NYPD(NEW YORK) — The father of Karina Vetrano, the New York City woman who was killed this summer after she went for a jog, told ABC News’ Good Morning America that he goes back to the site where his daughter was murdered “every day.”
“I go back there daily, some times two to three times a day,” Phil Vetrano said. “It’s actually a peaceful place for me. I can think when I’m there and I’m just hoping maybe that guy comes back. And that’s why I sit there.”
Karina Vetrano, 30, was strangled to death on Aug. 2 while jogging alone on a path where she and her father often ran together in Howard Beach, New York. The murder case remains unsolved more than five months after her body was found.
Phil Vetrano said he is now fighting for the state to authorize familial searching of New York’s DNA data banks, which would allow authorities to use DNA evidence from the crime scene to find a blood relative of the perpetrator.
“There is no policy. There’s nothing for them to change. There is no law. There is no policy. It’s just not done,” Vetrano said. “No law has to be legislated to have it done, they just have to do it.”
Vetrano said DNA from the crime scene had been run through the state’s database to find a match. The search was unsuccessful.
However, familial searching would “run the same DNA through the same database, only this time they’re looking for a partial match, which would be a blood relative,” Vetrano added. “They can get the killer that way.”
“It’s important because it will find a relative of the killer. A brother or father or son,” Vetrano said. “And again there is no law against it.”
Familial DNA testing “will give the police another tool,” according to Vetrano.
Vetrano said that he does not have any inside knowledge from local police.
“Basically all I know is they’re working on the case, they’re working diligently. But I’m not privy to inside information,” he added.
He did say the New York Police Department told him that it has received “hundreds of tips. Literally hundreds.”
“Every time there is some kind of news about it, the tips come in, we get more tips, which is a good thing,” Vetrano noted.
He continued, “If you know something, say something. Even if you think you might know a little something, even if you don’t think you know something, it’s okay to let them check it out, because let them check it out. Let the cops know. Because we’ve got to find this guy.”
The NYPD released a statement on Thursday seeking community assistance in identifying the person who assaulted Vetrano.
“The person who assaulted Karina is still at large … and the person who committed the assault is likely familiar with the park and may have spent time there,” according to the statement. Authorities are urging anyone with information to contact the NYPD.
Last week, the Queens County District Attorney Richard A. Brown called on the state to authorize familial searching of New York’s DNA banks to help find the person who murdered Vetrano.
“This tragic murder has been exhaustively investigated using every tool currently available, but it remains unsolved. The killer remains at large, the public remains in danger, and the suffering of the victim’s family is amplified by law enforcement’s inability to yet solve this most awful crime. The victim, her family, and the public deserve justice and we have an obligation to use every means at our disposal to identify the murderer. I believe that familial searching can be a powerful investigative tool in this case,” Brown said in a letter to Michael C. Green, the executive deputy commissioner of the New York State Division of Criminal Justice and chairperson of the New York State Commission on Forensic Science.
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