I'm in my 30s and fairly petite as well (hopefully this isn't my mother I'm responding to lol!). I run in a very populated area on a very busy trail, and I never feel unsafe or alone. Of course, this doesn't mean that nothing will happen. I think it's important to keep in mind that abduction or murder aren't the only things that could go wrong on a run- there are also medical situations or injuries or weather or all sorts of things that could go wrong on a run.
Earphones are scary for lots of reasons- you can't hear cars, bikes, or a potential attacker. Unfortunately, many runners look at their running time as a time to relax, zone out to good music, catch up on podcasts, etc. Most won't find ditching the headphones an acceptable solution. My personal solution to this is to keep the volume relatively low. I also have pretty low quality wireless earbuds- they let a ton of sound through.
My strategy is to make sure someone knows where I am. I will occasionally share my live GPS location with my husband. At the very least, I tell him how long I expect to be gone and if I'm going north or south on the trail (the pro of a trail is there's no guessing as to what streets or turns I took!). Will this prevent something from happening? Nope. Will it expedite the response if I don't make it home in time? I sure hope so.
My husband is also a very statistical, logical person. He views these runner attacks in the same way that some people discuss airplane crashes. When one happens, it gets so, so, so much attention. Not implying they shouldn't- it's scary!- but how many runs end without incident? The vast majority. How many runs were likely tracked on Strava or MapMyRun so far today? How many people were killed or hurt on these runs? I don't know, but you know we'd hear about the very bad incidents for the most part.
This doesn't mean you shouldn't take precautions or pay attention to safety. There are more things in your control as a runner, of course, than as a passenger on a commercial airline. The analogy to planes isn't perfect. But, I think it is important to take a step back and realize that this case got a ton of attention because of how unlikely and uncommon the situation was. I'm not minimizing safety or what happened to MT in anyway, and I'm not at all trying to minimize your concerns about your daughter. But, personally, it helps me a lot to take a deep breath and realize that the likely outcome is not that I will die if I run alone, and to think of small things I could do that might help keep me safe.
My thoughts only. I know many might disagree with this view.
