The search for Nicola Bulley: Family reveal the trauma and frenzy in bid to find mother for documentary

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Louise Thomas

Editor

Nicola Bulley’s family lost control after her disappearance became the subject of widespread conspiracy theories and online speculation, the director of a new documentary has said.

The 45-year-old mother vanished last January while walking her dog beside the River Wyre, with her body found three weeks later in a river after an extensive search operation.

Her husband and close relatives have shared their painful story in a BBC documentary, called The Search For Nicola Bulley, with the director, Rachel Lob-Levyt, telling The Independent that this was “not as easy decision”.

“During that three week period, there was so much swirling around and so much that had been taken out of their control, and particularly who Nicola was - it had gotten lost. They lost control of that part of it,” she said.

Speaking publicly for the first time in the documentary to be aired on Thursday night, Paul Ansell said the family initially welcomed the public interest, before the online fixation and obsession turned into a “double-edged sword”.

As the search continued, sleuths began posting hurtful and misleading claims about the case, prompting conspiracy theories with armchair detectives travelling to Lancashire to livestream the search.

“That’s the problem. You’re poking a monster,” Mr Ansell said.

“I was getting direct messages from people that I’ve never met – they don’t know me, they don’t know us, they don’t know Nikki.”

He was also told: “You can’t hide,” and: “We know what you did.”

Mr Ansell added: “On top of the trauma of the nightmare that we’re in, to then think that all these horrendous things are being said about me towards Nikki – everyone has a limit.”

Speaking of the process for the family to feel comfortable opening up about the harrowing experience, Ms Lob-Levyt, who worked on Louis Theroux Interviews and Hospital, said: “I spent a lot of time off-camera getting to know them, and for them to get to know me.

“It was about building human relationships, there was no rush. I go for full transparency, communication and honesty about the process.”

Covering the social media response to Ms Bulley’s disappearance was a “challenge”, she said, given the negative impact it had on her loved ones. “I think perhaps there’s an instinct withing legacy media to shut out social media, but I don’t think it’s necessarily the best approach.

“It’s here to stay and it is playing a huge part in how cases like this are covered. We thought it was important to engage with that and to see the nuances.”

The documentary will hear the turmoil the family faced as the search for Ms Bulley intensified, as well as the impact it had on the couple’s two young children.

“The nights were the hardest,” Mr Ansell said. “In the morning the hope would be strong. It used to go dark at like 4pm.

“It used to get to about 3pm and then I’d start panicking that I knew it would start going dark in an hour. So we had an hour to find her.

“And then obviously I’d have the girls. The first they’d do when they came out of school was run over and say: ‘Have we found mummy?’”.

The release of personal information about Ms Bulley’s health struggles was “avoidable and unnecessary”, and police and media need to rebuild trust, a report into the case concluded.

This had included details of her ongoing struggles with the menopause, and that she had “signficant issues” with alcohol.

Last year, a coroner recorded Ms Bulley’s death as accidental, saying she had fallen into the river and suffered “cold water shock”, and that there was “no evidence” to suggest suicide.

The Search For Nicola Bulley will be broadcast on BBC One on October 3 at 9pm BST and on will be available on BBC iPlayer.