"Missing: Please Help Our dear friend Sarah Everard," read the posters that went up on South London streets and local social media forums in the days after the 33-year-old disappeared on her walk home in early March.
Posters of Sarah Everard were shared widely. Photo: AFP
It was concerning but such appeals are not exactly a rare sight, and the hope was that she would soon turn up safe and sound.
But in the days that followed, as police put out a CCTV image of Everard and gave details of her last known movements, concern grew to alarm, then dread, then fear, shock and sadness.
Sarah Everard's journey from Clapham Common to Brixton had taken her through some of the capital's most populated, brightly-lit, and well-walked parts. Hundreds of people - many of them young women - tread those pavements every day and consider the streets in and around them home.
As the police investigation ramped up, local women were warned to be careful about venturing out alone.
When a police officer was arrested - and subsequently charged with Everard's murder - the head of the Metropolitan Police Cressida Dick acknowledged that women in London and beyond "will be worried and may well be feeling scared", although she said for a woman to be abducted off the street was an "incredibly rare" event.
People shine their phones on Clapham Common in memory of Sarah Everard, who was kidnapped and murdered while she was walking home. Photo: AFP
But the case had touched a nerve, particularly as walking alone is one of the few activities to have been allowed during Britain's coronavirus lockdown.
Women across the country took to social media to discuss their own experiences of walking the streets and the lengths they went to to feel safe. Out poured stories of being followed, harassed, catcalled, assaulted and exposed to.
Helena Wadia was one of those. She told BBC Radio 5 Live she wanted to highlight how common it was for women to feel unsafe.
"The first time I was catcalled I think I was about 12 years old," she said.
"I have been self-policing since then. We moderate everything - our clothing, our drinking. We get taxis where maybe we can't afford it. We hold keys between our fingers. We don't wear headphones when we're jogging. We stick to well-lit areas. It's exhausting."
One tweet asking women if they have ever faked phone calls, changed route, or even run in fear after feeling threatened by men in public spaces was liked more than 120,000 times.
People even began sharing tips on what apps were out there to help women stay safe.
Flowers and messages at the site of a planned vigil for Sarah Everard on Clapham Common. Photo: AFP
Anna Birley's is one of many voices in recent days who have said the narrative around women's safety must change.
"What's so upsetting is, it shouldn't be our problem," she told BBC Radio 5 Live. "It's not our fault. Women aren't the reason women get attacked."
She helped plan a vigil for Sarah at Clapham Common for this weekend - one of several around the country, which she said would be about "reclaiming our public spaces and coming together to feel a level of solidarity and reassurance that collectively we look out for each other".
The vigils have had to be cancelled because of lockdown restrictions and Birley and others have criticised the police for failing to "constructively engage" with efforts to ensure the gatherings could be held in a socially distanced way. A doorstep vigil will be held instead.
'Men are the culprits here'
On International Women's Day every year, British MP Jess Phillips reads out the names of all the women and girls killed in the past year, where a man has been convicted or charged as the main perpetrator.
Jess Phillips MP reads the names of the women killed in the UK in the last year, where a man has been convicted or charged as the main perpetrator
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) March 11, 2021
It takes her more than four minutes https://t.co/LV5vCq3GoA pic.twitter.com/qeKR1ImXIo
This year it fell on the day remains were found in the hunt for Sarah Everard, and she read out 118 names. "Dead women is a thing we've all just accepted as part of our daily lives," Phillips told Parliament.
"Killed women are not vanishingly rare. Killed women are common."
In a separate debate in the Lords, the UK parliament's upper chamber, Baroness Jenny Jones of Moulescoomb called for an 6pm curfew for men on the streets.
She later told Sky News that while she hadn't been "entirely serious", she wanted to make the point that "when the police victim-blame by asking women to stay home, we don't react. We just think it's normal."
Women should feel safe everywhere.#EnoughIsEnough #SarahEverard #SheWasJustWalkingHome #allontheboard pic.twitter.com/uMuVXUiC7M
— All On The Board (@allontheboard) March 13, 2021
So what has been the response of men in the UK?
Chris Hemmings, author of Be a Man, also believes it's time to reframe the debate, putting men at the centre of it.
"We are the culprits here. Whether we like it or not this is about men," he told BBC News, highlighting statistics that show 90 percent of murders of women are carried out by men.
"It's about what we as men can do to try and prevent our brothers as ending up as one of those awful statistics as a rapist or someone who's violent," he said.
Stuart Edwards, who lives five minutes away from where Sarah went missing, was stunned to receive 27,000 likes when he tweeted: "Aside from giving as much space as possible on quieter streets and keeping face visible, is there anything else men can reasonably do to reduce the anxiety/spook factor?"
As Bethan says, a lot of men have asked what part they can play in helping women feel safe. This feels like a strong and unarguable summary. Do RT. https://t.co/rH93OTdLsf
— Jay Rayner (@jayrayner1) March 12, 2021
Food critic Jay Rayner, who also lives in South London, was among those who responded saying: "If I find myself walking behind a single woman on a quiet street I always cross the road to the other side and ideally accelerate away as quickly as possible. I am a big man and absolutely aware what my silhouette looks like in the darkness."
Some however have been keen to point out that it's a tiny minority of men who are attackers - using the hashtag #NotAllMen.
But the issue of violence against women is not one for the UK alone.
The World Health Organization this week published a report saying one in three women globally, around 736 million, had been subjected to physical or sexual violence in their lifetimes.
WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said violence against women was "endemic in every country and culture", and had been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic.
"Unlike Covid-19, violence against women cannot be stopped with a vaccine," he said, as the WHO called for more investment in services to help vulnerable women.
-BBC
