When Nicola Bulley disappeared after dropping her daughters at school, the case made headlines around the world. 

The 45-year-old was last seen at around 9.20am on January 27 this year while walking her dog, Willow, in a park in Lancashire, UK. 

She was also logged into a Microsoft Teams call with her camera and microphone off - something she did regularly for her role as a mortgage advisor. 

But when the call ended at 9.30am, Nicola never logged out. 

A few minutes later, a passerby came across her phone sitting on a park bench beside the riverbank while Willow was wandering nearby in an ‘agitated state’.  

How could the devoted mum-of-two - whose friends said had seemed like her usual self that morning - simply vanish in broad daylight? 

Within hours, a major search operation was launched which led to intense public interest in the case. 

The social media frenzy also led to completely unfounded theories about what might have happened to her.

Nicola’s long-time partner and the father of her two children, Paul Ansell, even had to fight off cruel accusations about his involvement. 

As scrutiny over the search intensified, police revealed they believed Nicola may have fallen into the river - a theory Paul strongly disputed, urging the public to keep searching. 

'I have two little girls who miss their mummy desperately and who need her back,' he said at the time. 

'We have to find her safe and well. I can't put those girls to bed again tonight with no answers.'

Then three weeks later, the mum-of-two’s body was tragically discovered in the river 1.5 kilometres from where she was last seen despite a ‘hugely complex’ and coordinated police search. 

Now, a two-day inquest into Nicola’s death has shed light on her final moments with a coroner ruling her death as accidental. 

Witnesses told of how they heard a scream around the time of Nicola’s disappearance.

‘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,’ Helen O’Neill told the inquest. 

‘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.’ 

Another woman, Veronica Claesen, said she heard what sounded like an ‘inhale scream’, like a sharp intake of breath, as she was about to get in her car nearby and thought it was just someone ‘mucking about’. 

‘My immediate thought was 'Somebody is having a bit of fun at the back of the graveyard’,’ she told the inquest. 

Nicola with her partner, Paul Ansell. Source: supplied. 

While many had wondered whether foul play was involved in Nicola’s death, pathologist Dr Alison Armour determined that Nicola’s cause of death was from drowning. 

She concluded the 45-year-old was most likely alive when she entered the water. 

She also said the autopsy showed ‘classic signs’ of asphyxia and there were no indications she had been assaulted before her death or that a third party was involved. 

In a video shown to the court, police officer PC Matthew Thackray explained there was a ‘large vertical slope’ down to the water from the bench where Nicola’s phone was found. 

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On the day she disappeared, the river was ‘almost freezing’. 

‘If she fell in, the muscles would probably seize, making it difficult to swim properly,’ Thackray said. 

He also estimated that Nicola would have floated at a ‘metre a second’ downstream if she was incapacitated by the shock of the fall. 

A world renowned expert in drowning, Professor Michael Tipton, also gave evidence that Nicola could've lost consciousness within '20 to 30 seconds'. 

'I would suspect Nikki had a gasp response under the water, initiating the drowning process,' he said. 

Kay Kiernan - a friend who bumped into Nicola at around 8.30am on the morning of her disappearance - told the court she was acting ‘normally’ when she saw her. 

‘She was not happy, but who is on a Friday-morning school run?’ she said.

‘She wasn't sad, just how I normally knew her.’

After a two-day hearing, senior coroner James Adeley recorded Nicola's death as accidental and said there was no evidence to suggest suicide in what has been one of the most highly publicised missing persons cases in recent history. 

'The emotional impact will stay long in our hearts and whilst we’ll never get over the loss of our Nikki, we will forever remember her as the brilliant mum, partner, daughter and sister that we all knew and loved so very much,' Nicola's family said in a statement when the inquest concluded. 

'The help and support we have received over these few months has meant more than words can say. From family and friends, to complete strangers across the country and world, thank you.

“Nikki and Paul’s girls have already taken great comfort in the deeply thoughtful gifts sent to them in goodwill, and in time they will read the many cards which are filled with such kindness and love.'