in this episode of Crime Watch Daily Updates: On August 2, 2016, Karina Vetrano jogged without her father because his back was injured. Their lives would never be the same.
She left her home in Howard Beach, a neighborhood in Queens, New York, and ran in Spring Creek Park in the early evening. Surveillance footage first obtained by Crime Watch Daily showed her in the park at 5:46 p.m.
She failed to come home, and her parents grew worried. Karina’s parents and NYPD officers searched for the 30-year-old, and her father eventually discovered her body in some tall grass near the running trail.
Karina had been dragged, beaten, sexually assaulted, and strangled, but there was DNA evidence on her back, under her fingernails, and on her cell phone.
In February 2017, New York Police retrieved a DNA sample from then-20-year-old Chanel Lewis, and it came back as a match. He confessed February 4, 2017, to killing Karina, and was then charged with her murder. Chanel went to trial in 2018, but the jury could not reach a verdict, so the judge declared a mistrial.
He stood trial again about six months later and was found guilty on April 1, 2019. Chanel was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Since the conviction and sentencing, more than 41,000 people have signed a petition asking the Queens District Attorney to reopen Chanel’s case and release him on bail, arguing there was prosecutorial misconduct and that his confession was coerced by police.
Now, let’s look back at the tragic case of a young woman brutally murdered while out for what should have been a peaceful summer jog.
