After her body was found in the River Wyre, the death of Nicola Bulley, a mortgage advisor from Lancashire, shocked and saddened many people. But what makes this tragedy even scarier is that a man named Curtis Arnold, who is also known as the “TikTok ghoul,” filmed it and posted it on social media. Arnold, a 34-year-old powerlifter from Worcestershire, is said to have gone to the village of St. Michael’s on Wyre several times in the ten days before Bulley’s body was found. Each trip there and back took six hours.
He said he was getting “content” for his social media channels, which included video of him and his partner finding Bulley’s body and police officers using a body bag by the water’s edge. The video was posted on a number of social media sites, including TikTok, where Arnold had more than 28,000 followers. Many people were outraged by the videos and said it was wrong to use a sad event to get likes and views. Some people even said that Arnold should pay for what he did.
Arnold was reportedly forced to take down his videos and close his social media accounts after the backlash. He has since apologized for what he did, saying that he didn’t realize how powerful his videos would be and that he was just trying to get people to realize how dangerous it is to swim in open water. But many people still don’t believe his apology. They say that what he did was insensitive and disrespectful to the family and friends of the person who died.
They have also said bad things about social media for letting this kind of content be shared and seen by millions of people. Bulley had two daughters, Harriet, who was nine, and Sophia, who was six. On Friday, she was seen walking her brown spaniel named Willow along the river. Her body was found about a mile away from the last place anyone saw her. The police don’t think it’s strange that she died, but they don’t know why she died yet.
The accident shows again how dangerous it is to swim in open water, especially in the winter when the water is colder and the currents are stronger. The Royal Life Saving Society UK says that 223 people accidentally drowned in open water in the UK in 2019. Men between the ages of 20 and 29 were the most likely to drown. But the event has also made people wonder if it’s right to share sensitive and upsetting content on social media. Social media platforms have given people a way to connect with each other.
