The family of Nicola Bulley have spoken about how social media got out of control around her disappearance and became a "monster" for them. Nicola disappeared on January 27, 2023 while walking her dog in St Michael's on Wyre, shortly after dropping her daughters at school. Her body was found in the River Wyre on February 19, about a mile from where she vanished.
But in the intervening 23 days the search for Nicola sparked amateur sleuths online, wild speculation and abuse for her partner Paul Ansell. He says he felt "silenced" and came off social media during the search after getting abused. Paul says: "It wasn't a huge part of our lives.
But yeah, when you experience something like this, you realise what a huge monster it can be, I guess." In a clip from a new BBC documentary, Paul adds: "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.
They know nothing about us. "Just messages like 'you b******'. 'We know what you did'.
'You know you can't hide Paul', that kind of stuff. "There was some that I felt like replying to, but then if you reply to that, they'll just screenshot your reply, if that'll end up on social media. And so you're literally silenced, and you can't do anything about it.
" Nicola’s sister Louise is at pains to say in the documentary for all the social media sleuth speculations, Nicola’s death was just a horrific accident. "It doesn't always have to be something sinister linked to .