Police arrested a man in connection with the death of a jogger from Queens, New York, the NYPD announced Sunday.
Chanel Lewis, 20, of Brooklyn, was taken into custody Saturday for allegedly killing jogger Karina Vetrano, NBC New York reports.
“This is a very good day for justice in New York City,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said.
Lewis is facing murder and sexual assault charges and is expected to be arraigned Sunday afternoon or Monday.
He had no history of violent crimes, sources said.
Authorities believe Lewis seized Vetrano near an area where Howard Beach route she jogged connected to an East New York bicycle path that runs along the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn.
The discovery led authorities to Lewis’ home, where officials arrested him.
Vetrano, 30, vanished after she went for a jog through Spring Creek Park in Howard Beach.
Authorities say Vetrano was raped and strangled after she put up a fight.
Vetrano’s father found her body in the weeds about 15 feet off the path she jogged while helping police search for her.
Police linked the suspect to DNA found on Vetrano’s body, but couldn’t find a match back in August to a national or state DNA database, WPIX reports.
The NYPD’s Police Commissioner and Queens District Attorney, Richard Brown, requested that the state DNA lab do a test called “familial searching” that would look for male relatives of the unknown killer in the case. In this case, DNA testing was performed on the “Y” chromosome of the sample collected at the crime scene which can identify male relatives.
It was through this type of DNA testing that authorities found a match with Lewis.
Vetrano’s family put together a GoFundMe page to collect donations to be used as a reward as police searched for her killer, the New York Daily News reports.
The family raised more than $287,000 as of Saturday night.
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