body decomposition, the inquest heard.
Supporting this conclusion, Professor Michael Tipton, described as a world expert on drowning, agreed with the pathologist’s findings. And a specialist from the police’s underwater search team speculated that Ms Bulley likely fell into the River Wyre before drifting downstream.
The court was shown footage by PC Matthew Thackray in St Michaels on Wyre in Lancashire, suspected to be where Ms Bulley plunged into the water. In the video, he indicated: “There is a large vertical slope from the bench and into the water. “On the day there was a steady flow downstream.”
He explained: “The river was 4C, so almost freezing, and if she fell in the muscles would probably seize making it difficult to swim properly.” He estimated that she’d have been swept away at a rate of a “metre a second” downstream.
