If someone were to choose to enter the water and hold their breath (which many kids do for fun at their local pool, innocently, to see how long they can do it for), there comes a point where the body makes an involuntary gasp for air. If you've ever held your breath for a bit too long, you may have panicked a little while swimming back to the top - started to feel a bit dizzy or nauseous because you were starved of oxygen and heading to pass out.
If you are holding your breath (intentionally or not) and sinking deeper, as in, not trying to swim to the top or you are struggling to reach the top (caught in something or have something weighing you down) that gasp will be in the deep water and you will not make it back up to the top. Your body will breathe in the water surrounding you water, no one will hear you and you will quickly become unconscious.
It's why if people are rescued from a pool, they vomit up amounts of water before they breath again. It's so important to be rescued as soon as anyone notices you starting to sink down to prevent brain damage, blood pressure spikes, heart attacks etc. That's why I shared the best colours for a lifeguard to be able to see a person underwater.
I hope this wasn't insensitive and was just factual. Drowning is quiet. A river is not a pool, it's moving, unregulated temp, it's not transparent, it's full of debris, all sorts of currents within those waters too
I know I'm stating the obvious, I just think everyone is in disbelief of how this can happen after so much time has passed? Unfortunately, it was the outcome which made the most sense. I was really hoping she was cosy in a cottage somewhere, regrouping.
Maybe we will never know why Nicola was in the water, was it on purpose? Was she trying cold water shock therapy? Was it a medical issue or an accident? I'm not sure if any of that will bring her family peace but I just can't stop thinking about them and hope if this is Nicola, they get the privacy, time and respect they deserve to process