Police in Michigan, New York, and Massachusetts are investigating three deaths of female runners over the course of nine days, all of which have garnered national media coverage and the attention of fellow runners on social media. None of the cases have been solved, though officials have said they believe the killings are unrelated.
As reported by The Detroit News, 31-year-old Alexandra Nicolette Brueger was shot four times in the back at around 2:30 p.m. on July 30 while running on a dirt road in Rose Township, 50 miles northwest of Detroit.
Michigan State Police released a statement saying they are looking for a light colored sedan that allegedly sped along the same road where Brueger was shot.
An obituary for Brueger published in The Oakland Press said the shooting occurred during her daily 10-mile run. The piece also said she was a nurse, pursuing her masters degree in creative writing.
“Ally was our beloved, only child. She was kind, thoughtful, considerate. She had a witty sense of humor, but she was also a very serious-minded individual,” the obituary said.
Three days later, on August 2 at about 5 p.m. in Queens, New York, 30-year-old Karina Vetrano was raped and killed on a trail in Spring Creek Park. According to the New York Daily News, police have recovered DNA from the scene but have yet to identify a suspect.
At Vetrano’s funeral, her mother, Cathy, said, “My daughter is a force to be reckoned with,” the Daily News reported.
The latest incident occurred on Sunday, August 7, when the body of 27-year-old Vanessa Marcotte was recovered in the woods near Princeton, Massachusetts, after she went missing during an afternoon run. Marcotte, who lived in New York City where she worked for Google, was visiting her parents for the weekend, according to the Boston Globe. As with the other two cases, police are still looking for a suspect.
“I want my daughter remembered as a great kid,” Marcotte’s father, John, told the Boston Globe. “She’s the best kid in the world.”
Editor's note: A previous version of this story stated Marcotte left for an evening run. The Boston Globe reports she left to run at around 1 p.m.
Kit has been a health, fitness, and running journalist for the past five years. His work has taken him across the country, from Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, to cover the 2016 Olympic Trials to the top of Mt. Katahdin in Maine to cover Scott Jurek’s record-breaking Appalachian Trail thru-hike in 2015.
