Mostly blond, all beautiful, the family of Gaia Pope look like a host of broken angels. It has been five years since their 19-year-old daughter/sister/cousin’s body was found huddled in undergrowth on a Dorset clifftop two miles from home after 11 days missing – and the grief and anger still pours out of them. The cause of death was determined by the coroner to be hypothermia. The three-part documentary Gaia: A Death on Dancing Ledge (the name refers to the clifftop where she was found) takes a broader, deeper, and perhaps more humane and meaningful view than a coroner’s job allows. It unpacks all that might have led to that lonely death so close to home.
The documentary opens with Kim, Gaia’s mother, first contacting the police, followed by more calls asking for further help, reminding them that Gaia had epilepsy but no medication with her and saying how out of character her disappearance was. Text messages among family and friends checking in with each other, racking their brains for more places she might have gone appear and disappear on screen in silent testimony to the love and affection in which she was held. Over 11 days, the police investigation changes from a search for a missing teen to a suspected murder inquiry, before she was eventually found to have died from exposure.
