She wasn’t being stalked or targeted. It was just that jogger Karina Vetrano was
a woman, and the man accused of killing her hated women.
Chanel Lewis was
filled with lethal rage when he grabbed Veteran as she went for a summer evening
run in Queens, according to authorities. He raped her and strangled the petite
runner, they said, and left her body in weeds.
And then he vanished for
six months.
Detectives had little to work with to find the man who
crossed Vetrano’s path. She scratched him and captured some of his DNA, but he
had no record so no match could be made. The randomness of the attack added to
the difficulty of solving the crime. It took months of searching the area and
records, a cop’s suspicions, to finally land Lewis.
She wasn’t being
stalked or targeted. It was just that jogger Karina Vetrano was a woman, and the
man accused of killing her hated women.
Chanel Lewis was filled with
lethal rage when he grabbed Vetrano as she went for a summer evening run in
Queens, according to authorities. He raped her and strangled the petite runner,
they said, and left her body in weeds.
And then he vanished for six
months.
Detectives had little to work with to find the man who crossed
Vetrano’s path. She scratched him and captured some of his DNA, but he had no
record so no match could be made. The randomness of the attack added to the
difficulty of solving the crime. It took months of searching the area and
records, a cop’s suspicions, to finally land Lewis.
“He gave a detailed
incriminating account of what happened — but he doesn’t really explain why it
happened. It was a very random thing. He just came up on her and acted out.
There wasn’t any conversation. It was a chance encounter. There was no reason to
believe he was stalking her. He just happened to come up on her. ”
Hours
after Lewis was arrested Saturday evening outside his home in East New york, a
profile began to emerge of one of the most wanted and unsuspecting men in the
city.