The brutal strangulation death of Karina Vetrano in the Howard Beach neighborhood of Queens New York in August 2016 seemed like a slam-dunk, easy-to-solve crime at first blush. The 30 year-old beauty had been killed while jogging in the late afternoon, her body dumped just a few yards off the running path in Spring Creek Park. But then things got not so slam-dunk. And fast. Police followed empty lead after empty lead. The touch-DNA found on the young victim's body could not be matched in any database - and the case went cold for six months. Then, through what can only be described as a complete fluke of a train-of-thought hunch by a police officer in a completely different jurisdiction, 20 year-old Chanel Lewis was arrested after a DNA swab matched that of the DNA found on Karina's body. Shortly thereafter, Lewis confessed to the murder in a videotaped police interview. Seems like cops were back running toward the hoop unchallenged again, right? Not so fast. In the following 14 months, right up to April 2018, the road to justice in this case ran into a bizarre series of courtroom mishaps, alleged jury misconduct and a mystery letter to the defense team that makes this case - though officially now "solved," one that the locals in Queens still wonder about. And it ain't over yet. Join Melissa as she conveys the twists and turns of this intriguing and tragic case.
The brutal strangulation death of Karina Vetrano in the Howard Beach neighborhood of Queens New York in August 2016 seemed like a slam-dunk, easy-to-solve crime at first blush. The 30 year-old beauty had been killed while jogging in the late afternoon, her body dumped just a few yards off the running path in Spring Creek Park. But then things got not so slam-dunk. And fast. Police followed empty lead after empty lead. The touch-DNA found on the young victim's body could not be matched in any database - and the case went cold for six months. Then, through what can only be described as a complete fluke of a train-of-thought hunch by a police officer in a completely different jurisdiction, 20 year-old Chanel Lewis was arrested after a DNA swab matched that of the DNA found on Karina's body. Shortly thereafter, Lewis confessed to the murder in a videotaped police interview. Seems like cops were back running toward the hoop unchallenged again, right? Not so fast. In the following 14 months, right up to April 2018, the road to justice in this case ran into a bizarre series of courtroom mishaps, alleged jury misconduct and a mystery letter to the defense team that makes this case - though officially now "solved," one that the locals in Queens still wonder about. And it ain't over yet. Join Melissa as she conveys the twists and turns of this intriguing and tragic case.
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