A UK police officer has been charged with the kidnap and murder of Sarah Everard

• Sarah Everard, 33, was last seen walking home from a friend's house in London on March 3.
• On Friday, UK police identified human remains found in the search as Everard.
• Metropolitan Police has charged one of its officers in connection with her disappearance.

A UK police officer was charged in the murder of Sarah Everard on Friday evening, days after authorities found the woman's remains in a wooded area outside London.

Metropolitan Police Officer Wayne Couzens, 48, has been charged with Everard's murder and will appear before Westminster Magistrates' Court on Saturday, the BBC reported.

Everard, 33, disappeared while walking home from a friend's house in London's Clapham neighborhood on March 3.

According to the BBC, Everard left her friend's house around 9 p.m. on March 3, and had planned to take a 50-minute walk to her home in the neighboring Brixton.

She was last spotted on security footage at 9:30 p.m., and, according to the Evening Standard, spoke with her boyfriend for about 15 minutes during the walk.

In the days since, the Metropolitan Police had searched hundreds of houses looking for Everard, before finally finding her body in a wooded area in Kent on Wednesday, the BBC reported.

Couzens, who was recently suspected of indecent exposure in a separate case, was taken into custody on Wednesday on suspicion of Everard's abduction and murder. An unidentified woman was also detained in the Everard case, on suspicion of aiding the offender, The Guardian reported.

Everard's family said in a statement last week that her disappearance was "totally out of character."

"We are so grateful to the police and all our friends for all they are doing," they said in a statement shared by the Met Police. "We are desperate for news and if anyone knows anything about what has happened to her, we would urge you to please come forward and speak to the police. No piece of information is too insignificant."

Word of Everard's disappearance sparked a wave of grief online, leading many women to share stories on Twitter of men harassing or attacking them.

Among the women taking part in the social media conversation was Scotland First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

Sturgeon tweeted Thursday that "there will be few - if any - women who don't completely understand and identify" with a tweet from Sky News political correspondent Kate McCann, who said Everard's disappearance "hit home hard for so many women because we make the calculations she did every day too."

"We take the longer, better-lit route, push the fear aside for the voice that says 'don't be daft, you've every right to walk home alone at night and be safe'," McCann wrote in a thread. "You're a grown woman and in no other area of your life do you feel so vulnerable. You resent it even though you understand there is a risk - however small. It is frustrating and tiring and constant. And yet sometimes, despite all those calculations, it still isn't enough."