Paul Ansell was Nicola Bulley’s long-term partner and the father of her two daughters. On the morning she disappeared, 27 January 2023, he rang her six times in seven minutes and she did not answer. He sent a WhatsApp: “Have you got lost?” The inquest the following June established, from her phone and Fitbit data, that Nicola had entered the River Wyre at 09:22 that morning. Paul had sent the message close to an hour after that.
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Who Is Paul Ansell?
Nicola Bulley was not married. She and Paul Ansell had been together for around 12 years, lived in Inskip, a village near Garstang in Lancashire, and had two daughters, aged six and nine when Nicola disappeared in January 2023. Nicola, 45, worked as a mortgage adviser. Paul had no public profile before the case.
The Morning Nicola Disappeared
The inquest at Preston County Hall confirmed the sequence of that morning.
- 08:40: Nicola dropped the children at school in St Michael’s on Wyre
- 08:53: She sent an email to her employer
- 08:57: She texted a friend to arrange a children’s playdate
- 09:01: She joined a Microsoft Teams work call, camera and microphone off
- 09:10: Last seen on a riverside field, her springer spaniel Willow off the lead
- 09:22: Phone and Fitbit data placed her entering the River Wyre
- 09:30: The Teams call ended
- 09:33: A woman named Penny Fletcher found Nicola’s phone on a bench beside the river, still connected to the call. Her daughter-in-law recognised Paul’s face on the lock screen.
The dog’s harness lay halfway between the bench and the water’s edge. Paul told the inquest he believed Nicola had set her phone down to reattach it before she fell in.
Lancashire Police classified Nicola as a high-risk missing person and launched a major search with drones, helicopters, specialist divers, and search dogs. A specialist independent team led by Peter Faulding of Specialist Group International searched the river using side-scan sonar and found nothing in the area where police believed she had entered the water.
What Paul Said During the Search
Speaking from their home in Inskip, Paul described those weeks as “perpetual hell” and told reporters: “She’s got two little girls that need their mummy home. We have got to get some good news now.”
On Channel 5, he told presenter Dan Walker he believed someone local knew what had happened: “Whatever has happened in my eyes has to be somebody who knows the local area. People don’t just vanish into thin air.”
In a separate Channel 5 interview, he said he was “100 per cent convinced” Nicola had not entered the river, given the extent of searches that had returned nothing. The independent sonar team had also reported finding nothing.
The Online Targeting
In the weeks of the search, amateur sleuths travelled to St Michael’s on Wyre and conspiracy theories spread across TikTok. Paul received direct messages from strangers: “We know what you did,” “You can’t hide Paul,” and explicit abuse.
The College of Policing review, published in November 2023, reported that on a single day during the search period, 6,500 global news articles about the case were published. TikTok content accumulated 270 million views. Hostile social media directed at Lancashire Police rose by 450%.
The review also found that social media influencers had attended Lancashire Police press conferences without proper verification, which it described as a “significant mistake.”
“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,” Paul told the BBC documentary in October 2024.
What the Inquest Found
On 19 February 2023, a couple walking their dog found Nicola’s body around one mile downstream from where she was last seen, recovered from reeds near a fallen tree. Paul sent a statement to Sky News: “No words right now, just agony.”
A TikTok creator named Curtis Arnold from Kidderminster filmed Nicola’s body being recovered from the water and distributed the footage across his platforms. He later admitted making nearly ยฃ900 in royalties from it.
Members of the public raised ยฃ26,000 to support Paul and the children.
The two-day inquest at Preston County Hall concluded on 27 June 2023.
Findings:
- Nicola entered the River Wyre at approximately 09:22
- Cold water shock caused an immediate physiological response
- She would have lost consciousness within roughly 45 seconds
- No evidence of third-party involvement
- Cause of death: accidental drowning
Senior coroner Dr James Adeley returned a finding of accidental death.
Paul gave evidence on the second day. He wept. He told the court: “Nikki was a quiet person who enjoyed the simple side of life. She was a very private person and kept herself to herself.” He also told the coroner that Nicola had been back to herself in January 2023 after a difficult period over Christmas. “In January she was back to herself, looking forward to the future and everything was on the up.”
A separate IOPC investigation into a welfare check carried out at the family home on 10 January 2023, seventeen days before Nicola disappeared, concluded in April 2023. No police misconduct was found.
Where Is Paul Ansell Now?
Paul gave his first on-camera interview since Nicola’s death in October 2024, taking part in The Search for Nicola Bulley, broadcast on BBC One on 3 October. Nicola’s parents, Ernest and Dorothy Bulley, and her sister Louise Cunningham also took part in the documentary.
In the BBC documentary, he described the evenings during those 23 days:
“The nights were the hardest. In the morning the hope would be strong. It used to get to about 3pm and then I’d start panicking that I knew it would start going dark in an hour. 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?'”
Paul Ansell, BBC One, October 2024
In March 2026, Paul gave a public lecture at the London School of Economics. He told the audience: “It was the 27th January 2023, and Nikki left for school with the girls, and never came home.”
At the LSE, he described being approached by a Sky News crew at the riverbank before he had processed what was happening.
“I got out of the car, and I don’t think I knew what I was doing, really. I got collared by Sky, and the next minute I was doing this interview. But then of course you’re psychoanalysed. Your eyes aren’t right, you’re smirking. It’s very, very intrusive. It can engulf you.”
Paul Ansell, London School of Economics, March 2026
He also said: “I still struggle talking about Nikki in the past tense. I see her in the girls every single day.”
The inquest recorded a finding of accidental death in June 2023. Paul was never a suspect, never questioned under caution, and never charged with anything. In March 2026, he stood at the London School of Economics and explained to an academic audience why strangers had spent three weeks trying to convince the internet he had killed her.
