Two Daughters

BBCLittle Dooley

25 May

In June 2020, when sisters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman did not return from Bibaa’s birthday celebrations in a North London Park, family and friends knew something was wrong and reported them missing to police. Bibaa 46, a passionate social worker and Nicole 26, a talented freelance photographer were murdered as they danced to music, enjoying each other’s company. Bibaa chose to celebrate her birthday in the park because of restrictions imposed during lockdown. The next day, Nicole’s boyfriend found the sisters’ bodies, after family and friends organised their own search party.

A year after the brutal murders of her daughters, retired Archdeacon Mina Smallman, who was Britain’s first black Archdeacon in the Church of England, invites Stacey Dooley to help her tell her story through both the trial of her daughters’ killer, and the trials of two Met police officers who took photographs of their bodies and shared them on WhatsApp.

Mina’s faith is central to her very being, but what happens when faith is confronted by unimaginable tragedy? Stacey witnesses how Mina’s faith has played a pivotal role throughout an unimaginably difficult time.

Stacey gets first-hand insight of what it’s like for a family going through such an unthinkable tragedy. Mina and her husband Chris feel the police showed little interest in searching for the missing sisters and mishandled the missing person investigation. They believe it’s because their daughters were black, as to why the police were so dismissive. They also question the treatment of the girls’ story in national press and ask whether the police, media and wider society seem to treat the murder of a woman of colour different.

Stacey gets to meet Nicole’s boyfriend’s parents, Jill and David at their home. They were part of the search party for the sisters. They describe the moment their son found the bodies of his missing girlfriend and her sister and the impact it has had on him.

Stacey also meets Bibaa’s family and close friends in Wembley, some of who were at the birthday celebrations in the park but left early. They talk about who Bibaa was and how they felt about the police officers taking photos of their loved one’s bodies. Bibaa’s younger cousin tells Stacey how the deaths of her cousins have affected her everyday life as a young woman.

Two daughters is a film that explores the role of faith and forgiveness in Mina’s life as she copes with her grief and anger and her relationship with God has strengthened her resolve to fight to end violence against women so her daughters did not die in vain.