Slain jogger’s father offers killer reward for surrender

• 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 told reporters 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 money that the New York Police Department is offering to anyone who can help catch the killer.

More than 3,000 people, including 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 the daughter of the entire community and we are committed to seeing justice served in her memory,” the page states.

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