Bulley Inquest
Coroner's Conclusions.

Coroner's summary - timeline

Dr Adeley is now summing up the evidence which has been heard over the last two days. This includes:

• Nicola was last seen alive by fellow dog-walker Claire Chesholm at 9.10am

• At 9.18am she adjusted the volume of her conference call

• PC Keith Greenhalgh examined Nikki’s Fitbit device- it recorded steps in 15 minute segments. On January 27 she walked 4,548 steps between 8am and 9.30am. Between 9.15am and 9.30am she walked 273 steps. No further steps after 9.30am

• At 9.22am the FitBit recorded a substantially increased heart rate

• Penny Fletcher arrived at the bench at 9.33am. Nicola was nowhere to be seen but Willow was found and the dog’s harness was found between the bench and the river

• Nicola was last seen alive at 9.10am, interacted with her phone at 9.18am and Mrs Fletcher found Willow at 9.33am. This provides a maximum window of time of 15 minutes when Nicola went into the river

• Coroner's summary - location

  Contuining to sum up the evidence, Dr Adeley said:

  • The river bank had an “almost vertical drop”
  • At the base a stone wall had been built to prevent further erosion and this provided no footholds or handholds. If you fell here you would certainly enter the water
  • The opposite bank, 20 metres away, was also a difficult site to climb out
  • On January 27 the Environment Agency said the flow over the weir was 0.49 metres. When police did a reconstruction the weir height was almost half this but even at that level it took a body over the weir
  • The flow on the river on the day Nicola died made it “almost impossible” to get out
  • Nicola would have been unable to reach the bottom of the river until she had travelled for “at least 40 metres” downstream
  • Two world leading experts, Dr Paddy Morgan and Professor Mike Tipton, said Nicola would have been overwhelmed by cold water shock after falling into the water
  • The water temperature was 3.6C would have elicited a powerful response in Nicola - not related to body size but the rapid cooling of the skin
  • Nicola's clothing would not have slowed her response to cold water shock

  • Coroner's summary - impact on Nicola's body

    Dr Adeley said:

    • Adrenalin is released immediately which can cause a person’s heart to stop instantaneously
      

    • If this doesn’t occur there is an overwhelming urge to gasp. If Nicola’s head was underwater she could have inhaled two litres of water which would have been a lethal dose

    • There was a good chance Nicola's first breath was underwater. Even if was above the water, if she then became submerged, an increased heart rate and blood rate would have used oxygen at a rate where she would have lost consciousness within 48 seconds. However, this was highly optimistic and it would more likely have been 30 seconds with increasingly impaired consciousness

    • Such was the shock of immersion Nicola would have been unable to stand up or float

    • She would have died before reaching the first point in the river where she could have touched the bottom

    • Coroner's summary - wider circumstances

      Dr Adeley is continuing to sum up the evidence:

      • Nikki had no alcohol in her bloodstream at the time of her death

      • The cause of death was drowning

      • The RNLI’s Float to Live campaign urges people to tilt their head back, relax, try to breathe normally and spread yourself out. Such education may save the lives of other people who are unlucky enough to enter cold water

      • On the possible involvement of third parties: all of the witnesses who were in the area did not note anyone suspicious in the area of the field where Nicola was walking

      • Det Supt Rebecca Smith said CCTV of three of the four entry points to the field shows nobody acting unusually. CCTV from the fourth point only showed one direction but this also showed nobody

      • Police contacted the owners of 700 cars which passed the road and examined dashcam footage. Nothing unusual was spotted

      • Dr Armour said there was no evidence Nicola was assaulted nor that a third-party was involved

      • Although two women heard a scream it was not of a nature which caused concern and was some distance from where Nicola was. At the time they were heard Nicola was probably already dead

      • Conclusion

        Dr Adeley says that the medical cause of death was drowning. He said it likely that Nicola entered the water at 9.22am when her Fitbit recorded a significant spike in her heart rate. He is unable to determine exactly why Nicola entered the water.

        Dr Adeley said: "On January 27 at around 9.22am Nicola Jane Bulley fell into the River Wyre and died almost immediately".

        He is now addressing each of the possible short form conclusions. These are:

        Suicide - there is an absence of any evidence, he says. Excluding a couple of comments over Christmas, treated as throwaway, there is no indication Nicola had any intention of taking her life. It is believed it would also be unusual for suicide as she would not have left Willow who was described as her third child. To leave her car keys in her pocket with her car in the school playground where her children would see it would be cruel so there is no evidence to support this conclusion.

        Natural causes - There is no sign of natural causes.

        Accidental death - The only remaining conclusion is accidental death and this is what is recorded by Dr Adeley