New York

$60,000 Raised for Scholarship in Honor of Slain Jogger Karina Vetrano

What to Know

  • Karina Vetrano's strangulation death shocked the city; her body was found by her father and police hours after she went missing
  • Her alma mater, Archbishop Molloy High School, held a fundraiser to establish a scholarship in her name
  • Chanel Lewis, 20, of East New York, is charged with murder and sexual abuse in her strangulation death

Friends and family of Karina Vetrano, who was killed while jogging in Queens last summer, raised $60,000 for a scholarship in her name. 

A walk/run was held overnight, with participants running through the rain. In the morning, a mass was held, followed by brunch and the dedication of a bench in her honor. 

Vetrano graduated from Archbishop Molloy High School in 2004. The school said money raised would establish the Karina Vetrano Memorial Scholarship Fund, "which will provide scholarships for deserving young women who are entering Molloy in her memory."

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.

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