Clue Uncovered On Rachel Morin's Birthday Led To Suspect, Arrest

BEL AIR, MD — During an emotionally charged news conference Saturday afternoon, the public learned more about the man who was arrested Friday night in Oklahoma and charged in the rape and death of Bel Air mom Rachel Morin.

Morin, 37, whose body was found along the Ma and Pa Trail in Bel Air in 2023, was a mother of five. She frequently jogged the trail near where she was found raped and beaten to death. The suspect in her death, identified by police as Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, 23, of El Salvador, has been charged with first-degree rape and first-degree murder in Morin's death.

He has also been linked by DNA to a home invasion and sexual assault in southern California.

"At one point, when things seemed really bleak and hopeless, the lead detective said to me, 'Patience will win in the end,'" Patty Morin's mom said during the news conference. "That's what they've been doing, they've been diligently working hard through all the leads and it's because of that that we have an arrest today."

• Related: Murder Charge Filed In MD Mom Rachel Morin's Death

Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler said his team and their partners have spent the past 10 months searching for Morin's killer.

On what would have been Rachel Morin's 38th birthday, May 20 — in what Gahler called "poetic justice" or Morin's own "divine intervention" — investigators uncovered a lead that led to the suspect's arrest.

"Rachel's murderer is no longer a free man. Hopefully, he will never have the opportunity to walk free again. The lead we received related to DNA evidence that allowed investigators to put a name to the image of the suspect in the video from the Los Angeles attack that was released after Rachel's death. We knew what he looked like, but didn't know who he was. With that new DNA evidence, we then knew who he was, but not where he was at," Gahler said.

During the past two weeks, investigators tracked the suspect from Prince George's County, Maryland, to Oklahoma, where late Friday night, he was arrested for trespassing at a business in Tulsa.

Who is Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez?

According to Gahler, Martinez-Hernandez is a citizen of El Salvador who illegally entered the United States in February 2023. Gahler said an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer had been filed on the suspect because he's in the country illegally.

"He worked odd jobs and didn't live an expensive lifestyle. It's a free country, so once you're here, you move from one jurisdiction to the next. He went from El Salvador to the U.S., Los Angeles to Harford County, then Prince George's County, Virginia, then Oklahoma. We aren't sure where else he's been. We certainly know he has connections in D.C. and Prince George's. We believe he has ties to known gangs and that's how he lived his life."

Why did he flee El Salvador?

Gahler said officials have learned that Morin apparently wasn't the suspect's first victim.

"It's my understanding that this suspect, this monster, fled to the U.S. after committing the brutal murder of a young woman in El Salvador one month prior in July 2023," Gahler said. "He also attacked the 9-year-old girl and her mother in Los Angeles in March 2023. This is the second time in two years that an innocent Harford County woman has lost her life to a criminal who's in the country illegally. The second woman to be killed by an illegal alien. Both suspects in both cases were from El Salvador with ties to criminal gangs. Victor Martinez-Hernandez didn't come here to make a better life for himself, but to escape the crime in El Salvador."

Gahler added that Martinez-Hernandez will not be deported before answering to the charges filed in Harford County.

"That's the last place he wants to go. Our jails are better here than they are in El Salvador. He's going to spend, God willing, the rest of his days behind bars," Gahler said. "We fear all the time that we're going to stumble across another crime through DNA or other science that he's committed.

"I never want him to leave Maryland again ... we want to make sure he never sees the light of day," Gahler said.

How did officials identify the suspect?

Thanks to what's called investigative genetic genealogy, officials used crime scene DNA to trace that DNA to potential family members of the suspect, since there wasn't any hits in the federal CODIS database linking the crime directly to the suspect. In fact, FBI agents traveled to El Salvador in their hunt for Morin's killer.

"They never gave up and followed every piece of information," said William J. DelBagno, special agent in charge of the FBI's Baltimore Field Office.

"Investigative genetic genealogy has gotten a lot of attention lately from the Golden State Killer and other investigators on the cold case side, although we prioritize current cases. It's a game-changing investigative tool that we use when there are no other leads. We apply investigative genealogy and link DNA to family members. That allows our investigators to conduct more interviews and better understand who the potential suspects are," DelBagno added. "Unfortunately, on the victim's side, we can build out cases when we can't identify a victim through other means. We've seen 130 cases since 2018 that have successfully used this tool."

Will the suspect be prosecuted in Harford County?

Alison Healy, state's attorney for Harford County, spoke at the news conference and said she will be prosecuting the case.

"While the defendant is innocent until proven guilty, Harford County can rest assured that justice will be served for Rachel Morin and her family. I've already coordinated the extradition of the defendant to Harford County and once he's here, prosecution will commence."

Did he work alone in Morin's death?

Gahler said there's no reason to believe that the suspect had help in Morin's death. He said the suspect is believed to have spent time in Bel Air and observed her daily routine, including when she went jogging alone on the trail.

"That's one thing we caution people, particularly women, is don't develop a routine where it's predicted you will be," Gahler said. "If he (the suspect) decides to talk in the days ahead, we may learn more. And we have investigators in Tulsa right now following up on many things as the investigation continues."

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