A man's loyal dog who refused to leave the riverbank was the only witness as to what happened when her owner was swept out to sea. Nicholas Degraff was reported missing on December 12 last year after his 'best friend', Leah the Alsatian, was found at the side of the River Derwent.
He had entered the river five weeks before his body was discovered by a dredger vessel in sea of the Cumbrian coast in two halves. The 23-year-old welder had spent the previous night with friends and was last seen on CCTV at 5.17am walking his dog through Great Clifton.
A widespread search was launched for the heavy metal fan by his family and friends but there had been no sightings of Nicholas until January 21 of this year when the dredger found his body at the Port of Workington. The dog had been found at the side of the River Derwent by walkers just before 12.36pm on December 12, according to an inquest held on November 8 at Cockermouth Coroner's Court.
According to LancsLive, Leah had been "barking at the river and eager to stay" by the bank where an entry point into the water was visible. The rope Nic had used as a dog lead was later found in the water. A police investigation was launched as Nic was spotted on CCTV in Great Clifton after being shown a route back to his home in Oxford Street by a man called Brian Park.
His Snapchat account last registered its location at the riverbank and his bank card and mobile phone were not used after that date. Detective Inspector Hayley Wilkinson, of West Cumbria CID, said she was called to the Prince of Wales Dock in Workington at 11.36am on Friday, January 21, after a dredger operating in the port had picked up "half of a body".
DI Wilkinson said: "The lower half of a body wearing black jogging bottoms and black work boots had been found [in the hopper]."
Nic's parents identified the boots and clothing on the body as being like those worn by their son when he went missing. Nic's mum Hilary, who attended the inquest with his dad Malcolm and their daughter Charlotte, said in a statement that her son had been a "cheeky and happy little boy" as a youngster.
Nic had attended Northside Primary School and Stainburn School before completing a welding apprenticeship at Gen2. He was born in Whitehaven and got a job with Balfour Beatty, working at Sellafield, but was made redundant during the Covid lockdown.
The welder then managed to find employment with BAE Systems in Glasgow before securing a job closer to home in Maryport. In her statement, Mrs Degraff said: "All his life he wanted a German Shepherd dog and in 2018 he brought Leah home who became his best friend and they both went everywhere together."
Post mortem toxicology tests revealed that Nic had some alcohol and cocaine in his system and the medical cause of death was given as immersion. Returning a narrative conclusion, Coroner Kirsty Gomersal described Nic's death as "a mystery".
She said: "There's only Leah that can really tell us that - if only dogs could talk. That is the greatest mystery of all - how did Nic come to be in the river is a mystery and that is something only Leah would be able to tell us."
Ahead of Nic's funeral in February, speaking to CumbriaLive, Nic's sister Charlotte said she would remember her brother for his "fun-loving, cheeky and mischievous attitude".
She said: "He was really loud, he used to say things like 'you'll never guess what's happened but I didn't do anything or it wasn't my fault'. Just his stories that used to make me cringe at the best of times. But he used to come home and he would always have a story."
