Alleged El Salvador gang member charged in rape, killing of Maryland mom Rachel Morin crossed the border illegally at least three times in two months — before eluding agents on 4th try
The suspected Salvadoran gang member accused of raping and killing a Maryland mom illegally snuck into the US three times in two months and was booted — before apparently eluding agents on his fourth try.
Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, 23, first illegally crossed the southern border near El Paso, Texas, in January 2023, a second time that same month in New Mexico and then again in New Mexico in February 2023, Department of Homeland Security sources told The Post on Monday.
After each of the three illegal US crossings, he was nabbed by border agents and kicked out of the country, according to scant records in his case.
There is no information on any potential immigration-court case involving the suspected double-murderer seeking asylum in the US.
DHS sources believe that Martinez-Hernandez may have gotten kicked back to Mexico with each crossing — and then got over the border again a fourth time as a “gotaway” who evaded capture to stay in the US.
Neither Immigration and Customs Enforcement nor DHS responded to The Post’s requests for comment Monday to clarify how Martinez-Hernandez was able to stay in the US, where he is accused of then committing heinous crimes including murdering 37-year-old mom-of-five Rachel Morin.
Martinez-Hernandez had allegedly killed another woman in El Salvador days before he first illegally entered the US. It’s not clear when he was linked to that case.
After finally evading US border patrol and escaping into America, he was here for no more than a few weeks before he allegedly launched a brutal home invasion and assault against a 9-year-old girl and her mom in Los Angeles.
He was not caught, and about five months after that, allegedly killed Morin — a fitness buff with a cleaning business — in August 2023 while she was walking alone on the Ma & Pa Heritage Trail in Bel Air.
The mom’s naked body was found with signs of severe trauma, with her family saying it appeared “her head had been smashed in with a rock.”
The Morin family’s lawyer, Randolph Rice, told The Post on Monday that while her relatives do not want to make her death political, he believes the tragedy came down partly to President Biden not being able to stop “the flow of illegal immigrants.’’
The Democratic president’s disastrous open-border policies have sparked immense backlash across the country and even political party lines.
The all-time record for US border encounters was set under Biden’s administration in fiscal year 2023, when more than 3.2 million people were stopped trying to cross into the country.
Soon after Morin’s murder, cops were able to match the still-unidentified suspected killer’s DNA to a sample recovered from a water bottle and a hat left behind at the home invasion. Surveillance footage of the suspect from the home invasion was then released to the public.
A sketch of the home-invasion and slay suspect was released this past February, but it took cops three more months, till May, before they finally ID’d the accused gang member as the man wanted in both crimes.
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Martinez-Hernandez was eventually tracked down to Tulsa, Okla., two weeks ago — and arrested “casually sitting” at a bar just before midnight Friday.
Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler emphasized during a press conference Saturday that Martinez-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,” he said.
But Morin’s family has its doubts that the suspected murderer does not have more slay victims out there.
Her sister Rebekah Morin, 43, told The Post on Monday that the family is worried Martinez-Hernandez could be a serial killer.
“Something we’ve been concerned about is that there are other victims out there … whether they were attacked and it ended the same way as my sister, or maybe there are some out there who are still alive but never came forward,” Rebekah said. “Hopefully now they do come forward.”
The family’s lawyer, Randolph Rice, added, “Using the law of probability where you murder someone in El Salvador in January, you go to California in March and commit assault on a mother and daughter, then there’s a gap from March to August when he rapes and murders Rachel, followed by another 10 month gap until he’s arrested … it’s hard to think he hasn’t committed another crime in those periods or gaps of time.’’
Sheriff Gahler noted that Morin’s death involved “the second woman in our county to be killed by illegal suspects.’’
Authorities told The Post that the other victim who Gahler was referring to was Kayla Hamilton, an autistic 20-year-old killed in her family’s trailer in Aberdeen, Md., allegedly by a 17-year-old MS-13 gang member from El Salvador.
“In both cases, they are suspects from El Salvador with ties to criminal gangs,” the sheriff said of the women’s suspected killers. “[This] should not be happening.”’Her sister Rebekah Morin, 43, told The Post on Monday that the family is worried Martinez-Hernandez could be a serial killer.
“Something we’ve been concerned about is that there are other victims out there … whether they were attacked and it ended the same way as my sister, or maybe there are some out there who are still alive but never came forward,” Rebekah said. “Hopefully now they do come forward.”
The family’s lawyer, Randolph Rice, added, “Using the law of probability where you murder someone in El Salvador in January, you go to California in March and commit assault on a mother and daughter, then there’s a gap from March to August when he rapes and murders Rachel, followed by another 10 month gap until he’s arrested … it’s hard to think he hasn’t committed another crime in those periods or gaps of time.’’
Sheriff Gahler noted that Morin’s death involved “the second woman in our county to be killed by illegal suspects.’’
Authorities told The Post that the other victim who Gahler was referring to was Kayla Hamilton, an autistic 20-year-old killed in her family’s trailer in Aberdeen, Md., allegedly by a 17-year-old MS-13 gang member from El Salvador.
“In both cases, they are suspects from El Salvador with ties to criminal gangs,” the sheriff said of the women’s suspected killers. “[This] should not be happening.”
