Vigils held across Australia for murdered 5-year-old girl

From Sydney to the centre of the country, Australians came together to mourn a five-year-old girl whose alleged abduction and murder stunned the nation and set off riots in the Outback town of Alice Springs.

The vigils were held a week after authorities found Kumanjayi Little Baby dead, ending a five-day search that drew hundreds of volunteers and police into the effort.

The arrest of a man accused of abducting and murdering her then ignited violent unrest in Alice Springs, where a crowd of 400 Indigenous people gathered and called for “payback,” a term referring to traditional and mostly physical punishment in Aboriginal societies.

In the days since, the Alice Springs community has been observing “sorry business,” the mourning period and cultural practices that follow the death of an Indigenous person.

People hold candles during a vigil in Sydney

Organisers of the vigils urged people to wear pink, the girl’s favourite colour, and to bring candles in her memory.

Kumanjayi Little Baby vanished from her home on the outskirts of Alice Springs on the evening of 25 April.

Candles and flowers are displayed during the Sydney vigil

Hundreds of people joined the search to find her, combing through dense bushland around the town, a well-known tourist destination in Australia’s Northern Territory.

Police on Sunday charged Jefferson Lewis, 47, with her murder and two additional offences that cannot be publicly identified for legal reasons.