How a headline wrongly summed up the shocking story of Nicola Bulley's disappearance

The New York Times has a singularly inappropriate headline in today's newspaper above a story about the tragic case of Nicola Bulley, a 45-year-old mother of two children who disappeared while walking her dog along a local river in North West England on January 27 and has not been seen or found since. The headline said the case had "captivated Britain". If ever a word was wrongly selected for a headline "captivated" is certainy it. It implies we are all mesmerised by the woman's disappearance. There is a degree of pleasure and entertainment implied in that word. The truth is that everyone in this country is totally shocked by the appalling story, and more so as we hear of how the police have been carrying out their investigation to try and trace her last movements. No one is captivated by what they are reading in the papers and seeing on television. Everyone is horrified. Her poor family are being put through a nightmare of anxiety and dread, made worse by the mass of speculation about what might have happened to her. The police decided for reasons that have yet to be explained that there were other circumstances that may have played a part in her disappearance including the fact that she had alcohol issues driven by the suffering she had undergone by going through the menopause. I only repeat this to add my own dismay at the police publication of these personal details, none of which will help to lead to her reappearance or recovery. Personal medical details should have been kept private. It is beyond belief that the police decided to make these private matters public at this stage in the investigation. Her family have made it clear that Nicola would not have wished such details to be put into the public domain. All of which makes that headline with the word "captivated" at its centre so insensitive. The tragedy is that the police are no nearer finding out what hapened to her than when they started searching three weeks ago.