Slain jogger’s father offers killer reward for surrender

NEW Y OR K • As the outpouring of public support continues for the family of a young woman who was killed earlier this month while on a nightly jog, the victim’s father has an unusual and unexpected offer to her killer: Surrender. In return, more than $ 250,000 in reward money will go to the murderer’s family.

“Turn yourself in. I will make sure the reward money goes to the person of your choice. Your sister, your brother, your mother. It’s a life changer,” Phil Vetrano said.

Karina Vetrano, 30, went for a run on Aug. 2. Her father, along with detectives, later found her body in marshland not far from her house in Queens.

Police t ol d r eporters on Aug. 3 that the young woman had been strangled to death and may have been sexually assaulted.

A week after her death, members of the community of Howard Beach, the Queens neighbourhood where Vetrano lived, started a GoFundMe fundraising campaign in her name.

The funds are intended to supplement the $ 20,000 reward that the New York Police Department is offering to anyone who can help catch the killer.

More than 3,000 people, i ncluding three children who raised money by selling painted shells at a beach club, have donated funds.

Karina Vetrano is described in the GoFundMe page as a “beautiful, vivacious 30-year-old woman.”

She “has become t he daughter of the entire community and we are committed to seeing justice served in her memory,” the page states.

Karina Vetrano i s one of three women who were killed within the past month while jogging and whose unrelated deaths caught the public’s attention.