A father who once found his own daughter’s body on a Queens running path is now telling another grieving father to turn his pain into a fight for justice.
Quick Take
- Phil Vetrano, father of murdered runner Karina Vetrano, spoke directly to the father of Katie Suarez, a Brooklyn jogger stabbed in the neck.
- Vetrano urged the Suarez family to demand public attention so the case does not get forgotten.
- Suarez, 28, was attacked on the Shore Parkway Greenway while training for the New York City Marathon.
- Police have not named a suspect or confirmed a motive as the investigation continues.
A Father’s Plea Reaches Across Nine Years of Grief
Phil Vetrano knows what it means to lose a daughter to violence on a jogging trail. In 2016, he found Karina Vetrano’s body on a running path in Queens after she went missing during an evening run. Nearly a decade later, he reached out to the father of Katie Suarez, a Brooklyn woman stabbed while jogging, offering words forged from his own unthinkable loss.
Vetrano told the New York Post he spoke with Suarez’s father directly and offered to talk further if needed. His message was blunt and urgent. “Do not stop it — make it your life mission,” he said, pushing the family toward action rather than silence.
What Vetrano Told the Grieving Family
Vetrano’s advice centered on public pressure, not just private mourning. “You gotta get public outcry,” he said. “You have to get people standing up, not forgetting about it, because once it gets swept under the rug, it’s just another little girl that gets killed”. His words reflect a hard lesson from his own family’s long pursuit of justice after Karina’s murder.
The comparison between the two cases is rooted in real, documented facts. Karina Vetrano was killed after going for a run. Suarez was attacked while jogging along Brooklyn’s waterfront. Both fathers searched for their daughters and found them in the worst possible condition, giving Vetrano’s outreach a weight that goes beyond generic sympathy.
The Attack That Shocked a Brooklyn Neighborhood
Suarez, 28, was stabbed in the neck near Bay 17th Street and Shore Parkway while out for an evening run. She had reportedly been training for the New York City Marathon and was planning to meet her parents for a run together when she was attacked. Her father searched for her after she failed to arrive and found her suffering from stab wounds.
Suarez was reported to be on life support following the attack, with early accounts describing her condition as critical. Police have released images and sought witnesses but have not announced an arrest, a suspect, or a confirmed motive, leaving the investigation active as detectives continue gathering information from the public.
A Pattern That Fits a Larger, Documented Problem
The fear driving Vetrano’s message is not isolated to two cases. A University of Manchester study of nearly 500 women runners found that 68 percent had experienced abuse or harassment while running, yet only 5 percent reported it to police. Researchers found that police records likely capture only a fraction of what women runners actually face, because so much of it gets normalized or dismissed.
That gap between lived experience and official reporting helps explain why Vetrano pushed so hard for public attention rather than quiet patience. When incidents go unreported or uninvestigated, families lose leverage to demand accountability. His message was not about proving a citywide crime wave. It was about making sure one woman’s attack does not disappear from public memory while police work the case.
Why This Moment Resonates Beyond One Family
Vetrano’s outreach matters because it comes from someone who lived through the exact nightmare now facing another family. His advice carries the authority of experience, not speculation. Whether or not the two attacks share any connection, his core message stands on its own: grief alone does not change outcomes, but sustained public pressure can keep investigators focused and communities aware.
For now, the Suarez family faces the same uncertainty every victim’s relatives confront in the early days after a violent attack. No suspect has been named. No motive has been confirmed. What they do have, according to Vetrano, is a choice about whether to let the case fade or to fight to keep it in front of the public until answers come.
Sources:
nypost.com, pix11.com, nydailynews.com, manchester.ac.uk
