A year after Karina Vetrano was killed while going for a run in her Queens neighborhood of Howard Beach, her father is reflecting on the tight-knit community he says uplifted the family after she died.
"As you all it's been a year since my baby girl was murdered by that filth, that looser [sic] animal," Phil Vetrano wrote on a fundraising page for a scholarship in his daughter's name. "But. This post is about giving thanks."
Phil said Howard Beach is "where everyone knows each other, where everyone knows your name and looks out for each other."
Vetrano's family has been raising money for the Karina Vetrano Memorial Scholarship at Archbishop Molloy High School, from where Vetrano graduated in 2004. So far, nearly $300,000 has been raised.
Vetrano's Aug. 2, 2016, death shocked the city, and it stayed in the spotlight for weeks, driven by her father Phil's relentless search for her killer.
Police arrested 20-year-old Chanel Lewis in early February and charged him with murder and sexual abuse. They said evidence included genetic material found under the 30-year-old Vetrano's fingernails and on her phone and neck.
Police officials also said Lewis made detailed, incriminating statements to detectives. According to police sources, Lewis twice confessed on video -- once with the NYPD and the other time during an interview with the Queens district attorney's office.
Lewis' family has insisted he is innocent.
Photo Credit: WNBC
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