New York City police officers are searching for anyone with information connected to the brutal murder of a Queens jogger who was violently killed on an off a beaten path in a local park.
A reward of $10,000 for information leading to the arrest of the killer of Karina Vetrano was announced by Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce during an NYPD crime statistics briefing on Aug. 4.
“We really need the public’s help on this one,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Karina Vetrano left her Howard Beach home at 5 p.m. on Aug. 2 for a regular jog. The 30-year-old usually runs with her father, Philip Vetrano, but an injury kept him from joining his daughter on Tuesday. He became increasingly worried when she didn’t return home after several hours and stopped responding to text messages.
“At some point after that, her father began to get worried, where she was, she didn’t return home,” Boyce said. “He called a police chief who lives nearby who then called 911.”
The older Vetrano, a retired NYC firefighter, guided investigators down the path the pair frequented. It was reported that Philip told Karina to not run on the remote stretch of Spring Creek Park alone. Karina Vetrano’s body was discovered by her father in a marshy area nearly 15 feet away from a bike path. One of her hands is said to have been clutching grass, an indicator that she'd been dragged.
An autopsy determined that Karina was strangled and sexually assaulted. According to the New York Daily News, per a police source, “her teeth were broken” and “she was black and blue.” Police sources told the newspaper that one of her sneakers as well as her headphones were missing.
Karina, a graduate of St. John’s University was an avid traveler and documented her journeys on Instagram.
