The body of 30-year-old Karina Vetrano was found six months ago Thursday in a marshy park in Queens. The avid runner had been beaten, strangled and sexually assaulted, and though authorities have culled DNA from three investigative points, state and local databases have yet to yield a match.  

No arrests have been made in the case, which has become one of the city's highest-profile unsolved murders in recent years. On Thursday, Vetrano’s family plans to rally at the site where the young woman entered the park Aug. 2; they want officials to allow the use of familial DNA evidence to find her killer.

Familial DNA searching is currently not allowed in New York. The Vetrano family has been campaigning for months to have investigators use the technique, which uses DNA found at the scene to look for the killer's relatives.

A GoFundMe page set up after Vetrano's death has raised nearly $290,000 toward the investigative effort, and in a post Thursday morning, Vetrano's father Phil asked supporters to come out in force for the rally.  

"I just want to remind everyone that today at 4 , exactly 6 months that Karina was murdered, we will have a press conference/ rally," wrote Phil Vetrano, who was among the search crews to find his daughter's body. He normally ran with her in the park but didn't go that fateful day because of an injury. "Those of u that can come please do. It at the exact spot that KArina went in . 83 st and 164 ave . Let's show support for DNA testing."

Prosecutors and police have also asked state forensics officials to allow the technique, saying that other investigative techniques have been exhausted.

Janine Kava, a spokeswoman for the state Commission on Forensic Science, said in December that state officials will continue working to provide law enforcement with "cutting-edge tools" to solve crimes "without compromising individual protections."