Parents Speak Out For Justice In Killing Of NYC Runner

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NEW YORK (AP) — The parents of a 30-year-old woman whose body was found after she went for a run in New York City say they are counting on authorities catching the killer.

Karina Vetrano was found late Tuesday night in a recreation area adjacent to her home in the Howard Beach section of Queens. An autopsy showed she died from strangulation. Her clothes were in disarray, indicating a possible sexual assault.

Karina's mother, Cathy, said at a news conference Sunday that her daughter's killer must know the whole world is seeking justice.

Her father, Philip Vetrano, a retired firefighter, said the family is counting on the hard work by the New York Police Department to eventually find the killer.

Normally Philip ran with his daughter but he stayed home that evening because of a bad back. He "asked [Karina] not to run this path, not without him," NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said Tuesday at a briefing near the scene of the crime. "If you're a runner you understand that you run every night as part of your routine, so she went, and said she'd be all right."

Vetrano didn't return on time and didn't answer her father's phone calls, so he contacted a police commander neighbor, who called 911. After police used cellphone signals to narrow the search area, her father spotted her body face down in the tall grass and brush along an unpaved emergency access road about 15 feet off the running trail, police said.

The news conference came a day after Karina's funeral.