A SERVING Metropolitan Police officer has been arrested in connection with the disappearance of Sarah Everard, the force has said. The 33-year-old vanished while walking home from a friend’s house in Clapham, south west London, six nights ago. Sarah left her friend’s house at around 9pm last Wednesday and should have returned home to nearby […]
A SERVING Metropolitan Police officer has been arrested in connection with the disappearance of Sarah Everard, the force has said.
The 33-year-old vanished while walking home from a friend’s house in Clapham, south west London, six nights ago.
Sarah left her friend’s house at around 9pm last Wednesday and should have returned home to nearby Brixton around 50 minutes later.
But police are unclear if she made it back.
Uber is using smartphone software to pinpoint which of its drivers were in the area when Sarah disappeared.
Tracking data is helping to identify if any of the tech giant’s 45,000 London cabbies were close to the South Circular Road in Clapham.
She was last seen walking alone on a doorbell camera on the Poynders Road section of the South Circular – about halfway between her friend’s house and her own flat.
Detectives searching for the missing marketing executive have cordoned off a main road to search a housing complex close to where Sarah’s phone last pinged.
They are combing for clues on Poynder’s Road, blocking all traffic.
Officers are carrying out fingertip searches, while divers and sniffer dogs explore ponds and drains in the area.
And police have appealed for motorists who may have driving near her route home to send in their dash-cam footage.
The Uber app is playing a part in the frantic search for clues, The Mirror reports.
Police today released new pictures of missing Sarah hoping that it might encourage anyone with information to come forward.
One shows Sarah wearing the same coat as on the night she went missing.
Her distraught family fear “bad people approached her” as her “very worried” boyfriend issued a desperate plea.
Her uncle Nick Everard has now revealed the family are “absolutely distraught” and say the pain is “getting worse as the days go on”.
He told the Evening Standard: “I don’t know London well but I fear there could have been some bad people about who approached her.
“The family are searching with Sarah’s friends who have been absolutely amazing.”
Sarah’s boyfriend Josh Lowth, who spoke to the marketing manager on the phone for around 15 minutes before she vanished, has appealed for information on Facebook.
He wrote: “Sarah is still missing.
“Please share this post to help us to find her. Today, more than ever, we miss our strong, beautiful friend.”
A relative also revealed today Josh is “very worried” as the search enters its sixth day.
He told MailOnline: “Josh and Sarah have been very happy together and she’s a lovely girl.
“The whole family is obviously very worried about her and just wants her home safely.
“We’re all pulling together and praying that this awful situation is quickly resolved. We want to thank the media for all their help.”
His dad Chris added: “We are concerned, like everybody is. We really, really want to see her back.”
Detective Chief Inspector Katherine Goodwin, who is leading the investigation, said: “We’ve released two new images of Sarah as we continue to search for her.
“Please take a look at them and consider if you saw her on the night she went missing.
“I am interested in hearing from people who may have been in the area from 21:30hrs onward.”
The camera has a clear view of both sides of the busy road on Brixton Hill, which is close to the flat where the marketing manager lives alone.
The Met have confirmed they remain “open-minded” over Sarah’s disappearance.
Murder cops have taken over the investigation but are still treating the case as a missing person’s inquiry.
DCI Goodwin said: “This is definitely a missing person investigation at the moment but I remain open-minded as to all possibilities in the investigation.”
She said 750 people have now been spoken to by officers as they desperately try to find the missing marketing manager.
Police have also trawled through hours of CCTV around Sarah’s movements on the night she vanished.
DCI Goodwin has now appeared for anyone with footage to come forward – especially anyone driving along Poynders Road at 9pm on Wednesday.
She added: “The evidence that you have on your dash cam could be absolutely vital to finding Sarah.”
DCI Goodwin said specialist officers had been drafted in from across the Metropolitan Police to help with the investigation and she thanked members of the public who had come forward with information.
“We are all looking to try and find Sarah as quickly as possible,” she added.
She said she had met Sarah’s family, adding: “My heart goes out to them in this most difficult time and they are doing everything that they can in order to help find her along with her friends”.
It is understood detectives investigating her disappearance have been told of assaults on women in the area, reports The Times.
In January, Metropolitan Police received a report of sexual harassment on a young female on Hydethorpe Road, just half a mile from where Sarah was last caught on CCTV.
At the start of February, a woman was witnessed being chased by a man just over a mile away.
Then, just three weeks ago, a 14-year-old girl was followed by a man in a van less than half a mile from where Sarah was last seen.
Meanwhile, other women said they reported groups of men following a woman in neighbouring district Balham.
But Scotland Yard has said it is so far not linking Sarah’s disappearance to any other incidents.
It comes after alarmed women living in the area revealed police urged them to be vigilant after the mysterious disappearance.
One said cops knocked on her door last night and warned her “not to go out alone” as they desperately try to piece together what happened.
Another woman, aged in her 30s, told The Sun Online: “I was told to be more careful because I live on my own.
“The police came round yesterday and said to be careful.
“I don’t want to leave the house at the moment. You don’t know what happened.
“It makes me very worried. I just can’t believe it.”
Sarah’s uncle has pleaded with any potential abductor to “just to be human and to let her come home”.
Nick Everard added: “If someone is holding her against her will I would plead with them just to be human and to let her come home, to let her talk to us, give us a ring or text to let us know she is OK.
“These are desperate times for the family. We know the police are doing everything they can but it’s the not knowing what has happened after four days is agonising.”
On Wednesday night, Sarah left a friend’s house in Leathwaite Road in Clapham about 9pm.
She headed through a back gate onto the A205 South Circular before she is believed to have walked across Clapham Common.
The marketing manager had spoken to her partner on the phone for about 15 minutes, and has not been heard from since that point, according to her friend Rose Woollard.
Officers are also asking people in the following areas to check doorbell or dashcam footage for any sightings of Sarah:
The map shows a possible route Sarah would have followed
Sarah moved to the capital for work around 12 years ago and has a brother, James, and sister, Katie, who also live in London.
Her mum and dad have travelled from their home in York to assist with the search.
Her family said: “With every day that goes by we are getting more worried about Sarah.
“She is always in regular contact with us and with her friends and it is totally out of character for her to disappear like this. We long to see her and want nothing more than for her to be found safe and well.
“We are so grateful to the police and all our friends for all they are doing. We are desperate for news and if anyone knows anything about what has happened to her, we would urge you to please come forward and speak to the police.
“No piece of information is too insignificant.”
Sarah’s sister, Katie, added on Facebook: “No words. Please share and contact me if you hear anything.”
Sarah was last seen wearing a green rain jacket, navy blue trousers with a white diamond pattern and turquoise and orange trainers.
She was also thought to have been wearing green earphones and a white beanie hat.
Anyone with information is asked to call 101 quoting CAD 3309/06MAR.
Information can also be provided anonymously by calling the Missing People charity on 116 000.
