Eurydice Dixon's family has remembered her as a "born performer", amid widespread anger at the police response to the Melbourne comedian's rape and murder.
“She was blossoming,” Ms Dixon’s great uncle, Eric, told 9NEWS on Friday about the 22-year-old.
"You see these things on TV but all of a sudden it's in your family - the whole stark reality."
Ms Dixon was killed as she walked home following a gig on Tuesday night. Her body was found by a passer-by in Princes Park at North Carlton before 3am on Wednesday.
Jaymes Todd, 19, has been charged with Ms Dixon's rape and murder and will reappear in Melbourne Magistrates' Court in October.
Father of the accused reacts
Todd's father spoke out about the deadly attack on Friday, saying he is “as appalled as the rest of society”.
Jason Todd extended his condolences to Ms Dixon’s family in an interview with the Daily Mail, adding that he hadn’t seen his son since Ms Dixon was found dead.
“It’s indescribable. It’s a very hard time for me and the family, and I feel greatly for Eurydice’s family and friends and offer my condolences,” Mr Todd said.
“There is nothing I can do to change it or make it better, but I wish there was. That comes from our whole family — we’re as appalled as the rest of society about what happened to her.
“I know nothing about what happened, I haven’t even seen him yet and I’ve got nothing to tell you, I’m probably going to get dragged over the coals for this.”
Eurydice Dixon, 22, had performed a comedy show hours before she was killed. Source: Facebook
'Stop victim blaming'
Police warnings after Ms Dixon's murder have sparked a deluge of criticism and debate about "personal safety".
In a statement, Victoria Police's Acting Commander David Clayton said police did not want people to "stop doing their day to day activities".
"However, we do ask all people to consider their personal safety and be aware of their surroundings," he said.
The sentiment has sparked a backlash, with some seeing it as victim blaming.
"Please stop victim blaming by telling women they need to change their behaviour to avoid rape and murder. Tell men to change theirs," one social media user wrote.
The Queen Victoria Women's Centre said on Facebook that "women are instructed to own their personal safety, while society ignores the actual problem: that women are constantly attacked by people they know or strangers".
Another Twitter user wrote: "We [women] shouldn't fear the darkness. Just because we're female doesn't mean we should be caged. This is our city too."
Premier Daniel Andrews has also weighed in, saying it was important to remember Ms Dixon died because of her attacker's decisions, rather than her own.
"Go about your day exactly as you intend, on your terms, because women don't need to change their behaviour. Men do," he wrote in a Facebook post.
His comments came as Lord Mayor Sally Capp told Melbourne's 3AW radio she would not feel safe walking around at night.
"No. I think the practical outcome of that is no. And it's going to be difficult to achieve that, really," she said.
"Identifying safe areas to walk, cycle and drive and hoping that people use those is important. But at the end of the day, we should all be able to move around our city safely, and so focusing on the actions of those committing these crimes is very important."
The debate continues ahead of a planned rally on Monday at Princes Park in Carlton North aimed at reclaiming the public space where Ms Dixon was found.
"We're angry and distressed this can happen, it should never happen," organiser Pia Cerveri, who works at Trades Hall women's team, told AAP.
She said the rally is about paying tribute to Ms Dixon but also emphasising the right of all women to use public spaces without fear of being assaulted or killed.
"We don't want to settle for a society in which that's considered normal."
Chief commissioner Graham Ashton said people should have the right to walk alone late at night, but it was more a question of assessing risks.
"It's not a question of rights, it's really a question around risk and people evaluating risk of where they are and when they're there," he told 3AW.
"If you're driving a car, you don't speed, you drive that car safely and we always have attention to our safety.
"This is really a similar thing where we always need to make those assessments of our safety when we're going about the community because events like this, whilst rare, can occur."
Mr Ashton said it is natural such a crime increases community fear, just as it did with the murders of Jill Meagher in 2012 and schoolgirl Masa Vukotic in 2015.
Meanwhile, Melbourne's comic community has rallied in tribute to Ms Dixon, with comedian Chris Franklin posting on social media that a memorial will be held at the Highlander Bar, where she performed the night she was killed.
More than 1,000 people, including a number of comedians, have also raised over $50,000 on crowdfunding platform GoFundMe for Ms Dixon's family.
Additional reporting: Nick Baker
