Witness Sketch Expected in NYC Jogger Murder

ByEMILY SHAPIRO ABCNews logo
Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Police are expected to release a witness sketch in the unsolved case of a Queens woman who was murdered while on a jog in her neighborhood nearly one month ago.

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.

Nearly one month later, the case remains unsolved. The New York Police Department still has no hits from DNA recovered from the scene. Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said Tuesday the killing is still believed to be a random attack. Police have talked to known shoplifters and panhandlers in the area and have traced all possible escape routes, but no suspect appears on any surveillance camera.

It's not clear when the sketch will be released.

Vetrano's devastated parents addressed the media on Aug. 18, pleading with their daughter's killer to "own up" to the crime.

"I know that you're tormented," her father, Phil Vetrano, said. "I know that you're being driven crazy. I know that you want to do the right thing."

"My little baby was brutalized by this person, by this evil coward," his wife, Cathy Vetrano, said. "Her last moments were horrible."

She then spoke directly to the killer: "Show someone that you care about that you're not as evil as the whole world thinks that you are. You can't run. It's just a matter of time."

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