The definitive account of Nicola Bulley’s final hours was revealed at yesterday’s inquest.
Ms Bulley was alive when she fell in the River Wyre – but the icy water in January this year could have killed her in just 25 seconds, the inquest into her death also heard yesterday.
The mother-of-two had not been drinking and died by drowning with no sign of foul play or an attack by a third party, Dr James Adeley, senior coroner for Lancashire, was told.
In painstaking detail, maps reveal minute-by-minute how what should have been an ordinary school drop-off and morning dog walk turned into a mysterious disappearance which would grip the nation.
It also shows the bafflement of villagers in St Michael’s-on-Wyre as they tried to find who owned the spaniel found running loose by the riverbank on January 27 as well as the mounting panic of her partner, Paul Ansell.
Here MailOnline has broken down the morning’s events, which ultimately would lead to the disappearance and tragic death of Nicola Bulley.
Mother-of-two Nicola Bulley, 45, vanished while walking her dog in Lancashire on January 27
Workers from Specialist Group International, a private underwater search and recovery company, on the River Wyre on February 6
Paul Ansell, Ms Bulley’s partner of 12 years, wiped away tears as he heard evidence about her death today
8.26am – Nicola Bulley is pictured on the family’s Ring doorbell camera leaving her home in Inskip, Lancashire along with her two daughters and the family dog, Willow, in her black Mercedes SUV.
The 3.4 mile journey to St Michael’s Primary School takes around eight minutes.
8.33:49am – dog walker Richard Fife passes a black-clad man as he enters Allotment Lane in St Michael’s-on-Wyre heading for the riverside path.
8.34:33am – mobile phone data analysis places Ms Bulley’s handset near St Michael’s Primary School while her Mercedes is also seen there on a police dashcam.
8.34:33am-8.41:38am – witnesses and CCTV place Ms Bulley at the school as she drops off her daughters; Mr Fife is in the fields beside the river with his labrador
8.41am approx – witness David Hall passes Ms Bulley who is walking north across the road bridge over the Wyre towards the start of the riverside path, confirmed by her mobile phone data.
Nicola was last seen on the morning of Friday January 27 when she was spotted walking her dog
8.42:50am – mobile phone analysis shows Ms Bulley starting to walk along the riverside path in the direction of the bench.
8.46:30am – Ms Bulley’s iPhone ‘pings’ four times near the bench beside a bend in the river to within an accuracy of up to 7.6m
8.47am approx – Mr Fife leaves the ‘lower’ field, passing Ms Bulley who is walking the other way with her phone held out in front of her.
8.48:50am – Handset location data shows Ms Bulley’s phone in the ‘lower’ field.
8.52:53am – Still in the ‘lower’ field, Ms Bulley receives a WhatsApp message from her sister Louise Cunningham regarding plans for an upcoming spa day.
8.53:36am – Ms Bulley sends an email to her boss, Ben Pociacho at Exclusively Mortgages, regarding a mortgage client – she is still in the lower field.
8.54:27am – Mr Fife is caught on CCTV as he walks back up Allotment Lane, seeing to his surprise that the black-clad man is still on the corner by the main road.
8.55am approx – Claire Chesham, another school run mother walking her dog, reaches the ‘lower’ field and can see Ms Bulley with Willow approaching the hedgerow dividing it from the ‘upper’ field.
8.55:16am – phone data places Ms Bulley’s handset in the south eastern corner of the ‘lower’ field near the river.
8:59:38am – Now in the ‘upper’ field, Ms Bulley sends a Facebook message to another mother, Lucie Musella, arranging a kids play date for the following afternoon.
The message simply consists of a suggested time and a smiley face emoji.
9.01:05am – Ms Bulley joins a work Teams call on her phone, remaining on mute as it proceeds.
9.05-9.10am approx – Mrs Chesham sees Ms Bulley walking in a loop around the ‘upper’ field. It is the last confirmed sighting of her alive as Mrs Chesham returns back up the riverside path.
9.18:01am and 9.18:11am – Volume and side buttons are used on Ms Bulley’s phone.
9.18:41am – Ms Bulley receives a WhatsApp message about the spa day from ‘Tosh’ – her sister, Louise Cunningham.
It reads: ‘The difference of £22 I will cover for the dress mum got you at Christmas that you didn’t keep and I had x.’
She did not receive blue ticks to say her sister had read the message.
9.20:36am – Mrs Chesham is pictured on CCTV leaving the top of Allotment Lane onto Blackpool Road.
9.20:39am-9.20:42am – three further handset pings place Ms Bulley around the bench close to which Willow would later be found. Unusually, it is the last handset data for ten minutes.
9.22am – heartrate data gathered by Ms Bulley’s Fitbit peaks at around 100BPM.
9.23:05am – Penny Fletcher is caught on her home CCTV leaving Wyreside Caravan Park at the bottom of Allotment Lane and walking through an area of scrub downstream from the bench.
9.33am approx – Mrs Fletcher finds a spaniel – which turns out to be Willow – near the river with an iPhone with its screen lit up on the bench.
9.35:08am – Keith Barlow is caught on CCTV walking his dog from Rowanwater caravan park next to the upper field; he spots and later speaks to Mrs Fletcher by the bench.
9.36am-9.55am – in the garden of her home on Allotment Lane, Helen O’Neill hears a scream coming from the direction of the riverside path.
9.45:32am – having tied Willow to the bench with string and tried to memorise the number on her collar tag, Penny Fletcher is caught on CCTV walking back to the caravan park. She calls the number but has taken it down wrongly so tries a local vet’s, without success, then calls friend Susan Jones to pass on a message to her husband Roger – who is walking his own dog – about the mystery spaniel.
9.50am approx – Veronica Claesen at the village tennis club near the primary school hears a scream coming from the direction of the riverside path.
10.04am – Mrs Fletcher calls her daughter-in-law Anne-Marie in the hope of identifying the spaniel’s owner.
10.10am approx – Roger Jones reaches the bench and finds Willow tied to it along with the phone. He calls his wife who informs him about what Penny Fletcher has told her about finding the dog running loose, then continues his own walk.
10.20am approx – At Allotment Lane, Norma Kershaw sees Susan Jones coming to assist her husband.
10.30am approx – Mr and Mrs Jones plus Ms Kershaw congregate at the bench.
10.32:13am – The number of location readings on Ms Bulley’s mobile phone increases, indicating the device is being handled and moved.
10.40am approx – The group place Willow on her harness and walk her back to the caravan park
10.40:26am – Paul Ansell, who is working from home, makes the first of six phone calls in seven minutes to his partner’s mobile, none of which is answered.
10.47:30am – Mr and Mrs Jones plus Ms Kershaw are pictured arriving back at Allotment Lane with Willow.
10.48:06am – Mr Ansell sends a WhatsApp message reading ‘Have you got lost?’ to Ms Bulley.
10.50am approx – Anne-Marie Fletcher recognises Willow as Ms Bulley’s dog and calls her children’s school.
10.54:15am – staff at St Michael’s Primary School call Mr Ansell.
10.56am approx – Ring doorbell from the family home in Inskip shows Mr Ansell setting off for St Michael’s.
10.57:25am – Mr Ansell calls Ann-Marie Fletcher and – according to Mrs Jones’ evidence – says: ‘She’s struggling.’
11.00:39am – Mr Ansell dials 999 to report his wife missing.
11.10am approx – Mr Ansell reaches the bench where he meets Anne-Marie Fletcher plus Mr and Mrs Jones who have Willow and his partner’s phone.
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk