Watch: Police share last sighting of Gaynor Lord on CCTV
Police searching for Gaynor Lord say they have been unable to establish her state of mind at the time she went missing with “any degree of confidence”.
Yesterday, police released new footage of what they say is the last sighting of her on CCTV before she disappeared.
The 34-second clip shows the 55-year-old, wearing glasses and a long coat, walking along St Augustines Street in Norwich, which is busy with passing traffic, at 4.01pm on Friday, 8 December.
A friend has also described Lord as “upbeat and happy” and talking about Christmas just days before she disappeared.
Julie Butcher said Lord seemed “fine” when they last met on Tuesday last week. She also revealed that she had a brief phonecall with Lord at 2.15pm on the day she went missing and a “pocket call” at 4.15pm later that day – 15 minutes after Lord was last seen on CCTV.
Lord disappeared after leaving work early from Norwich city centre at 2.45pm. Her belongings were reportedly found in Wensum Park – around 1.5 miles away from her workplace at Jarrold department store – at around 8pm.
Police are keeping an open mind about what happened but have said “everything we know is pointing to a high probability that Gaynor went into the nearby River Wessum.
Specialist divers are working in an “extraordinarily challenging environment” and it is expected to take “a couple of days” or longer to complete the search of area where Lord is thought to have entered the water.
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Police have ‘some indications’ why Lord left work early
Members of the underwater search team relocated their equipment to start a new search in the river Wensum on Thursday. (Alamy) The most recent police statement – on Thursday afternoon – saw Chief Superintendent Dave Buckley of Norfolk Police say that officers had “some indications” of why Lord left the department store where she worked early.
“We’ve got some indications as to why she behaved the way in which she did but what we’re doing is we’re just working backwards now to actually truly understand what may have taken place,” he said.
“We’re just cautious of everything we know at the moment because clearly we’ve ended up in the situation we have which is not usual.
“I don’t think any of the conversations we’ve had are completely informing us as to why her state of mind ended up being what it was.”
He was asked if there were any marks on the grass by the river to indicate someone had gone in there, and replied “no there wasn’t”.
Asked if officers were considering anything about her medical history, he said: “We would always consider it but there’s nothing that changes our approach at the moment.”
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A diver searches the River Wesum. (Alamy) A friend of Lord, Julie Butcher, has talked about her final interactions with the missing woman.
Julie Butcher said her friend seemed “fine” when they last met on Tuesday last week.
“We were talking. She was a bit busy but we were talking about Christmas and she seemed fine, no different to the usual Gaynor. She was quite upbeat and happy,” Ms Butcher told the BBC.
Ms Butcher told the broadcaster she spoke to her friend at 2.15pm on Friday last week but she had to cut the call short to speak to a client.
“I said I would call her back and she said ‘yes’,” Ms Butcher said.
Ms Butcher said she returned the call but could not get through. She also sent a message to tell her friend she was free.
“I think she was still at work when she called me, I don’t know but maybe that’s why she couldn’t answer,” she said.
“I keep going over the conversation. If I hadn’t answered that call would she have talked to me? I feel terrible. I feel so sorry for the family.”
Ms Butcher said she received another call form Ms Lord at 4.15pm but it “sounded like a pocket call – I could hear movement in her pocket”.
