In the UK, a woman went missing during a conference call weeks ago. Now there is a sad certainty: Nicola Bulley is dead.

After the body of a woman was found in the northwest of England, police confirmed that it is the missing Nicola Bulley. The body discovered in the River Wyre the day before was that of a 45-year-old mother of two, Lancashire police said on Monday. “Nicola’s family have been informed and of course they are devastated,” she said on Twitter.

The cause of death was unknown. In investigating her, the police assume that she fell into the river while she was walking her dog and drowned.

The search had kept the country on edge for weeks. The woman had been missing since January 27. The financial adviser, who frequently documented her walks online, was last seen taking her two daughters to school as usual and then walking her dog along the river near the town of St. Michael’s on Wyre.

A short time later, her dog was found running loose, as was her phone on a bench, still dialed in from a conference call. However, there was no sign of Bulley, until now.

Recently, a police report caused a stir, according to which the woman was an alcoholic and that the problems had recently increased again due to her menopause. Prominent politicians criticized the publication as an impermissible invasion of privacy.

In a family statement read out at the press conference, the relatives accused the British media of exploiting the missing person’s case and reporting it extensively, despite being asked for privacy. This shouldn’t happen to any other family. “Leave us alone now,” the letter continued, and about the woman who died: “She was the center of our lives, which made our lives so special.”