Sarah Everard murder: What happened to her after the night she disappeared?

#TextMeWhenYouGetHome is Lifetime’s upcoming true crime docuseries. The hashtag became popular following the gruesome death of Sarah Everard in England in 2021. It led to a global outcry regarding the lack of safety of women in public. The show, which releases on June 6, 2022, will shed light on multiple such stories of innocent women who went missing and how their cases were resolved.

The official synopsis of #TextMeWhenYouGetHome reads:

"#TextMeWhenYouGetHome became a viral, worldwide movement following the 2021 death of Sarah Everard. The slogan sparked awareness around the vulnerability women feel while out in public alone. In this gripping, true-crime docuseries, each episode follows the case of an innocent woman who has been abducted, harmed or even killed while she was out by herself. Emotional interviews by loved-ones drive these stories; accompanied by stylistic recreations, actual texts, phone records and other digital breadcrumbs that authorities used to solve the case. Keeping the mystery alive is the whodunnit aspect, as all suspects are explored until the actual perpetrator is caught. In several episodes, survivors of these harrowing sagas will be revealed to tell their own story, in their words."

Here's all you need to know about what happened to Sarah Everard ahead of the docuseries.

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Sarah Everard: The woman whose case prompted '#TextMeWhenYouGetHome'

Sarah Everard was a 33-year-old marketing executive from South London. Born in Surrey in June 1987, she grew up in York. On March 3, 2021, she was kidnapped as she was walking home to Brixton Hill from a friend's house. Her burnt remains were later found in a nearby pond and Metropolitan Police Officer Wayne Couzens was arrested for her r*pe and murder.

Everard's kidnapping and murder led to widespread uproar across the UK and the world regarding the role of police and women's safety. The hashtag #TextMeWhenYouGetHome became popular amidst the rising concern and increasing conversations about vulnerability and lack of safety of women in public spaces.

Her case inspired the Lifetime series #TextMeWhenYouGetHome, which is one of the three original unscripted series ordered by the network. The show will be a part of its new bundle of true-crime docuseries, titled Life & Crime Mondays.

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What happened to Sarah Everard?

Sarah Everard was walking home from a friend's house on March 3, 2021 when she was abducted at around 9:30 pm BST. A week after her disappearance, her body was found in a woodland stream close to the land owned by Wayne Couzens.

Reportedly, Couzens' choice of victim was random, but the attack was premeditated. According to the BBC, the judge noted during sentencing that the police officer had "long planned to carry out a violent s*xual assault on a yet-to-be-selected victim."

For his research on how to best carry out the crime, Couzens spent approximately a month travelling from Kent to London. As part of his premeditated attack, he booked a hire car and bought a roll of self-adhesive film from Amazon. On March 3, after finishing his 12-hour shift at the US embassy in London, he went out hunting for an unaccompanied young woman to kidnap and r*pe.

Couzens tricked Everard into his custody under the guise of a faux arrest for breaching coronavirus guidelines. Having been a police officer since 2002, he handcuffed her and forced her into his car before driving away. The onlookers believed the police officer to be carrying out a legitimate arrest and thus did not raise any alarm.

He drove her to Kent and then transferred her into his own car before further travelling to a rural area nearby. In this remote area, he r*ped and murdered her and left the scene at 2:31 am. He visited the dumping site twice and ended up burning her body inside a fridge as the search for her escalated. Couzens then dumped the remains in a pond near a woodland area he owned in Hoads Wood, Ashford.

Couzens went on with his life as usual, carrying out mundane activities and even took his family on a trip to the woods where he had burnt the victim's body. He was charged on March 9 after the victim’s body was discovered just 130 meters from the land owned by him.

#TextMeWhenYouGetHome premieres on June 6 at 9/8c on Lifetime.