Walking was something Zara Aleena did thoughtfully. He had a car, but most days he spent the two miles between the houses of his mother and grandmother, in east London, with little sense of danger.
Whatever the time, his blue Peugeot was almost always left in place on his grandmother’s sidewalk. With her slippers on and her party shoes tucked in her bag, she enjoyed the freedom of her own feet.
In the early hours of Sunday morning, a friend tried to take her to an Uber but she was insistent: walking was what she liked best.
Until that night, there were few indications that his fearlessness was out of place. But shortly after 2 a.m., while walking to her grandmother’s house in Ilford, Aleena, 35, was attacked and killed.
Jordan McSweeney, 29, of Dagenham, has been charged with murder, attempted rape and robbery and on Friday was denied bail.
Aleena, who was 1.55 meters (5 feet 1 inch) tall and slender, “like a fairy,” as one friend put it, was also not afraid.
Her maternal aunt, Farah Naz, told reporters on Friday: “She was very different from the rest of us because Zara had no fear.
“Whenever Zara walked, that was home to her because she knew everyone.”
Sherit Nair said Aleena’s help allowed her to pass the tube conductor theory exams in 2019.
Sherit Nair, 46, a friend who lives in Gants Hill, Ilford, said Aleena often walked by between her mother’s and grandmother’s houses.
“She was sweet and innocent, she didn’t see the world in a horrible way,” he said. “She didn’t really understand the dangers of the world.
“Even though he had a car, he liked to walk. He really just used his car to help his mom and dad, to take them to the shops and stuff. ”
On Saturday, Aleena’s family and friends will tour the route she would have done at home. The villains dressed in white will walk from the site of the attack on Cranbook Road to Gants Hill, 10 minutes away, to “take her back to where she once belonged safely.”
Her death has shattered friends and family and led them to make the streets safer for women.
Lisa Hodgson (left) and Aleena were best friends.
Her best friend, Lisa Hodgson, 35, said, “Something needs to be done to make women safe.”
The two friends often went on long walks together. Aleena loved animals and stopped to feed the cats along the way. “He loved cats, especially black ones, and he used to bring them home,” Hodgson said.
Hodgson last saw her one weekend in the countryside near Reading in early June. Aleena loved going out in nature and walking a friend’s dog. “I will always love this past weekend together and those memories,” Hodgson said.
Walking feels very different to Hodgson now. “Nothing scares me, but now I’m scared. I was walking home yesterday and a man approached me and I jumped automatically. “
Hodgson wishes he had made plans with Aleena that weekend. “She wanted to meet me that weekend and I said, ‘Can we meet next weekend?’ I wish I had met her that weekend. “
In her final message to Hodgson on Friday evening, Aleena wrote, “I miss your beautiful face this weekend xx I don’t look forward to seeing you next weekend xxx.”
This weekend they planned to go to the beach – in Brighton or Bournemouth – if the weather was good. Instead, Hodgson will walk in Aleena’s memory.
The couple met as a teenager while studying sociology, business and psychology together at King’s Cross University and soon became inseparable.
“When I met her, we both had this instant connection. We had so many similarities. We both had big hair, we were both short and we were both so talkative.”
They lived in different parts of the city and talked for hours on the phone when they could not be found.
“We tell ourselves all the details, like when we got up and got dressed. It sounds silly, but every little thing. If I didn’t hear from her for two days, we’d talk for hours to catch up. “
Chantelle Cole (left) said Aleena would help her babysitting.
Aleena made time for many friends. Chantelle Cole, 29, who lived nearby, said Aleena “was amazing, always smiling” and listened for hours as Cole talked about her problems.
She always offered help quickly. “Holy single mother, if I had to go out and do something, it would help me to do as a child.”
Putting the needs of others first was a common stimulus among Aleena’s friends. Nair said, “She was selfless. She always put her family first, then her friends. She was the last in her thoughts.”
While Nair was reviewing her tube conductor theory exams in 2019, she was there for him. “She would come, test me and push me. I wouldn’t be a tube driver if it weren’t for her pushing me.”
Aleena’s own ambition was strong but burning slowly. She was determined at age five to become a lawyer, but combining a law degree with work and family responsibilities meant it took “longer than most people,” her friend Nair said.
“If I didn’t pass the first time, I would come back next semester to do it again,” he added.
She had recently passed her legal practice course and Naz said her niece was “the happiest she had ever been,” after she began working at the Royal Courts of Justice five weeks before she was murdered.
Hundreds of people were expected to come on Saturday and do the walk they wish Aleena could take.
In tears, Naz said, “We’ll never get over that, though [the walk] it will help us ”.