More than 10 months after Rachel Morin was found dead near a hiking trail in Maryland, law enforcement announced the arrest of an illegal immigrant believed to be the murder suspect of the mother of five.
Authorities in Maryland held a press conference on Saturday announcing that the suspect in Morin’s murder was Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez – an illegal migrant from El Salvador.
“Five hours after meeting with Rachel’s family and just before midnight, police in Tulsa, Oklahoma, assisted by our federal partners, located and arrested her murderer: Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez,” said Harford County Sheriff Jeffery Gahler.
Gahler noted that Morin was “likely not his first victim.”
“This suspect fled to the United States after murdering a young woman in El Salvador in January 2023,” Gahler said. “Once here, he brutally attacked a nine-year-old girl and her mother during a home invasion in Los Angeles in March 2023.”
DNA evidence collected from the March 2023 crime scene of the Los Angeles attack linked Martinez-Hernandez to the murder of Rachel Morin.
“Once in our country, and likely emboldened by his aminity, he brutally attacked a nine-year-old girl and her mother during a home invasion in March of 2023 in Los Angeles,” Gahler stated, according to Fox News. “And as everyone I believe is aware, that was our first DNA match linking Rachel’s case to the one in Los Angeles.”
Martinez-Hernandez – a 23-year-old national from El Salvador – reportedly illegally crossed into the United States through the southern border in February 2023.
FBI Baltimore field office special agent in charge William DelBagno explained that investigators were able to trace the suspect’s DNA to family members in El Salvador.
“American citizens are not safe because of failed immigration policies.”
Sheriff Gahler noted that the ongoing border crisis was a cause for the 37-year-old mother of five to be murdered.
“We are 1800 miles of the southern border. And American citizens are not safe because of their failed immigration policies,” Gahler stated.
“This is the second time in two years that an innocent Harford County woman has lost her life to a criminal in our country illegally,” he continued. “In both cases, they are suspects from El Salvador with ties to criminal gangs. This should not be happening.”
Gahler declared, “Victor Hernandez did not come to this country to make a better life for him or his family, he came here to escape the crimes he committed in El Salvador. He came here to murder Rachel and God-willing, no one else. But that should have never been allowed to happen.”
Gahler added, “It is my hope and the hope of all involved, working this case that the arrest of this suspect brings her [Mornin’s] family and our Harford County community some peace.”
DelBagno said, “It is our hope that this arrest brings peace to Rachel Morin’s family and the Harford County community.”
State’s Attorney for Harford County Alison Healey proclaimed that she would personally lead the prosecution for the case.
“Harford County and our neighboring communities can rest assured that my office will take all steps necessary to ensure that justice is served for Rachel Morin and her family,” Healey stated.
Rachel’s mother, Patricia Morin, said, “I’m going to make this short because I’m very emotional. just want to take this time to thank all the law enforcement for all their hard work. They just really cared for our family and for our daughter. They were going to diligently work and find the person who murdered her.”
Martinez-Hernandez was charged with first-degree murder and first-degree rape. He will be extradited back to Maryland.
As Blaze News previously reported, Morin was reported missing on Aug. 5 by her boyfriend when she never returned home after going out for a run on the Ma & Pa Trail in Bel Air, Maryland. A day later, Morin was found dead on the trail.
There were earlier reports that Morin had suffered serious head trauma, and the injuries were so severe that there would not be an open-casket funeral.
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