Gaynor Lord made plans to play tennis in the New Year before vanishing, the missing Norwich mother’s friend reveals
Missing mother Gaynor Lord made plans to play tennis in the New Year before she vanished, a friend said today.
The search for Mrs Lord, who was last seen walking out of her workplace at Jarrolds department store over an hour before her shift was due to end and hurrying through the streets of Norwich on December 8, has now entered its second week.
Friend Julie Butcher had shared ‘gins and hugs’ with the mother-of-three just days before and the pair agreed to play tennis together after Christmas.
She also received a call from Mrs Lord about half an hour before she left work on the day of her disappearance, but had to cut the conversation short after receiving another call from a work client. She promised to call Mrs Lord back.
Ms Butcher told Sky News: ‘I wish I hadn’t have answered that call. Really wish I hadn’t have answered that call. And then she may have talked to me a bit more or I might have found out the reason why she was calling me.
The mother-of-three (pictured) walked out of her workplace over an hour before her shift was due to end and hurried through the streets of Norwich
This timeline shows what we know so far about how Gaynor Lord’s disappearance unfolded
‘She was happy on Tuesday and we had a few gins with her and the last time I saw her she gave me a hug.’
She also spoke to ITV’s Good Morning Britain, and said of the first call: ‘When I answered it she said where are you, where are you?’
When Ms Butcher did call her friend back about five minutes later, there was no answer.
Then, she got another call but thinks it was a pocket dial.
Ms Butcher told GMB: ‘It was 4.15pm and she rang me again. It sounded like a pocket call. It just sounded like she was walking. So I though oh she obviously hasn’t meant to call me. I just wish I’d have kept her on the phone and not taken that phone call because you never know, she might have said something.’
Ms Butcher said she feels for Mrs Lord’s family having spoken to her husband on Saturday.
She told GMB: ‘He sounded like he hadn’t slept. He sounded dreadful, as you would if your wife hadn’t come home.’
Police yesterday revealed that they have ‘some indications’ as to why Mrs Lord left work early on the day she vanished, but also admitted they have not been able to establish her state of mind when she went missing with ‘any degree of confidence’.
Possessions including her rings, mobile phone and clothing were found in a park in the city hours later, while her coat was in a nearby river.
Speaking near the spot in Wensum Park where Mrs Lord, 55, is believed to have gone into the water, Chief Superintendent Dave Buckley of Norfolk Police said it will take ‘a couple of days’ or longer to complete the search of the stretch of river, which has included using sonar equipment.
Police released new CCTV footage yesterday showing the last time Mrs Lord was caught on camera, about ten minutes before her second call to Ms Butcher
Members of the dive team searching the River Wensum at Wensum Park in Norwich today
‘It’s very, very challenging – the river is very, very full of water with all the rain, full of lots of debris,’ he said. The divers can see about one foot in front of them, so it’s an extraordinarily challenging environment for them to work in.’
Mr Buckley added that the force is keeping an open mind about what happened to to Mrs Lord but that ‘everything we know is pointing to a high probability that Gaynor went into the water’.
‘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.
‘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.’
Mrs Lord’s colleagues have insisted her behaviour was normal prior to her disappearance. A co-worker at the store’s Bullards Gin concession said she seemed her ‘normal, happy self’ days before.
A floor manager in the city centre store added: ‘There was nothing to suggest at all that something like this would happen… She didn’t show any signs of distress or concern.’
READ MORE: Gaynor Lord detectives release last known CCTV of missing mother walking down the street minutes before she vanished as police say they can’t explain her behaviour that day
But a friend of hers, who was a salesman at a nearby store, revealed yesterday that Mrs Lord had told him she was ‘feeling a bit funny’ shortly before her disappearance.
‘It was very nonchalant. She said she was feeling a bit funny, a bit off,’ the man told the Daily Telegraph.
He added: ‘We had a brief conversation about anxiety. She didn’t say she did or didn’t suffer with it… She had no mental health problems that I was aware of.’
Mrs Lord’s friend Julie Butcher said she was ‘upbeat and happy’ and talking about Christmas just days before she disappeared.
She added that 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.
Mrs Butcher also revealed yesterday that she had received two phone calls from the mother on the day of her disappearance.
About half an hour before she left the department store, Mrs Lord called and asked where Ms Butcher was.
Ms Butcher was forced to cut the conversation short after receiving another call from a work client, but promised to call back.
‘I said I would call her back and she said ‘yes’,’ Ms Butcher said.
The friend said she tried to ring Mrs Lord a few minutes later but could not get through, adding: ‘I think she was still at work when she called me, I don’t know. But maybe that’s why she couldn’t answer.’
Ms Butcher received another call from the missing mother at 4.15pm but said it ‘sounded like a pocket call’.
Gaynor Lord was last seen on Friday afternoon as she left work early from Norwich city centre
Divers in the river at Wensum Park today as the search for Gaynor Lord continues
Divers are seen going under the water in Wensum Park in Norwich on Thursday afternoon
Police teams continue to hunt for clues in the disappearance of Gaynor Lord in Norwich today
Timeline of Gaynor Lord’s movements before going missing
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2023
- 2.44pm – Gaynor is working at the Bullards Gin counter in the basement at Jarrold department store – her clothing is clearly visible
- 2.45-2.46pm – She leaves the store via loading bay on Bedford Street
- 2.47pm – Walks onto London Street past Cosy Club
- 2.48pm – Gaynor makes her way onto Queens Street and walks toward the Cathedral
- 3.22pm – Gaynor is seen on The Close at the cathedral entrance – shortly before exiting through the archway she puts her coat on
- 3.23pm – She is seen to walk away from the cathedral on Queens Street – here you can see a clear image of the coat she was wearing
- 3.49pm – This is the last sighting of Gaynor on CCTV near the Playhouse on St George’s Street
- 3.53pm – Walks along St Crispins Road towards Pitt Street
- 4.01pm – Gaynor walks up St Augustines Street – her final movements captured in CCTV before going missing
The friend said: ‘I keep going over the conversation. If I hadn’t answered that call [from her client] would she have talked to me?
‘I feel terrible. I feel so sorry for the family… It’s not like Gaynor to do this.’
Police released new CCTV footage yesterday showing the last time Mrs Lord was caught on camera, about ten minutes before her second call to Ms Butcher.
Taken just over an hour after she left the department store where she works and several hours before her belongings were found, she could be seen walking calmly along St Augustines Street in the city centre.
She was later spotted by a woman, who said Mrs Lord appeared ‘quite calm’ as she performed a yoga pose with her coat on the ground beside her.
Norfolk Police, who have received around 30 calls from members of the public in response to appeals for information, don’t believe anyone else was involved in her disappearance but have not ruled it out.
Underwater searches were continuing yesterday.
Chief Superintendent Buckley added: ‘We’re really concerned about her safety. We are pursuing the inquiry that she’s missing and alive.’
The force has been liaising with Lancashire Police, which handled the investigation into Nicola Bulley, who went missing in similar circumstances earlier this year.
Her body was found in the River Wyre and an inquest concluded she fell in and died of accidental drowning.
Mrs Lord’s husband Clive, 63, has not commented on the case.
Police search the New Mills Yard area of the River Wensum in Norwich this morning
Detectives are using sonar equipment at the River Wensum in Norwich this morning
The New Mills Yard area of the River Wensum is the search focus for police this morning
Police continue to scour the River Wensum by Wensum Park in Norwich, pictured yesterday
Police teams continue to hunt for clues in the disappearance of Gaynor Lord in Norwich today
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