More Than $200,000 Raised For Reward For Information In Death Of Queens Jogger
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- More than $200,000 had been raised late Thursday for a reward for information leading to an arrest in the killing of a 30-year-old jogger in Queens.
The goal of a GoFundMe page was to raise $100,000 in a week in an effort to help find a suspect in the death of Karina Vetrano, but the goal was quickly achieved and has since been doubled.
As of 10 p.m. Thursday, 3,095 people had donated $215,255.
The victim's father, Philip Vetrano, said friends of the family and the Howard Beach community set up the page. The money will be used only for the reward for information about his daughter's killer, 1010 WINS' Carol D'Auria reported.
"Somebody knows something," he said Wednesday. "Somebody's got to say something and with this amount of money, maybe they will."
It's been more than a week since Philip Vetrano discovered his daughter's body in a marshy area in the Spring Creek federal park land near the Belt Parkway.
Police said she had been strangled and possibly sexually assaulted after going for an evening jog.
The GoFundMe effort is in addition to a separate reward being offered by police for information leading to an arrest that was doubled Tuesday to $20,000.
.@NYPDDetectives need your help finding the person who murdered #KarinaVetrano in Queens. Call #800577TIPS with info pic.twitter.com/F4dHovQWxS
— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) August 10, 2016
Police have said they are desperate for tips from the public that could help them find a suspect. Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said last week that they think Karina Vetrano's murder was random, adding "we believe there's a severe community threat."
Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782), visit www.nypdcrimestoppers.com or text tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577.