A 47-year-old naked man was taken into custody late Tuesday night in the same park where jogger Karina Vetrano went missing, ranting that “the father” killed her, a police source said.
A Howard Beach resident first flagged down cops just after 10 p.m., telling them she thought she heard two voices inside Spring Creek Park, the source said.
One of them yelled help, she said.
But when police waded into the marshy park, they found Matthew Fox in his skivvies, “incoherent” and “extremely agitated,” the source said.
“The father did it,” he apparently yelled. “I have nothing to do with it.”
Police don’t believe Fox is connected to Vetrano’s death, whose body was found on Aug. 2 after she went for a run at about 5 p.m. But Fox hasn’t been officially ruled out yet, the source said.
Fox volunteered to give investigators a sample of his DNA as part of the homicide investigation, officials said.
Fox was taken to Jamaica Medical Center for a psychiatric evaluation.
The reward for information leading to Vetrano’s killer has topped more than $280,00 through a GoFundMe account her family set up, $200,000 of which will go toward the reward. The extra money raised will be donated, her family has said.
(With Newsday staff)
