Devastating question Nicola Bulley's daughters asked each night after mum went missing

Mum-of-two Nicola Bulley went missing in January 2023 sparking a huge police search for her. Her family anxiously waited for updates while her daughters asked heartbreaking questions.

The young daughters of Nicola Bulley innocently asked heartbreaking questions about her disappearance in the lead up to the tragic discovery of her death.

Last year, mother-of-two Bulley went missing after she had dropped her children at school and taken her dog for a walk - only for her dog to be found wandering alone and her mobile phone discovered on a bench beside the River Wyre. A frantic police search was launched to find her - involving divers, helicopters, sniffer dogs and drones.

Tragically, her body was recovered from the river three weeks later and her death at the age of 45 was ruled as an accidental drowning. During the weeks between her disappearance and the earth-shattering discovery of her body, Bulley's body waited anxiously while the police searched.

The case drew international attention and the search was frustrated by the fact amateur internet sleuths descended on the village of St Michael’s on Wyre, in Lancashire - disrupting the search efforts. On Thursday night, the BBC explores the details of Bulley's disappearance and the search to find her in a special documentary set to air on BBC One at 9pm.

Members of Bulley's devastated family speak to the camera to discuss the anxious days around the search to find her. Heartbreaking footage shows Bulley's mother, Dorothy, recounting how her youngest granddaughter broke her heart with an innocent question.

Dorothy said: "One morning, I got up. The youngest one, she says: 'Cold, isn't it, Nanny?' She said: 'I hope mummy's not cold and hungry.'"

Bulley's partner of 12 years, Paul Ansell, also features in the documentary and recounts his most difficult moments. Fighting back tears, he revealed the question the girls would ask him each night: "Where is mummy?"

He went on to explain: "The nights were the hardest. 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."

Paul added: "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 documentary has been made with the support of Bulley's family, who were involved in the making of the special and said in a statement: “Only we can speak about her as a mummy, partner, daughter and sister. In addition, if our experience of being in the eye of a media storm makes people think twice about how they act and what they say online, then we will have achieved some further good.”

The Search for Nicola Bulley will air on BBC One at 9pm on Thursday 3 October 2024 and be available to watch via iPlayer.

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