After Female Jogger Deaths, NYC Women Are Rethinking Their Runs

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The recent murders of two women joggers a week apart in Howard Beach and Massachusetts has women in the NYC area rethinking their runs.

Karina Vetrano, 30, was strangled and possibly sexually assaulted earlier this month after she left for a run in the Spring Creek federal park land near the Belt Parkway, police said.

More: After Murders, Self-Defense Expert Has Advice For Women Who Jog

Vetrano's father, Philip, went into the woods and found her body, police said. He was helping officers search for his daughter after he became concerned when she didn't answer his calls.

Police found the body of Vanessa Marcotte Sunday night about a half-mile from her mother's home in the town of Princeton, Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. said Monday. She was reported missing Sunday after she didn't return home. 

Although eerily similar, police do not think the murders of Vetrano and Marcotte are related.

But for some runners, the incidents were alarming.

"The fear factor has increased quite a bit, understandably," Kathy Ioannou, local chapter leader of She Runs This Town, a nationwide women's running group, said.

Ioannou, of Brooklyn, said she tells her members to run smart, safe and to resist posting their runs on social media.

"It says we've just made it public that 'hey I'm leaving my house on such and such address' and 'this is where I'm going,'" Ioannou said.

The fear factor has risen at the worst possible time for women training for the New York City Marathon, WCBS 880's Marla Diamond reported.

"We are coordinating our long runs just so we can do this together and have the safety in numbers," Walesca Marmolejos, leader of women's running group Latinas in Motion, said.

More than $166,000 has been raised for a reward for information leading to an arrest in Vetrano's death. For more information, and how to donate, click here.

Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782), visit www.nypdcrimestoppers.com or text tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577.