A mother-of-three found drowned in the Wensum a week after she vanished from her job at Jarrolds had told a friend days earlier that she wanted to disappear like Nicola Bulley.
Gaynor Lord, 55, was reported missing on Friday, December 8, after she failed to return home having left work on the department store's Bullards Gin counter at around 4pm - an hour earlier than expected.
CCTV footage showed her walking and running through the city, which was busy with Christmas shoppers.
A major search operation was launched and specialist divers found her body in the river a week later.
The friend said: “She made a comment to me about ‘disappearing like Nicola - then they’ll come looking’.”
In his report to the coroner, Detective Sergeant Mike Cox said he believed this was a reference to Nicola Bulley.
The 45-year-old mother-of-two had disappeared while walking her dog in St Michael's on Wyre, Lancashire, the previous January.
Ms Bulley's disappearance had also sparked a huge search operation, before her body was eventually recovered from the river three weeks later.
Mrs Lord's disappearance last December prompted comparisons with Ms Bulley's case.
Mrs Lord's inquest - which ruled out suicide and recorded a verdict of misadventure - also heard that she had been on a course of hormone replacement therapy for the menopause and epilepsy at the time of her death.
Her loved ones described the tragedy as “so out of character” and say they are still struggling to come to terms with her death.
A HISTORY OF EPILEPSY
Evidence read out to the court heard that Mrs Lord had been diagnosed with epilepsy in childhood and would suffer with 'absence seizures'.
In a statement, her husband, Clive Lord, said: “Her epilepsy appeared to be hormone or stress-related.
“She seemed to get it worse at certain times of the month.
“The [seizure] aura often fell around her menstrual cycle.”
Mr Lord went on to say that her seizures would cause her to suffer from memory loss.
And she had decided to not to renew her driving license four years ago after being involved in a car accident, leaving her with anxiety.
It lasted around 90 seconds, and she could not remember it in the morning.
She would often become disorientated after this, and the following day said she felt “washed out” and was left with a headache. She also experienced two further auras the same day.
The Epilepsy Society describes absence seizures - previously called petit-mal – as when a person becomes blank and unresponsive for a few seconds.
The inquest heard she was compliant with her medication.
EPISODES OF PREVIOUS MENTAL ILL HEALTH
The evidence also described how her epilepsy would become worse during period of stress.
The court heard how in 2011 she suffered from a mental health episode when police escorted her to the hospital after she was found disorientated at a city pub.
She later fled from the hospital but was eventually discharged home, where her husband looked after her.
Mr Lord said: “She was found with a bag and the dog waiting for aliens to pick her up or take her away.
"The doctors had considered sectioning her, but they allowed her to come home on the basis I would be looking after her.
“We think she just screwed up her tablets and had a reaction.”
“During this episode she believed she had to take everybody to another planet and became scared when she hadn’t succeeded and ran off from hospital in her bra and knickers.
“She was assessed a few days later and still suspected aliens had some involvement but no longer had the same thoughts.”
She suffered with anxiety throughout 2011 and there were moments when she described a “disturbing childhood”.
But by January 30, 2023, an assessment by her doctor recorded her as “being stable for some time” and Mrs Lord herself denied any mental health difficulties.
Later that year she began taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT).
SLEEP PROBLEMS AND NIGHT SWEATS
In May 2023, Mrs Lord began taking HRT following an appointment with her doctor after complaining about night sweats and mild mood swings.
She had been experiencing perimenopausal symptoms since 2017.
“Gaynor started getting menopausal symptoms at the start of [2023],” Mr Lord explained.
“She would get down or bored for a few days when having these mood swings.
“She was prescribed HRT for menopause from the GP soon after – and had been taking it for around six to seven months.
“She had not been sleeping very well at all.”
The court heard her sleeping difficulties had been problematic during the week before her disappearance.
COLD-WATER SWIMMING
During a coffee catch-up with friends on Wednesday, December 6 - two days before she vanished - Mrs Lord was described as “hyperactive”.
While talking about HRT and hot flushes, the conversation turned to cold-water swimming.
Jean Herschel, a friend, recalled Mrs Lord “getting excited at this point” and telling her she had “been cold water swimming before and that she would have to do it again”.
He said: “She'd never done it herself, but I don’t know if in her confused state she may have been thinking about this.
“This is something I don’t know for sure, it’s just me thinking about why she could have gone into the water.”
NICOLA BULLEY COMPARISON
Mrs Lord made her remark about Nicola Bulley to her friend June Rudram after she bumped into her in the city the day before her disappearance.
Ms Rudram said Mrs Lord had been "rambling" when she made the comment, which was out of character for her.
The disappearances of the two women did ultimately share several similarities.
Both vanished prompting huge police searches and public interest, before their bodies were found in rivers near where they were last seen.
Both mothers are reported to have struggled with sleep problems and menopausal symptoms in the months before their deaths.
HER FINAL DAY
The police report listed various CCTV sightings that followed Mrs Lord's movements around the city.
It also revealed that a member of the public had discovered her belongings in Wensum Park, including clothing, rings and a mobile phone “strewn over a two-metre radius and not neatly placed”.
She also sent Facebook messages to various people asking for help and stating that she could “feel the fear”.
She also checked cinema listings and made calls. One did not connect, some were not answered and one person thought it was a pocket dial as Mrs Lord did not speak.
At one point, shortly before 4pm, she stopped and took a photograph of a plaque on a wall near Blackfriars Bridge.
Then, at around 4.10pm to 4.20pm, she tried to enter a works van at Wensum Park before being told she was not allowed to sit in there.
Finally, just before 4.30pm, she took one last look at her phone for photographs of her family and dog.
The court heard how it had been the one-year anniversary of the death of their 14-year-old dog, Willis.
A week later, on the morning of December 15, police officer Timothy Price of the Lincolnshire specialist underwater search team located her “not clothed” 2.5m underwater on the riverbed.
CONCLUSIONS
The inquest was attended by family members including her two daughters, sister, and mother.
A post mortem examination was carried out at the James Paget Hospital, Gorleston, by consultant forensic pathologist Benjamin Swift who gave the medical cause of death as "immersion and drowning".
Jacqueline Lake, Norfolk’s senior coroner, ruled out suicide and concluded that her death was due to “misadventure”.
TRIBUTES
Gaynor Lord was born on March 20, 1968, in Blackpool.
She had been with her husband, Clive, for 27 years after they met in 1995.
The couple married on July 3, 1998, and became a family with Gaynor’s son Sebastian. Together, the couple went on to have two daughters; Charlotte and Alexandra.
They moved to St Peter’s Court, off King’s Street, Norwich, in April 2016.
Paying tribute, he said: “She's always wanted to work, she was very down to earth as she was a northern lass from Blackpool.
“Gaynor kept herself very fit. She was a gym goer and was very into healthy eating.
“She had been enjoying her job and talking to people.”
The couple had recently enjoyed a holiday in Turkey and on the morning of December 8, they had been talking about plans for a holiday to Japan.
He added: “That week, we’d had a really good week.
“There was no reason for her to be at Wensum Park. It isn’t a park we’ve ever been to before. The only reason I can think she went there is so we couldn’t find her.”
Friends described her as “happy and positive”.
- Samaritans can be contacted 24/7 on 116 123.
- The NHS First Response Service is available at all hours via 111, requesting the mental health option.
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