The devastated father of a Queens woman who was murdered while on a jog in her neighborhood is pleading for the public's help to find her killer.
On Aug. 2, 30-year-old Karina Vetrano was strangled to death while jogging along a path she and her father often ran together in the Howard Beach, New York, community.
"Somebody knows something," her father, Phil Vetrano, told reporters this morning at a news conference.
Vetrano said that it was "a vicious killer that came here and took a life of a brilliant, bright, beautiful young girl, while she was just out enjoying herself in what she always called her 'happy place.' It's beautiful, it's nature."
He said he would tell his daughter's killer, "I'm sorry for you ... because you will pay."
Vetrano said police "are following every single lead."
In the last 16 hours, a GoFundMe page that was started by Vetrano has raised over $27,500 for information related to the killer. That's on top of the $20,000 reward that's already been offered in the case. Vetrano said today he wants to raise $100,000 by the end of the week.
"I am pleading with the public, with the country - $5, $10, whatever. We need to raise a lot of money very quickly so we can get this person," Vetrano said.
Jogger Killings in Mass. and NY Don't Appear to Be Related, Police Say Woman Who Worked for Google Killed After Going for Jog in Massachusetts NYC Cops Searching for Answers After 30-Year-Old Woman Killed While Jogging in QueensVetrano, a former New York City fireman, said he is "also reaching out to the country, to my firefighter brothers all over the country, all over the world ... please help me now. We were there for you in your time of need, now it's my time. I need your help."
"We need for someone to say, 'Hello, I know the guy.' That's what were looking for," Vetrano said.
Anyone with information can call the NYPD at 1-800-577-TIPS.