Courtesy of Eventbrite
The Vetrano family this week announced that they are getting a team together to participate in the 2016 Tunnel to Towers 5K Run & Walk in honor of murder victim Karina Vetrano.
By Michael V. Cusenza
After a somewhat scattered end of August, the Karina Vetrano murder investigation seemed to slow down this week as it embarked on its second month.
The excitement ignited by the Aug. 31 release of a composite sketch of an individual whom investigators have characterized as a witness to the brutal crime has been blunted over the past seven days by a dearth of solid leads.
Still, Karina’s family remains convinced that the break that everyone is clamoring for is right around the corner.
“Keep those $11 [donations] coming,” Karina’s dad, Phil, wrote on Sunday on the GoFundMe page of the Karina Vetrano Memorial Reward Fund, which has raised more than $270,000. “We are getting close in the investigation.”
Vetrano, 30, was beaten, strangled, and sexually assaulted in the evening hours of Aug. 2 on her daily run inside Spring Creek Park.
Additionally this week, Phil Vetrano, a retired FDNY firefighter, announced that family and friends are organizing a team to participate in this year’s Tunnel to Towers 5K Run & Walk on Sept. 25 in honor of Karina.
Proceeds from the annual event are used by the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation to support programs which honor first responders and military personnel who make extraordinary sacrifices in the line of duty.
“As we near the 15th anniversary of 9/11,” foundation leaders wrote in a message posted on its website, “we continue to urge Americans to honor our first responders, all who lost their lives on that fateful day, and those who have been catastrophically injured while fighting for the country. It’s imperative that we celebrate these heroes and honor their legacy forever.”
