The Disappearance of Nicola Bulley: When True Crime Turns Toxic

[00:00:00] Hey, it's Nikki. Wanted to let you know that I've launched an ad-free Serial Napper feed, so you can enjoy the podcast without interruptions. For just $2 a month, you can unlock ad-free episodes while still supporting the podcast. It's super easy. Just visit Serial Napper on your Spotify app and click the button at the top of the page that says, Exclusive Episodes for Subscribers. Don't use Spotify for your listening? No problem. Just visit patreon.com slash Serial Napper,

[00:00:29] to get your episodes ad-free and enjoy uninterrupted storytelling while you get your naps in. Sweet dreams. The case featured in this episode has been researched using police records, court documents, witness statements, and the news. Listener discretion is advised. All parties mentioned are innocent until proven guilty, and all opinions are my own.

[00:00:52] Hey everyone, my name is Nikki Young, and this is Serial Napper, the true crime podcast for naps. I'm back with another true crime story to lull you to sleep, or perhaps to give you nightmares. Let's go down the rabbit hole of another baffling and heartbreaking case. One that had an entire country glued to their phones, refreshing for updates, and questioning everything that they thought they knew about missing persons. This time, we're heading to

[00:01:41] the quiet, idyllic village of St. Michael's on Wire in Lancashire, a place that sounds like it belongs in a cozy countryside novel, not the center of a global media firestorm. But that's exactly what happened when Nicola Bulli, a 45-year-old mom of two and mortgage advisor, vanished without a trace while walking her dog on the morning of January 27, 2023.

[00:02:06] Her phone was still connected to a team's work call, her dog was found loose but unharmed, and Nicola completely gone. While police leaned towards the theory that she'd fallen into the river, others weren't so sure. Abduction theories exploded, and suddenly Nicola's deeply personal information was being broadcast for the world to scrutinize. All the while her devastated family tried to make sense of their new reality.

[00:02:36] So, dim the lights, put your phone down, and listen as I unpack the media frenzy, the TikTok detectives, the conspiracies, and how in the end, it wasn't a headline-hungry journalist or a viral influencer who found Nicola, but something much more surprising. This month, I'm featuring cases recommended by my listeners, and this one comes from Linda, who I had the chance to meet at CrimeCon UK. So let's jump right in.

[00:03:06] Before we dive into the chaos that followed Nicola's disappearance, let's take a moment to talk about who she really was behind the headlines, beyond the hashtags and wild internet speculation. Nicola Bulli, known to her loved ones as Nikki, was a 45-year-old mortgage advisor who had made land cashier her home for over 25 years.

[00:03:28] She lived in the village of Inskip with her partner Paul, their two young daughters, aged 6 and 9, and their beloved Spaniel Willow. Originally from Chelmsford, Essex, Nikki spoke with a soft southern accent, something that made her stand out just a little bit in her northern community. To those who knew her best, she was so much more than a name in the news.

[00:03:52] She was described as an incredible mom, the kind who lived for her girls, always planning something special, always showing up. Whether it was school PTA events or simple family walks, Nicola was there, quietly making everything happen. Her partner Paul called her fun, loving, and the most loyal friend you could ever have.

[00:04:15] Her friend Nadia remembered her as the most amazing mom ever, someone who never hesitated to step up when something needed doing. Nikki wasn't a thrill-seeker or someone drawn to drama. She was a planner, a quiet, grounded soul, the kind of person who found joy in a peaceful stroll, a warm meal out, and just being with her family. And that's what makes what happened next feel so jarring.

[00:04:44] Because people like Nikki aren't supposed to just vanish. Now let's rewind to the day everything changed. Friday, January 27th, 2023. The morning started out like any other for Nicola Bully. She dropped off her daughters, aged 6 and 9, at school just after 8.30 a.m. in the peaceful village of St. Michael's on Wire. Then she headed out with Willow, the family's Springer Spaniel, for their usual walk along the River Wire.

[00:05:14] By all accounts, it was a completely normal morning. She even sent an email and she logged into a work team's call just after 9 a.m. on the walk. A call that she stayed connected to, even though she never said a word. At around 9.20 a.m., Nicola was spotted near the river for what would be the last confirmed time. Roughly an hour later, everything shifted. At 10.30 a.m., the school called her partner, Paul.

[00:05:43] Someone had found Willow still on the path but without her harness. And Nicola's phone, still connected to the work call, abandoned on a bench overlooking the river. Paul wasn't immediately alarmed when she didn't come home at her usual time. But that phone call from the school? That changed everything. I mean, that's not a normal phone call to get, Paul later said. She would never have left Willow.

[00:06:10] He describes the moment as panic setting in, that gut-deep feeling that something was very wrong. His legs felt like they gave out. His thoughts raced. And as he drove, he called the police. Nicola's sister, Louise Cunningham, remembers getting the call from Paul too. He was panicky and frantic, she said. He was like, something's happened. Something strange has happened. What followed was a massive search operation.

[00:06:39] Police, divers, drones, sonar equipment, and even boats scanning as far as Moorcan Bay in case Nicola had somehow fallen into the river and been swept out to sea. But despite the effort, there was no trace of her. Only her phone, her dog's harness found on a bench, and a growing list of unanswered questions. Had she slipped and fallen into the near-freezing waters? Or had someone taken her?

[00:07:07] Or, as the internet would soon theorize in every possible direction, had she chosen to vanish? She was last seen wearing a long black quilted gillet, a black waist-length coat underneath, tight black jeans, green ankle-length wellies with her socks tucked in, and a pale blue Fitbit, a familiar sight to those who knew her routine. Nicola's partner Paul, clearly broken but holding strong for their daughters, made a public plea saying, quote,

[00:07:37] I have two little girls who miss their mommy desperately and who need her back. This has been such a tough time for the girls especially, but also for me and all of Nicola's family and friends, as well as the wider community, and I want to thank them for their love and support. But support wasn't the only thing that the family received. As days passed and Nicola remained missing, her case exploded into something that no one could have predicted.

[00:08:07] A three-week-long media circus of TikTok detectives, internet sleuths, and armchair detectives descending on a village that just wanted answers. And for the Bully family, the nightmare was only beginning. Alright, let's get into the investigation, because while Nicola Bully seemed to have vanished into thin air, what followed was a meticulous attempt to piece together every single moment of her final known movements.

[00:08:35] And for a while, at least, it looked like the mystery could be cracked open with tech, timelines, and good old-fashioned police work. The first confirmed sighting of Nicola that morning didn't come from a person. It came from technology. A doorbell camera at her home captured her at 8.26 a.m., opening the boot of the family car and letting Willow, her Springer Spaniel, hop in. From there, she drove the 3.8 miles to the school in St. Michael's-on-Wire

[00:09:04] to drop off her daughters. Police later confirmed that she arrived at the school around 8.40 a.m. From that point, there's a pretty solid timeline, right up until the moment things go dark. By 8.43 a.m., Nicola was walking Willow along the river wire, heading towards the gate and a bench on the lower field, a path that she knew well. Just a few minutes later, at 8.47 a.m., she was seen by a dog walker who knew her.

[00:09:34] Their dogs interacted briefly, nothing out of the ordinary, and that person left the field and Nicola continued on with her walk. She was still active on her phone during this time. At around 8.53 a.m., she sent an email to her boss. At 8.59 a.m., she texted a friend about a playdate for their kids. Then, at 9.01 a.m., she logged into a Teams call for work, a call she stayed connected to

[00:10:01] even though her mic and camera were turned off. That call would go on until 9.30 a.m., but Nicola was never heard from again. The last time she was seen by another person was around 9.10 a.m. by someone else who knew her. She was walking on the upper field, and then, silence. Lancashire police believe that Nicola went missing in a tiny 10-minute window, sometime between 9.10 and 9.20 a.m.

[00:10:31] That's when the timeline starts to unravel. At 9.20 a.m., data from Nicola's phone shows that it had stopped moving. It was now at the bench by the river. By 9.33 a.m., a passerby, someone who didn't know Nicola, found the phone on the bench, still logged into the Teams call. Willow was nearby off her lead, her harness and leash found close by. Most importantly, Willow was dry,

[00:11:00] a big deal considering police originally thought that Nicola had fallen into the river. Friends were quick to clarify that it wasn't unusual for Willow's harness to be off at that point in the walk. This is something that Nicola typically did. So, what happened in that eerie 10-minute gap? Police kicked off a huge search effort. We're talking sonar equipment, drones, helicopters, underwater search teams, sniffer dogs, and house-to-house inquiries.

[00:11:30] Nothing was left untouched. Even an abandoned house across the river and nearby vacant caravans were combed through. The investigation even reached as far as more Cam Bay in case Nicola had been swept out to sea. They worked with search experts from Specialist Group International, analysts from the National Crime Agency, and the National Search Advisor, all of whom agreed that there were no new strategies or areas to explore.

[00:11:58] Everything that could be done had been done. They pulled mobile phone data, Fitbit data, and they poured over CCTV, including the ring doorbell footage from her own home. And still, nothing. Thousands of tips flooded in from the public, but no credible sightings, no major breakthroughs, just a phone, a dry dog, and a mother of two who seemed to have disappeared without a trace.

[00:12:27] While investigators largely believed that it was most likely that she had fallen into the water, they searched thoroughly for her body and they turned up nothing. At this point, the case had already started to spiral out of the police's control because the world, they weren't waiting patiently for answers. They were creating their own. If the investigation into Nicola's disappearance was exhaustive, the circus that erupted online was downright explosive.

[00:12:57] What started as concern quickly snowballed into full-blown digital frenzy. Armchair detectives, TikTok investigators, YouTubers with ring lights and theories, all of them descending on the tiny village of St. Michael's on Wire, population about 600. They descended on this town like it was the set of a true crime documentary that they were directing. But behind the scenes, Nicola's family was dealing with something

[00:13:26] far more real and painful than hashtags and clickbait. And it was about to get worse. On February 15th, Lancashire police dropped a bombshell. They publicly revealed that Nicola had been struggling with significant issues with alcohol, issues that they said were brought on by menopause, the public reaction, shock, confusion, and a whole new round of outrage. Her sister Louise

[00:13:56] later explained that Nicola had been going through perimenopause and not the easy hot flash and move on kind. Quote, it's not uncommon to go through it young, she said, but Nikki had it tough. Over the span of about three weeks, things shifted. Nicola wasn't functioning like her usual self. She stopped taking her hormone replacement therapy and she began drinking, not in a party girl kind of way, but in a struggling to cope kind of way.

[00:14:24] Paul described it as a blip, a weird, exhausting, scary patch of insomnia, hot sweats, and brain fog that had them both worried. On January 10th, after she said something concerning, her family called for help. Paramedics showed up and Nicola was furious, absolutely fuming, according to her sister Louise. But it was also a turning point, a wake-up call. Just days before she disappeared, she was reportedly

[00:14:54] back to her old self, quote, full of beans, as Paul said. She'd just nailed a major work meeting. She was excited about the future. Which is why the police's decision to release her private health struggles, it felt like a betrayal to the family. Paul said that she would have been mortified. But Detective Superintendent Rebecca Smith later explained that social media commentary, it had backed them into a corner. Wild speculation,

[00:15:22] especially around Paul himself, was gaining momentum. People online were picking him apart, accusing him, sending him horrific messages like, we know what you did and you can't hide. Paul couldn't even defend himself. He felt completely silenced, all while trying to hold it together for his two daughters who were missing their mom. Everyone has a limit, he said. And the internet, it didn't care. The case had

[00:15:51] officially gone viral. In just one day, more than 6,500 international articles were published about Nicola's disappearance. On TikTok alone, videos under the hashtag NicolaBully racked up 270 million views. That's the kind of reach most influencers would kill for. But this wasn't entertainment. It was real life. Real grief. Real trauma. The police press office was drowning.

[00:16:21] Over 500 media calls, 75,000 social media comments in less than a month. And the sleuths? They weren't content to sit behind a screen. They showed up, filming themselves walking through private gardens, digging up land, knocking on doors, and treating an active investigation like some kind of twisted scavenger hunt. And as is always the case in these digital witch hunts, it didn't take long for the theories

[00:16:50] to turn personal. The focal point? Paul, Nicola's husband. People were obsessed with the idea that he must have done something. Because in the true crime world of TikTok and Reddit, it's always the husband. Right? Except this wasn't an episode of Dateline. It was real life. And it was falling apart in front of the whole world. Most of these videos criticized Paul's behavior in the weeks after Nicola's disappearance.

[00:17:20] They theorized that he was hiding something, that he knew more than he was saying, analyzing every facial expression or tone he took. And it was wildly inappropriate. It didn't take long for Nicola's disappearance to evolve into a full-blown internet mystery and not an acute Reddit thread kind of way. In the absence of clear answers, the online void filled with some of the most bizarre, cruel, and unfounded theories that you can imagine.

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[00:19:46] that were circulating. The she-faked-her-death theory. Yes, really, some people genuinely believed that Nicola had staged the entire thing, that she was alive, and she had vanished on purpose to escape her life. According to this theory, she was supposedly running from something or someone and was hiding out somewhere, watching the media coverage from a secret lair like some kind of criminal mastermind. Think Sherry Papini.

[00:20:17] Then there was the abduction theory. Others were convinced that she had been kidnapped, and this theory picked up a lot of traction online. So much so, that self-appointed sleuths began turning up in the village of St. Michael's on Wire to poke around in private gardens, harass locals, and demand answers. It got to the point where residents were being intimidated, their property was violated, and their peace was completely shattered. Several unsubstantiated

[00:20:47] theories, such as a run-down house across the river, a strange red van that was seen driving around in the area, a fisherman spotted nearby at the time of the disappearance, and a glove belonging to Nicola all gained traction on social media. Unfortunately, the police did little to put these rumors to rest. Then there's the she-didn't-exist theory. This one's on the flat-earth level of delusional. Some conspiracy theorists argue that Nicola Bulley

[00:21:16] never existed at all, that she was a fictional character created for some shadowy purpose. Many people, fueled by the lack of definitive answers from official sources, embraced conspiracy theories about the disappearance, including claims that she was a crisis actor, or that the event was staged by the government. These folks dissected photos, voice recordings, and social media posts like they were trying to solve the Da Vinci Code,

[00:21:46] instead of recognizing a real woman with real loved ones had lost her life. Then there's the Paul-did-it theory. Of course, a massive chunk of online speculation was laser-focused on Nicola's partner, Paul. In fact, some people were so sure he was involved that they flooded his inbox with threats and accusations. As Paul put it, quote,

[00:22:18] Theories ranged from vague suspicion to full-on character assassinations. He was painted as controlling, manipulative, and worse, all based on nothing more than gut feelings and grainy clips from interviews. There were also attacks on friends and family. It wasn't just Paul. Nicola's friends and family, they also became targets. Comments were twisted, quotes misrepresented,

[00:22:46] and flat-out lies were spread, causing real emotional damage. Her loved ones were grieving, trying to keep it together, while the internet was tearing them apart. Of course, there was also the weaponizing of personal information. In came the police press conference, the one where they revealed Nicola had been struggling with alcohol and menopause symptoms. Instead of easing public concern, this only threw fuel on the fire. Suddenly,

[00:23:16] every amateur investigator had a theory involving her mental state, her habits, or her relationship history. It created an even more toxic narrative, one that sought to blame Nicola rather than understand her. And then there were the influencers, chasing clicks at any cost. Enter Curtis Arnold. Paul will never forget that name. Arnold was a so-called content creator who turned up outside the school car park

[00:23:46] while Paul was doing the school run, filming him, filming the kids. And when Nicola's body was discovered, Arnold was there too, capturing it all on video and uploading it for views. He was arrested on suspicion of malicious communication and stalking Nicola's neighbors, though he was never charged. His bail conditions banned him from even entering Lancashire, but the damage had already been done. To Nicola's memory, to her family,

[00:24:15] and to a community that had simply wanted to find her and bring her home. One TikToker summed up the online sentiment perfectly, and not in a good way. They said, quote, That's the level of denial that we're dealing with. It's easy to forget behind every viral hashtag or suspicious comment section,

[00:24:45] there's a real person, or in this case, a grieving family trying to survive the worst moment of their lives under a microscope. The internet may never be held to the same standard as law enforcement or the press, but in the Nicola Bully case, it became clear, unchecked speculation isn't just irresponsible, it's dangerous. One of the biggest procedural missteps in Nicola Bully's case was something that most people outside of the policing world might not even

[00:25:15] be aware of, the failure to declare her disappearance as a critical incident. Now, in the UK, a critical incident isn't just police, police jargon. It's a formal designation for events that have the potential to seriously disrupt normal operations, cause significant harm, or, and this is key, undermine public trust in authorities. These are incidents that are often traumatic, unpredictable, and very much not part of the day-to-day. So, you'd think a case like

[00:25:44] Nicola's, a seemingly random disappearance in broad daylight, in a quiet village involving a woman with young children and massive public interest, well, you'd think that that would qualify pretty quickly. But it wasn't until February 16th, three full weeks after she vanished, that her case was officially labeled as such. By that point, the investigation had already taken multiple hits, from the tidal wave of media coverage to the wildfire spread of online

[00:26:14] conspiracy theories. Declaring the case a critical incident earlier, as early as January 30th, according to an independent review, it might have made a real difference. It would have elevated the urgency, centralized the communication, and potentially controlled the public narrative before it spun out of control. Instead, police were constantly playing catch-up, overwhelmed by misinformation, under pressure from every angle, and lacking the structure

[00:26:44] a critical incident designation would have immediately triggered. So, while police were indeed out searching every day, combing through riverbanks and CCTV footage, the failure to recognize the bigger picture, the social media circus, the national panic, the erosion of trust, it meant that the investigation wasn't operating at the level it needed to be early on. And in a case like Nicola's, where time, perception, and precision

[00:27:14] are everything, that delay mattered. after 23 agonizing days of searching, speculating, and spiraling, the worst possible outcome became a devastating reality. On Sunday, February 19th, just under a month since Nicola had vanished without a trace, police were called to the river wire. A body had been found. It was discovered in a patch of undergrowth and tangled branches by a bend

[00:27:43] in the river, just one mile downstream from the bench where Nicola's phone and her dog Willow were first found. One mile. After weeks of sonar divers, drones, and even speculation that she'd been swept out to sea, she was right there, in a place that had already been searched. Her family's nightmare was no longer a question mark. It was confirmed. Nicola was gone. Detective Superintendent

[00:28:13] Rebecca Smith visibly shaken in later interviews, she described sitting beside Nicola's body in the police tent for quite a long time, staying with her until she was taken to the hospital. It's a haunting detail that sticks with you, just one human sitting with another after so many days of noise. And for Nicola's loved ones, the moment they got the news was shattering. I'll never forget dad coming into the kitchen, her sister Louise recalled,

[00:28:43] just like completely breaking down. Paul was out in the garden in what she called a complete state. Nicola's father, Ernest, spoke through tears about the moment he hugged Paul and tried to process the unimaginable, saying, I'll never forget the cries. The coroner would later rule her death accidental. There was no evidence of suicide, no alcohol in her system, no signs of third-party involvement. It's believed Nicola slipped into the river and

[00:29:13] suffered what's known as cold water shock, a physical response that can cause loss of consciousness in seconds. Experts say that she likely died almost immediately. But even in death, Nicola's story took a strange and unexpected turn. You see, the person who found her body wasn't a police diver or a search-and-rescue dog. It was Jason Rothwell, a 33-year-old man from Oldham. Jason describes himself as a psychic medium

[00:29:43] and according to him, an invisible person, a spirit, if you will, told him that Nicola's body would appear in the river that day. So he and a friend walked to the banks of the river wire and sure enough, there she was. Now make of that what you will. Maybe it's fate, maybe it's intuition, maybe Jason tapped into something unexplainable. Or maybe it's just coincidence, but one thing is for sure, he found her when no one

[00:30:13] else could. In an Instagram video, Jason later said that he hadn't been contacted by the police or the family, he just wanted to help. He said he hoped his discovery would bring peace of mind to Nicola's loved ones and stopped the quote cranks who were exploiting the case online. Because while Jason may believe in spirits, he was clearly over the spiritual vultures circling this tragedy. And the timing of his discovery? Let's just say it

[00:30:42] stopped a lot of TikTok fingers mid-scroll. Jason called the experience the most incredible but terrible thing that he'd ever done, and he said that Nicola would forever be a part of his life. He also thanked the Lancashire police for keeping an open mind about how he came to be in the right place at the right time. Whether guided by intuition, spiritual whispers, or just determined compassion, Jason Rothwell brought closure where chaos

[00:31:12] had reigned for three long weeks. But while Nicola had finally been found, the storm surrounding her name was far from over. When Nicola Bulley's body was found, it brought a heartbreaking end to the search but not the scrutiny. In fact, it was only the beginning of a very public post-mortem on how the case was handled. Not just by the police, but by the media, social media, and all of us watching. In July 2023,

[00:31:41] an inquest was held at County Hall in Preston, led by Dr. James Adley, the senior coroner for Lancashire. After examining the evidence, he ruled that Nicola had died accidentally after falling into the river and suffering cold water shock. He was firm in his conclusion that there was no evidence to suggest suicide and certainly no third-party involvement. Dr. Adley pointed out that Nicola had been doing better in the days leading up to her disappearance.

[00:32:12] She had started her HRT treatment, she had stopped drinking, and she was planning playdates and spa days, and she was thriving in her new career as a mortgage broker. The night before she vanished, she had dinner with her parents. That morning, she was chatting to Paul and walking Willow like she always did. Aside from a few throwaway comments during the Christmas period, made during a time that she wasn't acting like herself, there was nothing to suggest that

[00:32:42] Nicola intended to take her own life. The coroner made it clear, she didn't choose this, it was a tragic accident. But the fallout from Nicola's death didn't end at the riverbank, Lancashire police came under intense criticism, and rightfully so. MPs, campaigners, and the public, they were all outraged when the force decided to disclose highly personal details about Nicola's health, specifically her struggle with

[00:33:11] alcohol and perimenopause. The revelation felt invasive, unnecessary, and for many, it felt deeply sexist. Her family was gutted, Paul said that Nicola would have been mortified by the public exposure, and honestly, who wouldn't be? To figure out what went wrong, the College of Policing launched an independent review of how the case was handled. And let's just say, the results were mixed. On one hand,

[00:33:41] the report praised the actual search for Nicola as, quote, very well conducted and resourced. It said the resourcing and strategy were extensive, comprehensive, and commendable. So, operationally, the boots on the ground were doing their jobs. But the communication, the media handling, an absolute mess. The review slammed the decision to release Nicola's personal medical history as avoidable and unnecessary. They said that the police should

[00:34:10] have given private, off-the-record briefings to accredited journalists, a move that would have kept reporting accurate without dragging Nicola's dignity through the mud. Instead, the police left a giant information vacuum, and where there's a vacuum, conspiracy theorists rush in to fill it. The report also criticized the fact that the case wasn't declared a critical incident until February 19th, nearly three weeks after Nicola's disappearance. By then,

[00:34:40] it was so late that it was rendered ineffective. According to the review, the situation met the definition of a critical incident way back on January 30th, a delay that hampered the investigation and helped fuel the online circus. And wow, what a circus it was. Lancashire police received more than 75,000 social media comments about Nicola's disappearance in just one month. hashtags exploded.

[00:35:10] YouTubers, TikTokers, and amateur sleuths, they descended on the quiet village of St. Michael's on Wire like it was an open-air murder mystery dinner theater. Some even dug through people's gardens, convinced that they'd find the truth that the police somehow missed. The review concluded that the relationship between the police and the media had completely broken down, and that this fractured trust, combined with a lack of timely communication, it created the

[00:35:39] perfect storm of public confusion, speculation, and conspiracy. As Dr. Ian Raphael, who led the review, bluntly put it, police must now recognize the impact social media has. And most importantly, law enforcement must be the ones who are the first with the truth, not TikTok, not Reddit, not some guy with a ring light and a theory. So what are we supposed to take away from all of this? Well, Nicola's death

[00:36:09] was a tragedy, but the way her life and her final days were handled by institutions and internet mobs alike, that was something else entirely. Her story became content, her family became targets, and the investigation was nearly drowned in digital noise. We owe her and every victim like her better. So after everything we've just walked through from that Friday morning when Nicola vanished to the heartbreaking moment her body was found,

[00:36:38] to the media storm and everything that came after, what are we supposed to take away from all of this? First of all, it's important to remember that Nicola Bully was a real person, not a headline, not a theory, not a TikTok trend. She was a mom, a partner, a sister, a friend, and for three long weeks, her loved ones were living with a nightmare, only to have to deal with a circus playing out online and in the media at the same time.

[00:37:09] Yes, the police carried out an enormous search, and yes, there were parts of the investigation that were handled really well, but there were also huge missteps. Not calling it a critical incident early on, that left room for all kinds of wild speculation, and when police eventually released personal details about Nicola's struggles, details that even her family felt should have remained private, it only added fuel to the fire. And that fire,

[00:37:38] it got out of control. The theories online, some of them were flat-out disturbing. People genuinely believed that Nicola didn't exist. Others said that she faked her death. Strangers showed up in the village, digging through people's yards, accusing her partner Paul of murder. The line between curiosity and cruelty, it got completely blurred. In the end, what happened to Nicola was a tragic accident. She slipped into

[00:38:08] that river and died almost immediately from cold water shock. No foul play, no cover-up, just an absolutely devastating loss that was made a hundred times worse by the way it was picked apart in public. So, if you take only one thing from this episode, let it be this. When stories like this unfold, we all have a choice. We can either add to the noise, or we can step back and remember that real people are hurting.

[00:38:37] It's easy to get pulled into the drama, but there's a huge difference between following a case and exploiting it. Nicola deserved srp. Her family deserved peace, and hopefully going forward, we can all do just a little bit better. That's it for me tonight. If you want to reach out, you can find me on Facebook at Serial Napper. You can find my audio on Apple or Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. I post all of my episodes in video

[00:39:07] format over on YouTube, so go check it out. And if you're watching on YouTube, I'd love if you can give me a thumbs up and subscribe. Every little bit helps. I'm also on Patreon. If you'd like to get your Serial Napper episodes early and ad-free, hop on over and check out all the details at patreon.com slash Serial Napper. Until next time, sweet dreams, stay kind, especially in the comments. Bye.