The 45-year-old vanished after dropping her children off at school, then taking her usual dog walk along the River Wyre in St Michael’s on Wyre, Lancashire, on January 27.

Her phone, still connected to a work Teams call, was found on a bench overlooking the water.

Nicola’s body was found in the river a mile downstream after a sweeping week-long search, which sparked concern across the UK after she was deemed ‘high risk’ and ‘vulnerable’.

Hearing evidence from witnesses including Nicola’s partner and sister, a coroner in Preston will examine four questions: who the deceased was, the circumstances of her death, the medical cause of death and how the tragedy came to be.

Follow Metro.co.uk’s live rolling coverage of the inquest as it happens.