Detectives are investigating whether primary school teacher Sabina Nessa was killed by a stranger who is still at large, a senior officer has said.
The 28-year-old had been walking to meet a friend at a pub in Kidbrooke, south east London, on a journey that should have taken just five minutes when she was fatally attacked near Cator Park.
Speaking at the park where flowers had been laid beside a police cordon, Detective Chief Superintendent Trevor Lawry said he is “keeping a completely open mind” on what the motive of the attacker may have been but is concerned that they are still on the loose.
When asked whether the Metropolitan Police are worried that the killer could attack someone else, he said: “We have lines of inquiry that we’re pursuing at the moment.
“It’s always a concern that it may happen, but that’s not something that we have any intelligence on at this time.”
And asked whether he believes a stranger was behind the attack, Mr Lawry added: “That’s definitely a line of inquiry that we’re looking at.”
Ms Nessa’s body was found by a member of the public almost 24 hours after her death.
Asked by reporters why it took police so long to find her in a small and busy park, he said: “It was found by somebody walking their dog and it was off the track that you would normally walk so that’s not that unexpected.”
Ms Nessa’s death comes just months after the killing of Sarah Everard, who was abducted in Clapham, south London, and just over a year after sisters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman were murdered at a park in Wembley, north London.
Mr Lawry insisted the streets of the capital were safe for women and officers were listening to concerns.
He said: “The streets are safe for women, I’d like to reassure the public around that, I’d like to make sure that people are free to walk around free from fear and my officers will make sure that that can take place.”
On whether the Met had changed their approach to policing violent crime against women following these murders, he added: “I think the main things that are changing are that one, we’re listening to people, we’re understanding where people are feeling not so safe and we’re putting out patrols to make sure that we do that.
“This isn’t just a policing issue, there’s lots of issues to be able to make people feel safe in an open space and we’re working with our partners to ensure we do that.”
He added that Metropolitan Police officers will be attending a planned vigil for Ms Nessa on Friday.
Officers have said Ms Nessa left her home on Astell Road and was killed on her way to The Depot bar in Pegler Square, Kidbrooke Village, at around 8.30pm last Friday.
Her body was found near the OneSpace community centre at Kidbrooke Park Road in the Royal Borough of Greenwich on Saturday.
“Sabina never arrived at the pub and is thought to have been murdered as she walked through the park,” the force said.
A post-mortem examination, carried out on Monday, was inconclusive.
