The family of Sarah Everard has released touching new photos of the marketing executive beaming at a university graduation and relaxing by a pool before her life was tragically cut short by killer Met Police officer Wayne Couzens.
The previously unseen photos have been shared for a new documentary about the murder which shocked the nation and put a spotlight on violence against women and girls.
One photo shows Ms Everard smiling brightly at her Durham University graduation in the summer of 2008. She had studied Geography at St Cuthbert’s Society at the university between 2005 and 2008.
Another newly released image shows Ms Everard enjoying a drink in the sun at Brockwell Lido, close to where she lived in Brixton, south London.
Two more photos have also been released by her family – one of which she is smiling with a glass of wine and the other is a candid snap of her looking into the distance pensively.
Ms Everard was snatched by former cop Couzens after he used his police-issued warrant card to stage a fake arrest on March 3 2021. He then drove her to a rural area near Dover in Kent, raped and strangled her with his police belt before burning her body in a fridge and dumping her remains in a nearby pond.
The BBC documentary called Sarah Everard: The Search for Justice comes as the marketing executive’s heartbroken family mark three years since the horrific murder.
Sarah Everard is pictured enjoying a drink at Brockwell Lido, which was close to where she lived in Brixton, south London
In this photo, Ms Everard is seen beaming at her graduation from Durham University in 2008
Sarah was abducted, raped and murdered by Wayne Couzens when he was a serving police officer. Her family have released new photos of her, including this candid snap
Ms Everard is pictured smiling brightly with a glass of wine. It’s been three years since her murder
A new BBC One documentary Sarah Everard: The Search for Justice looks at the Met’s investigation into Sarah’s murder
In the documentary, the detective who led the arrest Couzens recalled the moment the murderer ‘went grey’ when cops showed up at his door.
Detective Nick Harvey, from the Specialist Crime unit in London, detailed the moment Ms Everard’s murderer was caught, six days after she was snatched.
Speaking in the documentary, which airs at 9pm tomorrow and looks at the Met’s investigation into Sarah’s murder, Mr Harvey said: ‘I showed him my warrant card and he just went grey, just all the colour just ran out of his face.’
Mr Harvey revealed he had only just found out Wayne was a servicing police officer moments before the arrest.
He added: ‘The gravity of the whole situation became clear, the minute I told the team it just went silent.’
Senior Investigating Officer Katherine Goodwin was also ‘shocked’ by the news that Couzens was working with the Met.
The 51-year-old used his status as a police officer to trick Sarah into thinking he could arrest her for breaking lockdown rules in place at the time.
Detective Nick Harvey, (pictured) from the Specialist Crime unit in London, who led the arrest of former Met police officer Wayne Couzens recalled the moment the murderer ‘went grey’ when cops showed up at his door, in a new BBC One documentary Sarah Everard: The Search for Justice
He joined Kent Police as a special constable in 2002, became an officer with the civil nuclear constabulary in 2011 and then moved to the Met in 2018.
Recalling the moment she was told Couzens was an officer, she said: ‘I remember just being in complete shock.
‘I knew I had to tell my boss and I remember having to just sit on the floor of the office saying you are not going to believe this, but he’s a police officer. Her questions were the same as mine, “are you sure?”‘
Ms Goodwin later revealed that Couzens had even ‘planned a day off’ to commit the murder.
She said: ‘We discovered that he told his wife he was working overtime on that night, when actually he was due to be on a day off and that he had marked it on their family calendar, clearly indicating that he was planning to do something, and he didn’t want to be found out.’
Couzens’ phone was wiped of all data about 40 minutes before he was arrested on suspicion of Sarah’s murder. In an interview during his arrest, he told police a false story about being threatened by an eastern European gang to ‘pick up girls.’
In an interview during his arrest, Couzens told police a false story about being threatened by an eastern European gang to ‘pick up girls’
Senior Investigating Officer Katherine Goodwin (pictured) was also ‘shocked’ by the news that Couzens was working with the Met
Ms Goodwin said although it was rare to get an abduction confession so soon, her job wasn’t over yet as she still needed to find Sarah.
By tracing Couzens rental car movement she saw he drove Sarah to a rural area near Dover where his family owned some woodland.
She said: ‘He drove down to Dover where he parked his own car, it struck me that it is an incredibly long journey, and how she must of felt in that car.
‘He moved Sarah from the hire car into his own car. People have asked how he moved her and we will never know, however in my experience woman who are in such horrifically frightening situations are often just compliant because they want to get out of the situation alive.’
Couzens continued life as normal after he raped and brutally murdered Sarah, even stopping for a hot chocolate in Costa after his horrific crime.
Ms Goodwin added: ‘He hid Sarah’s body under an industrial fridge, hiding it from view. He then went to drive home, stopping at Costa to get a hot chocolate, having that night kidnapped, raped and murdered a woman.
‘He then went home, spending the day at home as if he had been on a night shift, so his family would know no different, before going out to buy petrol in a small jerry can.’
Couzens joined Kent Police as a special constable in 2002, became an officer with the civil nuclear constabulary in 2011 and then moved to the Met in 2018
The former armed Metropolitan police officer will never be released from prison after he abducted, raped and murdered marketing executive Sarah
The detective revealed that Couzens then rang a vet to book his dog in for an appointment while he was probably stood over Sarah’s body.
Ms Goodwin said: ‘He went out to buy petrol in a small jerry can, we recovered a phone call he made to the vet whilst we believe he was stood burning Sarah’s body.’
‘The fact that he was able to do things that were so horrific and thing that were so mundane and normal at the same time is really chilling.’
Ms Everard’s body was discovered in a wooded area in Ashford, Kent, and later formally identified by dental records. She was around 100 metres from land bought by Couzens in 2019.
Investigating Officer Katherine said: ‘I went down to see the scene for myself.
‘As Sarah’s body was taken from the woods to the ambulance, the officers took their hats off, as a mark of respect and I think shock at what had happened and who was responsible for it.’
It was later revealed that Couzens indecently exposed himself three times before the murder, including twice at a drive-through fast-food restaurant in Kent in the days prior to the killing.
The 51-year-old exposed himself to two terrified female attendants at a McDonalds on February 14 and 27. On both occasions, he drove to collect his orders before a member of staff saw he had his ‘trousers pulled down to his knees’.
Police were given his description, car registration and bank card details yet officers failed to investigate any of the attacks, interview the victims or identify the sex offender as one of their own officers until he had been arrested for the murder.
The McDonald’s worker revealed that she ‘burst into tears’ after Couzens exposed himself to her.
Her police statement read: ‘I was at work just doing my normal tasks as part of my role at McDonald’s, I did not expect to bring the food back and have an erect penis shown to me, it took me a moment to process what had just happened. Then I became really upset and burst into tears.’
Ms Goodwin recalled the moment she was told that Couzens was involved in a sexual offence before snatching Ms Everard off the street.
Katherine recalled the moment she was told that Couzens was involved in a sexual offence before snatching Sarah off the street
She said: ‘One of my team told me there was a man Wayne Couzens who was shown on a crime report three days before Sarah went missing for driving through a McDonald’s with his penis exposed.
‘That changed everything because I would of hoped she got into a car of someone she knew. It was now clear to me she got into a car with an alleged sex offender.’
Last year, the Old Bailey heard that the three women targeted had been left with ‘survivors’ guilt’ after both Kent Police and the Metropolitan Police failed to take the crimes seriously enough and missed crucial opportunities to stop Couzens.
Speaking in court last year, she said: ‘This indecent exposure incident was reported on the Sunday. I had no one contact me or ask for a statement. It was only after Sarah’s murder that I became involved.
‘If he had been held accountable when we had reported the crime, we could have saved Sarah.’
Met Police constable Samantha Lee was sacked and barred from being a police officer after it was found she had not properly investigated the incidents.
The parliamentary and diplomatic protection officer also exposed himself to a female cyclist in Deal, Kent who then told a female police officer what had happened within minutes of the attack on November 13, 2020.
Couzens stepped out of the woods and stood on a bank above the female cyclist as she rode uphill towards him.
Tom Little KC, prosecuting, said Couzens was ‘totally naked’ and masturbating as he looked at the woman.
CCTV footage of Sarah, who was talking on the phone with her boyfriend, on the night she went missing
Police search for Sarah Everard behind a poster of her after she went missing in 2021
Police diver recovered a mobile phone belonging to Sarah from a canal in Sandwich, Kent
The attack happened only a few miles from where he took Sarah after kidnapping her. But police were unable to trace Couzens at the time after the victim could not recall his full number plate.
In fact, Couzens was reported to police eight times for exposing himself in the years before he murdered Sarah, a damning inquiry found last month.
The shocking report also revealed that the firearms officer was accused of raping two women but went undetected by at least three bungling police forces who failed to spot the repeated ‘red flags’.
A series of women came forward to accuse Couzens of the sex attacks following his arrest for Sarah’s murder.
Inquiry chair Lady Elish Angiolini found the killer ‘could and should’ have stopped from getting a job as an officer, and that without a radical overhaul of British policing, there is ‘nothing to stop another Couzens operating in plain sight’.
Kent Police bungled two investigations into incidents of indecent exposure by Couzens. The first took place in 2015 while he was still serving with the Civil Nuclear Constabulary.
The Angiolini Inquiry revealed that the married father-of-two allegedly carried out a ‘very serious sexual assault of a child barely into her teens’ while he was in his twenties.
Couzens was accused of attempting to kidnap a woman at knifepoint in North London in 1995 while aged 23. He was also accused of raping two women, the report reveals.
Sarah’s family said that they believe the marketing executive died because Couzens was a police officer, adding: ‘She would never have got into a stranger’s car.’
Met commissioner Sir Mark Rowley called the report ‘an urgent call to action for all of us in policing’, while Home Secretary James Cleverly Home Secretary James Cleverly said Miss Everard was ‘failed by the people who were meant to keep her safe’.
According to the report, over the last two years the inquiry uncovered evidence Couzens was accused of a string of other incidents of sexual abuse.
The findings identified at least five incidents which were not reported to police, with Lady Elish saying she believes there could be more victims.
Setting out a raft of recommendations to ‘make sure something like this can never happen again’, Lady Elish said: ‘Wayne Couzens should never have been a police officer. And, without a significant overhaul, there is nothing to stop another Couzens operating in plain sight. Now is the time for change.’
She urged ‘all those in authority in every police force in the country’ to read the report and ‘take immediate action’.
Lady Elish said she was ‘astonished’ to learn that Couzens would have passed vetting for the Metropolitan Police even if the force had known about a previous accusation of indecent exposure.
Among the measures, she called for an urgent review of indecent exposure charges against serving officers and said reports of the crime need to be taken seriously.
Sarah’s mother Sue, father Jeremy, sister Katie and brother James said in a statement: ‘It is obvious that Wayne Couzens should never have been a police officer. Whilst holding a position of trust, in relative he was a serial sex offender.
‘Warning signs were overlooked throughout his career and opportunities to confront him were missed.
‘We believe that Sarah died because he was a police officer – she would never have got into a stranger’s car.’
Kent police said in a statement: ‘We accept our investigation into a 2015 report of indecent exposure was flawed and we apologise. Kent police is appalled by the crimes committed against Sarah Everard. We fully accept the recommendations of the Angiolini Inquiry report.’
Couzens – who will never be released from prison – used his status as a police officer to trick Sarah into thinking he could arrest her for breaking lockdown rules in place during the coronavirus pandemic.
After the horrific killing, it emerged there had been concerns about Couzens’s behaviour while he was a police officer, with reports he was nicknamed ‘the rapist’.
Couzens was also later revealed to have been part of a WhatsApp group with fellow officers that shared disturbing racist, homophobic and misogynist remarks.
Sarah Everard: The Search for Justice on Tuesday 5 March, 9pm, BBC One and iPlayer.
