A Young Runner Called Her Dad to Say She Was Only Half a Mile Away — What He Found Minutes Later Has the NYPD Searching 1,700 Cars

The bank closed at 6:30. Katie Suarez locked up the TD Bank branch at Caesar’s Bay in Bath Beach, Brooklyn, walked to the Wendy’s next door and met her mother there. Her father came too. She changed into her running clothes, told her mom to wait for her, and headed out onto the waterfront path.

It was a Friday night, Oct. 30. The 28-year-old was training for a marathon, and the Shore Parkway Greenway — a long ribbon of asphalt squeezed between the water and the roar of the Belt Parkway — was where she went to run.

At about 8 p.m., her father called to see where she was. She told him she was about half a mile away.

She never arrived. And four days later, the NYPD is still trying to answer a question that has shaken this corner of Brooklyn: who was waiting for her in the dark — and why?

“Mom, Stay Here and Wait for Me”

Her mother, Yasira Suarez, usually ran with her. Not that night.

“That day we had gone out … she told me, ‘Mom stay here and wait for me,’” she told CBS News New York. “I would always join her on her runs but that evening I stayed behind waiting for her.”

When ten minutes passed and Katie still hadn’t shown up, her parents went looking. Her mother ran the path in the dark, calling her daughter’s name.

“I think I may have passed by her but didn’t see her because it was dark,” Yasira Suarez said. “I told my husband, ‘I can’t find Katie.’ I even made it to the bridge, running, searching and yelling. It was in that moment that I knew something happened to her.”

Her husband took off running, phone in hand. Then her phone rang. “He said, ‘she’s here, I just found her,’” she told ABC7 New York. “I didn’t even respond, I just ran all the way back, it felt like miles, like I’d never get there.”

What Her Father Found Under a Tree

Around 8:15 p.m., near Shore Parkway and Bay 17th Street, right beside the eastbound lanes of the Belt Parkway, Katie’s father found her lying under a tree. She had been stabbed in the neck. She could not speak.

NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny has described a brutal attack. A puncture wound went through the left side of her neck, struck an artery and reached into her mouth, he told ABC News. A long trail of blood ran about 150 feet from where she was stabbed to where she finally collapsed — which means that, gravely wounded, she kept moving.

“It was a very, very large crime scene,” Kenny said.

Katie was rushed to NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn and placed on life support. Police released her photo — Katie in a race T-shirt and bib from a 5K in Prospect Park — and begged anyone who had seen her to come forward. On Monday night, her family said, she died.

Nothing Was Taken

Here is the detail that has investigators most baffled. Katie’s phone and jewelry were still with her, police said. Nothing appeared to have been taken, and there was no indication of sexual assault.

No robbery. No obvious motive. No suspect.

“We believe it to be some sort of random attack at this time,” Kenny told ABC News. “She was a very private person. For someone to know that she was going to be there at that exact time would be extraordinary for us to find out.”

Detectives have not even recovered the weapon; Kenny said they are still searching for a “cutting instrument.” And the stretch of path where she was attacked has a problem that makes everything harder: there are no cameras there, and a canvass of the neighborhood turned up no video, according to police.

1,700 Cars and a Fisherman Theory

So the NYPD has turned to the one thing that was watching that night: the highway.

A license plate reader on the Belt Parkway logged about 1,700 cars driving past the area at the time of the attack, Kenny said. Detectives are now tracking down those drivers one by one, hoping someone had a dashcam rolling. Police have put up digital billboards asking for footage, and have asked rideshare and app-based drivers in particular to check their recordings.

“We’re tracking all those cars down to see if anybody had dash cams or anything that might help us in that area there,” Kenny said. “We’re also deploying drones into the area.”

Divers have searched the water. K-9 teams have combed the ground. Investigators say they want to hear from anyone who saw her between 7:56 and 8:12 p.m. on the path between Bay 8th and Bay 17th streets — and from anyone who noticed anything unusual along the parkway, that night or in the weeks before.

Then there are the fishermen. The waterfront there is a popular fishing spot. “We’re looking for any interaction that she may have had alongside the pathway,” Kenny said. “There’s always fishermen out there. We’re interviewing them.”

The New York Post, citing law-enforcement sources, reported that detectives are even exploring whether someone fishing nearby could have used a bait knife. It is one theory among many in a case where police, by their own account, still have no suspect and no motive.

A Chilling Echo — and a Mother’s Plea

To many New Yorkers, the case is hauntingly familiar. In 2016, 30-year-old Karina Vetrano went for a run in Howard Beach, Queens, and was found dead by her own father in Spring Creek Park. Her killer was arrested months later and convicted, with DNA evidence playing a key role. A former NYPD detective told CBS News New York that DNA could help in Katie’s case, too.

Karina’s father, Phil Vetrano, has offered to help the Suarez family. “I am probably the only person who can honestly say I know what you’re going through,” he told NBC New York. “The more notoriety, the better chance you will have of solving it.”

Local leaders are now demanding cameras and lights along the path. “There’s no lights down here. We need cameras down here,” State Sen. Steve Chan said, according to CBS News New York.

A vigil is planned for Wednesday. A $10,000 reward is on the table. And Katie’s mother has a message for the person who did this.

“If you are watching, turn yourself in … please, turn yourself in,” Yasira Suarez said. “You took an angel.”

She also had one for everyone else: “Please, if someone saw something, speak up. She did not deserve this. She went out for a run ahead of an upcoming marathon.”

Katie was half a mile from her family. Somewhere among 1,700 cars, police hope, is the camera that saw the rest.

Anyone with information is asked to call NYPD Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), or 1-888-57-PISTA (74782) in Spanish.