The relatives of Alexia Daval take part in a silent march gathering nearly 1000 people in Gray on Sunday. PHOTO: SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP 
 
 Shocked locals in eastern France joined the family and distraught friends of a murdered jogger for a silent march on Sunday that saw up to 10,000 people take to the streets of the town of Gray. 
 
 Alexia Daval, a 29-year-old bank worker, disappeared last weekend after heading out for a run from her home in the rural Haute-Saone area to the northeast of France's Burgundy wine-growing area. 
 
 Her badly burned body was found in a nearby wood on Monday and an autopsy has determined she was strangled to death, but police have not yet made any arrests and the identity of her attacker remains unknown. 
 
 The seemingly random nature of the murder in a quiet town of around 5,000 people has led to national attention, with hundreds of joggers paying homage to her on Saturday by running in cities across France. 
 
 "With these sporting gestures, you are making Alexia into a strong symbol, one of the freedom for all women to enjoy running and to live," her mother Isabelle Fouillot said through tears as she addressed the rally on Sunday. 
 
 Many of the 8,000 to 10,000 people who joined the march and listened to speeches from Daval's devastated husband and family brought white roses which were placed in front of her parents' tobacco shop in the town. 

 Image copyright AFP Image caption Jonathan Daval passed behind a poster of his murdered wife during the silent march 
 
 Family and friends have joined a march of some 10,000 people through a French town in response to the murder of a local woman who vanished last weekend. 
 
 The burnt body of Alexia Daval, 29, who disappeared while jogging, was found in woodland near Gray, a town in the north-eastern region of Haute-Saone. 
 
 An autopsy has found she was strangled. No arrests have been made and her attacker's identity remains unknown. 
 
 Women have honoured her with symbolic runs in cities across France. 
 
 Image copyright AFP Image caption Mrs Daval's family led Sunday's silent march 
 
 In Gray, a quiet town of 5,000 residents, people marched in silence on Sunday and listened to speeches by her grieving husband Jonathan Daval and other family members. 
 
 Mrs Daval, a bank worker, went out for a run on Saturday 28 October. After not hearing from her for several hours, her husband called the police. 
 
 Image copyright EPA Image caption Women - and some men too - jogged through Paris on Saturday in Mrs Daval's memory 
 
 Her body was eventually found covered in foliage in a wood far from her normal jogging route. 
 
 A source close to the investigation told AFP news agency there were no preliminary indications she had been raped. 
 
 Addressing the rally in Gray, Mrs Daval's mother, Isabelle Fouillot, paid tribute to the women and men who had gone out running to commemorate her daughter and other victims of violence against women. 
 
 "With these sporting gestures, you are making Alexia into a strong symbol, one of the freedom for all women to enjoy running and to live," she said through her tears.
– The residents of Gray, France, number just 5,000, but on Sunday some 10,000 people took to the streets there in Alexia Daval's name. The 29-year-old's body was found last Monday, in a crime that the Times of London reports has raised the fears of female runners in the country. Daval went missing on a Saturday morning run on Oct. 28. When she didn't return, her husband alerted the police, and the Local reports her body was found badly burned in a wooded area near the town in the east of France. The BBC describes her remains as "covered in foliage." It's been determined that Daval was strangled, and a source says there is no sign of sexual assault. Daval's mother spoke to the crowd on Sunday, saying, "You are making Alexia into a strong symbol, one of the freedom for all women to enjoy running and to live." The Times reports that in the past decade, seven women have been murdered while on runs in various parts of France; none of the women had any connection with her male attacker, six of whom have been convicted. Says the deputy mayor of Daval's town, "It gives us the shivers to know that there is a killer in the wild." (French police may have a break in a notorious cold case.)