Nicola Bulley wanted to get married before she died but Covid delayed wedding

03 February 2024 , 12:34

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Nicola Bulley wanted to get married before she died but Covid delayed wedding

Nicola Bulley had planned to marry her boyfriend of over a decade before she vanished but the pandemic delayed their wedding plans.

The couple had talked about tying the knot with their daughters as bridesmaids but put wedding plans on hold due to the Covid lockdowns, her partner of more than a decade Paul Ansell revealed.

"We talked about it again seriously at the beginning of 2020. And that was when we really started to actually look at getting something sort of in the calendar," he told Channel 5 presenter Dan Walker last year.

Nicola, 45, went missing on January 27 last year while walking her dog along the River Wyre. Her disappearance generated a media circus in the tiny community of St Michael’s on Wyre as speculation on social media spurred unofficial searches and attracted amateur sleuths. The mum-of-two's body was found in the River Wyre three and a half weeks later, with an inquest into her death in June confirming she had accidentally fallen into the water and drowned.

Paul described Nicola, who originated from Essex, as fun, loving and an "exceptional mum". He continued: "Without her the hole is bigger than you could possibly imagine." Nicola's father Ernest tearfully described his daughter at the inquest as a "great daughter, sister and mother, we couldn't ask for any more from her."

Mum appeared 'completely normal' moments before vanishing while walking dog

Nicola Jane Bulley with her partner Paul Ansell

Confidence in the police plummeted amid criticism that police had botched the search for Bulley, a mortgage adviser who was last seen shortly after taking her daughters, ages 6 and 9, to school.

The Lancashire police department, which dedicated 40 detectives to the investigation, came under increasing criticism the longer the case went unsolved. In an apparent effort to respond, the force said Bulley was classified as a "high-risk" missing person "based on a number of specific vulnerabilities."

It later revealed she had struggled with alcohol and perimenopause before she vanished. The disclosure prompted a further backlash, with senior members of the government, opposition leaders and victims rights advocates decrying the release of such personal information. The police department conducted an internal review of the investigation and also had to refer itself to Britain’s independent police watchdog over contact officers had with Bulley before her disappearance.

The inquest concluded her death was accidental and she did not have "any desire" to take her own life. She died by drowning after falling into cold water, Dr James Adeley, senior coroner for Lancashire ruled. At the time of her death, she was not under the influence of alcohol, with toxicology reports showing only a therapeutic level of paracetamol and beta-blocker propranolol in her system.

Rachel Hagan