'She Was My Life': Hundreds of Others Mourn Slain Jogger Karina Vetrano at Her Funeral

staff@people.com (Blake Bakkila)
Updated
Mom of Slain N.Y.C. Jogger Lashes Out at Her Killer, a 'Pathetic, Puny, Weak Piece of Filth'

Karina Vetrano, the 30-year-old jogger who was found sexually assaulted and strangled to death last week in New York City was laid to rest in Queens, New York, on Saturday, according to the New York Post.

"She was so full of life," her father Philip Vetrano said in a eulogy to the approximately 400 mourners. "She lived every day as if it were her last, getting every second of living in her every minute ... She did more in those short 30 years than 10 people do in a lifetime. We weren't just a father and daughter, we were like one and the same."

Vetrano's mother read a poem to the crowd that she had written to her daughter in 2003. When people applauded, she said, "Don't stand up and clap for me. Stand up and clap for Karina," the Post reported.

New York City's Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce told reporters that Vetrano typically ran with her father, but he decided to stay back when she went for a jog in Gateway National Park on Tuesday because he had back pain.

When she didn't return, her dad called the police just after 5 p.m., and they pinged her phone. It showed she was in the brush near the park's jogging path. Her dad was the first one to discover her body 15 feet from the jogging trail shortly before 11 p.m., Boyce said.

But Boyce said Vetrano fought "right to the end."

"This woman put up a ferocious fight to the end," he said, and a police source told PEOPLE that Vetrano bit her attacker so hard, her teeth cracked. The source also added that DNA has been recovered from Vetrano's bruised body.

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On Saturday, Philip praised his daughter and the impact had on his life.

"She was my life," he said. "And words cannot describe how much love I have for her and how much I am going to miss her."

Boyce said this was a random act and they do not believe the attacker knew Vetrano. A $10,000 reward is being offered for any information that could lead to the arrest of her killer.