QUEENS - The NYPD doubled its reward for clues leading to Karina Vetrano's killer to $20,000 one week after she was found strangled after jogging in Howard Beach, officials said.
Vetrano's father found her body Aug. 2 in the secluded marshlands of Gateway National Park, where the 30-year-old St. John's University graduate liked to run, police said.
Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said Thursday that police plan on cutting down "about every weed in that location until we can satisfy that we got all the evidence."
NYPD detectives are also working with Massachusetts police to see if there is any connection between the killings of Vetrano and New York City resident Vanessa Marcotte, who was found dead in Princeton, Massachusetts, over the weekend after disappearing during a run.
Police have upped the reward for Vetrano's killer from $2,500, to $10,000 and now $20,000 in the past week. The additional $10,000 came from the New York City Police Foundation, according to the NYPD.
At a town hall meeting Monday in Howard Beach, neighbors questioned why the reward — which at the time was $10,000 — wasn't higher. An online fundraiser created Tuesday night, by a committee that includes the Vetrano family, hopes to bring the reward to $100,000.
"I think money would dig this loser out of his hole," one neighbor, who declined to give her name, said Monday. "Someone had to see something, and see someone in the park, but $10,000 is an insult."
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.
