Chanel Lewis has been identified as the suspect in the murder of Queens jogger Karina Vetrano.
The NYPD said Lewis, 20, of East New York, is in custody and “charges are pending.”
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According to multiple news reports, the suspect was in custody on February 4, and, CBS Local reported, through sources, that police believe they have “solid evidence” against him, including DNA. However, other news sites had called the man a “person of interest.” The suspect was being grilled by the NYPD in the death of the vivacious jogger and internet blogger, whose August slaying in a grassy park area terrified and galvanized New York City. The news that a suspect was found may bring some measure of closure – or at least justice – to Karina’s anguished parents, Phil and Cathy, who have repeatedly given emotional statements to the news media and even offered a reward in their efforts to solve their daughter’s murder. Another jogger from New York, Vanessa Marcotte, was murdered in Massachusetts around the same time, but her slaying has not been solved. h/t heavy
The New York Post reported that the Lewis “is in his 20s and lives in a housing project in East New York, Brooklyn, a neighborhood just west of Howard Beach,” where Vetrano was strangled to death.
Karina’s dead body was later found by her father in the grassy area where she would often run.
Developing story.