The partner of Nicola Bulley has spoken about the “normal” final morning he spent with the mum of two before her death earlier this year as part of the inquest.
Paul Ansell said that in the week leading up to January 27, when she went missing while walking their dog Willow, she was doing well and working hard.
Speaking about the day of her tragic death, Paul revealed it was “just a normal morning” before Nicola headed out with Willow. He said she was “full of beans” after a business meeting went well the previous day.
‘Everything was normal’
Paul said: “She’d worked so hard passing her exams, starting off on her exams and spent months last year doing an awful lot of hard work to build the business up and she was starting to see the rewards for that and generating business. She was excited with how it was looking.”
Similarly, Nicola’s mother Dorothy Bulley told the inquest that “everything was normal” the day before Nicola went missing.
Everything was normal.
Sophie Cartwright QC, the lawyer representing the family, read from Paul’s statement that Nicola was a “quiet person who enjoyed the simpler side of life” and enjoyed “nothing more than a walk with Willow or a walk with her family in the hills”.
He added: “We worked well together, I guess I gave her a bit of spontaneousness and she planned things where I needed that.”
Paul’s final text to Nicola
Paul went on to share the text he sent her when she went missing. He said he believed she went to put a harness on Willow before she fell into the River Wye. Her phone was still connected to a Microsoft Teams work call when it was found.
He shared that he texted her saying: “Have you got lost?” after she took longer than normal on the dog walk.
Days before she went missing, Paul raised concerns about her alcohol use, too. Mental health clinician Theresa Lewis Leevy told the inquest of a visit to Nicola’s address on January 10. She offered advice about alcohol use. However, she assessed that there was no immediate risk and that Nicola was “in no immediate harm from a mental health aspect”.
Read more: Nicola Bulley’s devastated sister weeps as she pays tribute to ‘absolutely brilliant big sister’
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