More than 1000 people have attended a vigil on a cold and rainy night in Melbourne to pay their respects to Courtney Herron.
They gathered under umbrellas at the site of a makeshift vigil in Royal Park at Parkville where the 25-year-old’s body was found last Saturday morning.
They held candles and left flowers as darkness fell.
Friends and family of Ms Herron sobbed loudly as they looked over the tributes left between a pair of logs.
Among them was a note containing only two words, but it aptly sums up the grief of a city that sees tragedies like this all too often: “No more.”
Ms Herron’s grandmother cried and kissed a framed photograph of her granddaughter.
Darkness fell about 5.40pm and a poem was read on behalf of Ms Herron’s grieving mother and grandmother.
Mr Herron’s mother commented that the rain had stopped as the poem was read.
The vigil has been organised six days after her beaten body was found at the park in Melbourne’s inner north.
“With all of Courtney’s loved ones grieving and the community mourning, we see a vigil as really appropriate as a space to honour Courtney’s life,” one of the organisers, Jessamy Gleeson, told ABC radio earlier today.
“It’s a way for us, as well, to generally draw attention to the fact that we keep doing these vigils. It’s not a one-off for us.
“Our vigils are organised for … every woman and child that is murdered at the hands of a man in Australia.
“At the moment, we’re doing vigils almost every week.”
Courtney’s death has sparked renewed calls to improve public safety for women.
“The safety of women is something that must concern us all,” federal Minister for Women Marise Payne said, speaking about Ms Herron’s death.
John Herron said what happened to his daughter was “an unimaginable tragedy for our family” and asked to be left alone to grieve.
Ms Herron is the fourth young woman to be killed in a public Melbourne place in the past year, including the June rape and murder of aspiring comedian Eurydice Dixon, 22, at nearby Princes Park.
“These women are innocent. They are murdered simply for being women,” vigil organisers earlier said.
Homeless man Henry Richard Hammond, 27, has been charged with Ms Herron’s murder.
He has faced court and remains in custody.
Mr Hammond reportedly left a party with Ms Herron just hours before her death.
An online fundraising appeal set up by the Melbourne Homeless Collective to help pay for the woman’s funeral has raised more than $13,000.
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