A mother-of-three whose body was recovered from a river had watched a TV show about cold water swimming before her death, an inquest has heard.
Gaynor Lord was found dead in the River Wensum in Norwich, a week after she disappeared in December last year.
The 55-year-old retail worker had left her clothes and belongings in a park near the river.
Norfolk’s senior coroner Jacqueline Lake said at today’s hearing: “I have heard evidence she had recently watched a programme about cold water swimming and that was something she talked about in the recent past both with her husband and a friend.”
The coroner recorded a conclusion of death by misadventure and said she was satisfied Ms Lord “intended to enter the water but I do find she didn’t intend to die by her actions”.
She was on hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for the menopause and medication for epilepsy, the coroner said.
Ms Lord went missing on 8 December 2023 and on the same day, her clothing, mobile phone, glasses and jewellery were found in Wensum Park, near the water.
Specialist divers discovered her body in the river on 15 December.
In a report read to the hearing, Detective Sergeant Mike Cox said Ms Lord’s body was found 2.5 metres underwater and “not clothed”.
No alcohol or “drugs of abuse” were detected in her blood and there was no evidence of assault, DS Cox said.
In a statement read out by the coroner, Ms Lord’s husband, Clive Lord, said: “Gaynor had recently watched a TV show about swimming in ice cold water.
“She’s never done it herself but I don’t know if in her confused state she may have been thinking about this.
“I don’t know this for sure – it’s just me thinking about why she would enter the water.”
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He added that there was “no reason for her to be at Wensum Park” and said it was not somewhere they had visited before.
Mr Lord said he had last seen his wife before they left for work, when they had spoken about plans for a holiday to Japan, with no “arguments” or “disagreements”.
Ms Lord’s mental health was “noted as stable” in January 2023, but there “was some evidence in the more recent past that she was acting out of character”, the coroner said.
Analysis of her phone revealed that on the afternoon of her disappearance, Ms Lord had sent a message saying “help” to a contact who had “died some time ago”.
In another message, she wrote she was “going crazy” and “can feel the fear”.
In a “string of messages she said she didn’t know what she was doing”, the coroner said.
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Further analysis indicated that between 4.10pm and 4.30pm on 8 December, Ms Lord looked at pictures of her family and her dog, which had died around a year earlier.
Her medical cause of death was recorded as immersion and drowning.
