THE BENCH AT 9:20 AM… AND THEN SHE VANISHED

At around 9:20 a.m., Nicola Bulley was logged into a work meeting while walking her dog along the river path.

Minutes later, a passerby noticed something strange — her phone sitting alone on a bench, the call still connected.

Her dog was wandering nearby… but Nicola was nowhere in sight.

Investigators say the timeline between 9:20 and 9:33 a.m. may hold the key.

So what exactly happened in those 13 minutes by the river?

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Nicola Bulley’s sad inquest – ‘sharp scream’, fitbit records and lethal ‘gasp’

Nicola Bulley’s partner Paul Ansell speaks in new BBC documentary about being ‘silenced’ by online trolls who sent abusive messages after her disappearance

Nicola Bulley disappeared after dropping her daughters off at school three weeks ago and died in horrifying circumstances.

The mum-of-two vanished on the morning of January 27, 2023, while walking her dog along the River Wyer in Lancashire. Her mobile was discovered still connected to a work Teams call on a bench overlooking the river. Her disappearance triggered a social media storm, with outlandish theories circulating about what befell the mortgage adviser that tragic morning, with her partner of 12 years, Paul Ansell, becoming a target.

Last night he opened up about the family’s lasting trauma after Nicola’s body was discovered in the river approximately a mile from the bench, three weeks later on February 19. During testimony at County Hall in Preston in June, Home Office pathologist Dr Alison Armour stated it was likely that the 45 year old drowned.

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Nicola Bulley vanished three years ago(Image: PA)

Paul, alongside Nicola’s sister Louise Cunningham and parents Ernest and Dot Bulley sat in the public gallery as the pathologist’s harrowing evidence was presented. Home Office pathologist Alison Armour, who conducted the post-mortem examination on Nicola, explained that evidence of water in her lungs and stomach led her to determine the cause of death was drowning. “The lungs themselves showed classical features we see in drownings. In my opinion Nicola Bulley was alive when she entered the water,” she said.

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The bench where it is believed police found the mobile phone of missing Nicola Bulley(Image: James Maloney/Lancs Live)

and into the water. On the day there was a steady flown downstream.” He went on: “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 she would have floated at a “metre a second” downstream.

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Ms Bulley was walking her dog along the River Wyre when she disappeared(Image: Lancashire Police / SWNS)

While there were some bruises on Nicola’s body, these did not contribute to her death, the inquest heard. Professor Tipton stated that there would have been a “fairly rapid incapacitation” and that Nicola could have lost consciousness within seconds.

Prof Tipton told the inquest: “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. On the balance of probability there was a fairly rapid incapacitation due to the cold shock.” It could have been an estimated “20 to 30 seconds” before Nicola lost consciousness, the inquest heard. Two breaths of water would have been a “lethal dose” for someone of her size, Prof Tipton said.

The river was at high tide when Ms Bulley disappeared, according to a police diver. Mr Thackray presented a video to the court of himself – taken in April – effortlessly floating over the weir and noted that the river level on that day in April was lower than when Nicola went missing.

He explained: “This part of the river is tidal, when we were here it was flowing downstream. On the day by the time we arrived, it was low tide. That means it was high tide earlier in the day and potentially pushing things back up.” His team arrived around 4pm on 27 January.

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Police searching the River Wyre in Lancashire(Image: Julian Hamilton/Daily Mirror)

“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.” Prof Tipton also estimated the temperature to have been “around three to 5C (in the river)”, which could induce a “particularly powerful cold-shock response.”

Cold water expert Dr Patrick Morgan added: “(After falling in) the heart rate goes excessively high, the blood pressure surges excessively high. “The heart pumps no blood and the brain switches off. The potential conscious time here quoted are optimistic… it is potentially shorter.

“On the occasion that the individual has taken that initial gasp on the surface of the water and then gone below, the duration would be 10 seconds that you could hold your breath and very likely one or two seconds at best.”

‘Nothing of concern’ on morning of mum’s disappearance

Nicola was immediately classified as a “high risk” missing person when she vanished, triggering a major police search operation. However, a mother who encountered her on the morning of her disappearance said there was “nothing of concern”.

Kay Kiernan, a receptionist, told the inquest she chatted to Nicola about her dog Willow whilst dropping off her children at school just after 8.30am. She said: “She was not happy, but who is on a Friday-morning school run? She wasn’t sad, just how I normally knew her.” Ms Kiernan added: “There was nothing of concern.”

Personal ‘struggles’

Her partner Paul Ansell told how she had been “struggling” after he was told that her phone and dog had been discovered beside a bench. Susan Jones, a retired careworker, told the court that around 10am on January 27 she received a call from Penny Fletcher, who had found Willow and the phone.

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Nicola’s partner, Paul Ansell(Image: Julian Hamilton/Daily Mirror)

She then saw Anne-Marie, Ms Fletcher’s daughter-in-law, who identified a photograph of Nicola and her family on the phone’s lock screen. She contacted the local school before speaking to Ms Bulley’s partner. Ms Jones told the inquest: “Anne-Marie spoke on the phone and said that he (Mr Ansell) said ‘she’s struggling’.”

Witnesses heard ‘inhale scream’

Two women described hearing a scream near the riverside on that fateful morning. Nurse Helen O’Neill said she was with her dogs in the garden of her property on Allotment Lane, close to a path leading to the bench overlooking the River Wyre where Ms Bulley vanished.

She told the inquest: “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.”

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The river was flowing quickly at that time of year(Image: PA)

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 ‘very possibly’ fell in water at 9.22am

DC Keith Greenhalgh said he believes Ms Bulley entered the water between 9.18am and 9.30am. He told the inquest analysis of her iPhone and Fitbit watch data suggests she “very possibly” went into the water at 9.22am on January 27. DC Greenhalgh said the mum’s Fitbit watch stopped recording steps beyond 9.30am on the day she vanished.

He added that Ms Bulley’s iPhone was “intact” and “there was no sign” it had been in the water. Speaking about her Fitbit watch, he went on: “My initial thoughts were that the device lost power on February 4 2023.” He said there were no further steps recorded beyond 9.30am on January 27.

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The watch and a set of Mercedes car keys were recovered along with her body on February 19, Detective Superintendent Rebecca Smith told the inquest.