For three weeks, the family of Nicola Bulley lived through a kind of purgatory: hoping against hope she was still alive but fearing the worst.
Today (Monday) Lancashire Police confirmed the body found in a river yesterday about a mile from where she went missing is that of Nicola.
The 45-year-old mother-of-two went missing on January 27 after she had dropped her two daughters at school and took her springer spaniel for her usual walk in the Lancashire village of St Michael's on Wyre.
Police said at the time they believed she had gone into the water but did not reveal the personal turmoil in her life that had informed that view.
Read more on manchestereveningnews.co.uk