An inquest into the death of Nicola Bulley has been told the body of mum-of-two was identified by her dental records.
The 45-year-old had been missing for more than three weeks when her body was found at the banks of the River Wyre close to Rawcliffe Road in St Michael's On Wyre on Sunday (February 19). Police were called to reports that two walkers had spotted a body.
The discovery came more than three weeks after the 45-year-old mum-of-two was reported missing, on the morning of Friday January 27. She went missing after she had dropped off her daughters at the village primary school and took her springer spaniel Willow for a walk by the river.
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Nicola Bulley, 45, was identified by dental records, the opening of her inquest at Lancashire Coroner's Court was told today (Wednesday).
Opening an inquest into the death of Nicola Bulley, 45, senior coroner Dr James Adeley said he had contacted consultant maxillofacial surgeon Ian Edwards to ask him to compare dental records obtained by police from the Great Eccleston dental surgery.
He said: “He examined the body that was located in the River Wyre near Rawcliffe Road in St Michael’s on Wyre at 2.15pm on February 20.”
Dr Adeley said the surgeon found restorative work carried out was identical.
He said: “I am satisfied on the balance of probabilities, and more, that positive identification has been made.”
Coroner Dr James Adeley said: “The family have been informed of the date, time and place of the opening of the inquest and have chosen not to attend for reasons I can quite understand.”
He said remaining evidence gathered by police and the post-mortem examination required “further evaluation” and a full inquest was likely to be held in June, once availability of a Home Office pathologist had been checked.
He said: “This will allow time to collate the facts of the case and allow the experts involved to finalise the findings from investigations that still need to be undertaken.”
The hearing was attended by six members of the press and lasted about five minutes.
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