Three days after the vicious stabbing of Brooklyn jogger Katie Suarez, cops still have no witnesses and no helpful video evidence as they press their search for the mystery attacker.
Investigators believe Suarez, 28, was likely the victim of a random attack when she was stabbed in the neck on a bike trail along the Shore Parkway Greenway promenade off the Belt Parkway near Canton Ave. about 8:15 p.m. Friday. She is currently on a respirator in critical condition.
The NYPD on Monday asked anyone who drove by the area around the time of the attack to send dashcam videos to the Crime Stoppers hotline in hopes that investigators will spot something.
“We’re looking for anything.” said NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny. “We’re looking for Teslas, we’re looking for Uber drivers, anybody that had a dashcam. Just for the possibility that this perpetrator may have ran across the Belt Parkway to escape.”
“In that 20 minute time period that we think that this attack could have taken place, over 1,700 cars drove by,” he added. “Unfortunately, where the attack took place, the view is obstructed from the highway because of the construction that’s going on there. But we still believe that somebody saw something. There is a lot of people walking, jogging, fishing. It is a well- traveled area.”
So desperate are detectives to catch a lead, they have even blown the dust off a case with similar circumstances.
More than a decade ago, Howard Beach jogger Karina Vetrano’s body was found in Spring Creek Park in Queens after she failed to return from a run.
The 30-year-old St. John’s University graduate was severely beaten, face-down in 8-foot reeds, with a front tooth knocked out, her pants pulled down and her socks wet, officials said. Like Suarez, she was discovered by her dad.
The case went cold for six months until a detective recalled calling police about a Black man who was roaming in the Howard Beach neighborhood three months before Vetrano’s death, according to trial testimony. The man was later identified as then-20-year-old Chanel Lewis, who was later convicted of murder and sexual assault.
Jeff Bachner for New York Daily News
Police investigate the scene in Howard Beach in August 2016 near where Karina Vetrano was murdered. (Jeff Bachner for New York Daily News)
“It’s very eerily similar to the Howard Beach jogger case,” Kenny said of the attack on Suarez. ”It’s not too far from where it was. I ran that case as well. I actually went back and read that case … to see if there’s anything that jogs my memory that might assist in this. Just basically using it as a blueprint of what we did last time.”
Kenny said the latest attack was so violent that the weapon used went through Suarez’s neck, hit a vein and entered her oral cavity.
“Arterial spurting was taking place where the attack happens,” Kenny said. “Katie is strong enough. She’s able to run about 150 feet eastbound on the path, where she finally collapses underneath a tree.”
Katie Suarez. (Facebook)
Suarez works at the TD Bank on Shore Parkway in Bath Beach. She typically met up with her parents at the Wendy’s next to her job after getting off work, handing her work uniform to her mother and going for a run.
“They’re a very close family,” Kenny said. “They do everything together.”
On Friday, her father met her mother at the shopping plaza and were waiting for Suarez to finish her run to drive her to their home in Gravesend.
“The father calls her and she gives an ETA: ‘I’m about a half a mile away. I should be there pretty soon,’” Kenny said. “She is an avid runner. She’s very fit. And after a period of time, the father begins to get worried because he knows she should be meeting them. The father then begins to walk the path and unfortunately, he finds her underneath a tree, bleeding heavily from the neck.”
Suarez remains on life support at NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn.
“From all indications this is a person who is very family-oriented, very work-oriented, was a productive, beautiful member of society,” Kenny said. “Unfortunately, this horrific event happened to her. Right now, it seems that it’s random. Nobody else would have known that she was running there at that particular time.”
A TD Bank spokeswoman said the company is “actively cooperating with law enforcement to support the investigation.”
“Our thoughts are with our colleague, her family and all those affected,” she added.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. A $10,000 reward is being offered for information that leads to an arrest and conviction.
With Rebecca White