Penny Fletcher, a campsite owner, described how she came across the spaniel running loose and noticed a dog harness on the steep riverbank as well as a mobile phone.īecause she had to get to a medical appointment in Garstang she tied the dog up with bailing twine and contacted friends to ask them to help further. Her phone, still connected to a Teams work call, was discovered on a bench overlooking the water. She then took her springer spaniel, Willow, on what was their usual dog walking route along the River Wyre in the village of St Michael’s on Wyre. She disappeared after dropping off her daughters, aged six and nine, at school. On the balance of probability, there was a fairly rapid incapacitation due to the cold shock.”īulley, who was originally from Chelmsford, Essex, was living with her family in the village of Inskip, Lancashire. He added: “In my opinion, given the nature of the likely entry into the water, I would suspect Nikki had a gasp response under the water, initiating the drowning process. Prof Mike Tipton said it would have taken seconds and only “one or two breaths in of water to be a lethal dose”. Two experts on cold water shock gave evidence. It is likely the river would have carried Bulley downriver at about a metre a second. The water temperature would have been about 4C and felt more like freezing, he said. PC Matthew Thackray, a police diver, said he believed Bulley fell into the water, describing a fairly steep and then vertical slope down to the river. The coroner, Dr James Adeley, asked: “At the time of her death, she essentially had no alcohol in her bloodstream?” Armour replied: “That’s my opinion.”Īrmour was asked if there was evidence Bulley had been assaulted or if there was any third-party involvement. Tiny traces of alcohol were found but they could be explained by a postmortem process involving bacteria, she said. Her lungs were enlarged and watery fluid was found in her body. Her forehead was caked in mud, Armour said, and dirt found in her body was among “typical features we see in cases of drowning”. On Monday, Alison Armour, a Home Office pathologist, told the inquest all the evidence suggested Bulley died as a result of drowning. It has been described as a “carnival of hysteria” and became the focus of intense media attention, a social media frenzy of conspiracy theories and drew online sleuths, influencers and psychics to the Lancashire village of St Michael’s on Wyre, where she was last seen. The 24-day police search was unlike any other UK missing person investigation anyone could recall. “I pictured in my head it was two females, teenagers, walking on the river path and one jumped out on the other.”īulley’s body was found more than three weeks later on 19 February, about a mile from where she was first reported missing. Helen O’Neill, a nurse, also heard the scream, which was over in a couple of seconds, she said. She described it as a drawing in of breath, a scream someone would make if they were suddenly surprised by something. It was an “inhale” scream, she said, not an “exhale one”. “My immediate thought was someone is having fun at the back of the graveyard,” said Veronica Claesen, the secretary of the village tennis club.
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