The body of a woman was found in a river more than a year after she was reported missing by her ex-husband, an inquest heard.

Lorraine Bayley, of Magpie Close, Enfield, was found in the River Lea on September 5, 2014 - more than a year after she had been reported missing.

An inquest held at the North London Coroners Court, in Wood Lane, Chipping Barnet, on July 30 heard that Mrs Bailey had previously been suffering from short term memory loss and confusion and had visited her doctor about the problem.

Dr Appleton, of the Southbury Surgery in Enfield, said in a witness statement that she may have been suffering from depression but that Mrs Bailey, who was born on August 15, 1964, denied this.

His statement also explained that Mrs Bailey, who lives alone with several dogs and did not own a phone or answer letters, had been refusing to co-operate with the surgery and had refused their offer of medication or therapy.

On July 22, 2013, she had been reported missing by her ex-husband Mr Bailey after she had wandered off while meeting him in a pub.

He believed she left to have a cigarette, but after five minutes since her departure he went out to check on her and discovered she had gone.

CCTV picked her up walking north along Hertford Road, but she later disappeared from cameras.

A missing person’s appeal was launched but no response was received by the public.

The inquest, led by coroner Andrew Walker, also heard the witness statement of Tim Brinkley, an operations and delivery employee of Environmental Health who discovered the body.

His statement confirmed he was working with another anchor team to clean the River Lea when he saw what he thought to be a tracksuit and then a human body in the water.

Police arrived at the scene, near a flour mill and a pub, and recovered two halves of a body located 40 feet away from each other.

Officers also seized a men’s trainer that was found near the lower half and a bag found near the upper half.

A post mortem was carried out on September 6 last year, which concluded that the cause of death could not be ascertained due to the decomposition of the body.

The report also said that it could rule out certain types of third party involvement as there were no skeletal injuries, but could not rule it out entirely from the investigation.

An inquest today delivered an open conclusion, with Mr Walker concluding that he could not be certain of the events that lead to the discovery of her body.

He said: “At some point she came into the body of water and at some point died, but beyond that I can’t be specific.”