Parents Of Slain NYC Jogger Recall Daughter’s Last Words In New Interview


The parents of the NYC slain jogger Karina Vetrano recalled in an interview Thursday the final words of their daughter before her battered body was found in a marsh off a running path, the CBS News reports.

Karina’s father Phil Vetrano said during an interview with WPIX/Channel 11 that her daughter’s last words before she headed to the park for her routine jog were: “It’s OK, Daddy, I’ll be all right.”

Karina Vetrano used to go out for a jog at the Spring Creek Park on a regular basis. The area, however, has recently become a popular spot for vagrants. Having been aware of this, Phil advised his daughter not to go there.

“I said, ‘I don’t think it’s a good idea that you go in there,'” he recalled saying to his daughter.

Vetrano, a New York firefighter and a 9/11 first responder, said that he had a bad premonition when Karina didn’t return immediately from her run.

“I got a feeling. It came over me,” he said. “She was talking to me then. And I got off that couch, and I went looking for her.”

After hours of searching along the path of Karina’s routine track, Phil found her lifeless, bruised body face down 20 feet from a running path in an isolated area of Howard Beach, Queens. They found Karina’s teeth broken, her legs scraped, and her sports bra and pants pulled down.

“She was strangled with such ferocity by the perpetrator that there were obvious signs of trauma to her neck,” a police source said,” as reported by the NY Post.

Dozens of police officers searched the area for clues and questioned an encampment of vagrants, according to sources. According to neighbors, the crime scene was a popular spot for the homeless. Investigators also gathered surveillance videos that would aid them in tracking down the 30-year-old jogger’s killer.

“That area has been a problem for years before,” one woman said. “I’ve called 311 to complain.”

After an initial investigation, the police believe that Karina tried to fight off her attacker before she was sexually assaulted and strangled.

“She was in optimum physical shape so we think that she would have defended herself if she hadn’t been knocked unconscious,” a source said.

At a press conference on Wednesday, Phil issued a threatening message for his daughter’s killer, who still remains at large.

“I’m sorry for you, because you will pay. You will pay here, you will pay now and you will pay for an eternity. There’s no way to hide. We’re going to find you.”

Vetrano also pleaded for help in finding out the identity of Karina’s killer. He revealed Wednesday morning that his family has launched a GoFundMe page to help raise a bounty reward for the killer worth $200,000. By Wednesday evening, the campaign had raised more than $125,000. As of this writing, the campaign has already raised $165,000.

“Somebody knows something,” Vetrano said. “Somebody’s gotta say something and with this amount of money, maybe they will.”

Since his daughter’s murder, Phil frequented the crime scene to talk with law enforcement officers.

Karina’s mother Cathy Vetrano also issued an impassioned statement Sunday directed towards her daughter’s killer.

“The whole entire world knows what a pathetic, puny, weak piece of filth that you are,” she said.

She went on to remind the killer that her daughter was a “force to be reckoned with” and that he will be “reckoning with her force” for the rest of eternity.

“I guarantee you, you [expletive] that you will be reckoning with that force, not only for the rest of your pathetic life, but for the rest of eternity as you [expletive] burn in hell.”

[Image via Phil Vetrano/GoFundMe]

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