03 February 2024 , 10:33
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Local residents say "ghouls" still come to Nicola Bulley's grave a year after she died after becoming obsessed with the case on TikTok.
The search for the 45-year-old riveted the country since she went missing on January 27 last year while walking her dog along the River Wyre. It also generated a circus of sorts in the tiny community of St Michael’s on Wyre as speculation on social media spurred unofficial searches and attracted amateur sleuths.
Would-be rescuers broke into derelict buildings despite police assurances that exhaustive searches were taking place. Some launched nighttime patrols, challenging locals who came face-to-face with strangers rattling their gates and prowling through their front gardens. More than 6,500 international articles were written in the space of a day.
At one point, cops were forced to issue a dispersal notice to keep the public away after armchair detectives flooded the village. Now, a year on, villagers have blasted the conspiracy theorists and TikTok "ghouls" who still come to the quiet village.
One dog walker, who did not want to give his name, said to the Sun: "It's morbid. You see all these tragedy tourists who even come to stare at her grave in the churchyard. And then we still have these TikTok nutters who you seen in the bushes with their cameras or by the river. We just wish they'd leave us alone but they still believe these mad conspiracy theories."
Mum appeared 'completely normal' moments before vanishing while walking dog
Budding Sherlocks are still obsessed with false theories about her disappearance and TikTok videos with her name have amassed over 505.2 million views.
Nicola Bulley, 45, fell into cold water and almost immediately drowned (PA)The body of the mother-of-two was eventually discovered more than three weeks after she went missing in a patch of reeds beside a river, just over 1km from where she was last seen. Nicola had joined a work call while on a dog walk at 9:01am, camera off and on mute, sent a few messages and crossed paths with another walker who knew her and the dog. Roughly 15 minutes after she was last seen, just 25 minutes after first joining the work call, another walker found her phone on a bench next to the river, still on call.
Her dog was untethered and hanging around the bench, but there was no sign of her sparking a huge missing person search operation. One TikTok sleuth sparked fury in the village after he was spotted digging up woodland. While another influencer was arrested and charged with a public order offence after a confrontation with a local. An inquest into Nicola's death concluded on June 27 that she had fallen into the cold water and almost immediately drowned.
A report published in November listed several factors that impacted Lancashire Police's handling of communications and the media after Nicola went missing. This included "a global social media frenzy, including amateur 'detectives' on the ground in St Michael's on Wyre posting content to social media channels." It also noted the "almost unprecedented" level of mainstream media attention that put pressure on the force.