A suspect in the killing of Bel Air mother Rachel Morin is in custody in Tulsa, Oklahoma, pending extradition to Maryland, Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler said at a news conference Saturday.
“Rachel’s murderer is no longer a free man and, hopefully, he will never have the opportunity to walk free again,” Gahler said.
Tulsa Police and federal authorities found Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, 23, on Friday night and took him into custody for allegedly trespassing, Gahler said. The El Salvador native is being held without bond at a Tulsa County jail, accused of being a fugitive from justice, along with a hold from Maryland to face charges in Morin’s homicide and a detainer from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Martinez-Hernandez is charged with first-degree murder and first-degree rape in Morin’s death.
Gahler said investigators believe Martinez-Hernandez illegally entered the United States in February of last year.
“To 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and to every member of both chambers of Congress: We are 1,800 miles away from the southern border here in Harford County and the American citizens are not safe because of failed immigration policy,” the sheriff said.
Through collaboration with FBI personnel working in El Salvador, investigators discovered Martinez-Hernandez allegedly murdered a young woman in El Salvador in January 2023 — one month before entering the United States.
The homicide in El Salvador, and what investigators said was Martinez-Hernandez’s connection to Salvadoran street gangs, led to an Interpol “Red Notice” — an international request for law enforcement to locate and detain an individual — being issued.
“Victor Hernandez did not come here to make a better life for himself or for his family. He came here to escape with crimes committed in El Salvador,” Gahler said. “He came here and murdered Rachel and, God willing, no one else. But that should have never been allowed to happen.”
Police said they were able to identify Martinez-Hernandez in part because of DNA evidence recovered from the scene of Morin’s death on the Ma & Pa Heritage Trail in Bel Air. That’s where her body was discovered in August.
Morin’s boyfriend reported the 37-year-old mother of five missing Aug. 5 when she did not return home from a walk. Morin’s body was found the following day.
Her death quickly drew national attention as detectives worked to identify a possible suspect and motive. Gahler urged residents to “be cautious” following Morin’s death. Canvassing efforts, information fliers and events to support Morin’s family were held. A reward reached $35,000 in February.
Less than a month after Morin’s death, authorities matched the DNA they recovered in Harford to DNA from a March 2023 crime scene in Los Angeles, where a 9-year-old girl and her mother were attacked during what Gahler described Saturday as a home invasion. Gahler said Los Angeles Police want Martinez-Hernandez for residential burglary and assault in that case.
While the genetic material tied the two scenes together, and the Los Angeles evidence included security footage of a suspect, detectives still did not know the person’s identity. Gahler said that on May 20 — Morin’s birthday — investigators uncovered a lead that identified Martinez-Hernandez as the suspect.
FBI Special Agent in Charge William DelBagno of the Baltimore field office said DNA was used to trace potential relatives of Martinez-Hernandez in El Salvador. That helped identify and find him.
Martinez-Hernandez worked odd jobs and lived a “cheap life” that allowed him to drift from El Salvador to Los Angeles, as well as Bel Air in Harford County, Prince George’s County near Washington, to Virginia, and ultimately to Tulsa, Gahler said. Martinez-Hernandez is believed to have ties to street gangs and connections in the Washington area, Gahler said.
Morin’s mother, Patricia Morin, showed visible emotion during Saturday’s news conference. She stated that at some points of the investigation, she grew hopeless. But the lead detective on the case encouraged her to stay patient because “in the end, patience wins.”
When community members rallied together for a canvass in December, Patricia Morin said the amount of people who showed up to give support gave her hope.
“At some of the points during this, I didn’t think that we were ever going to have an answer and that it would be a cold case,” Morin said. “It gave me hope that people really did care about our family and my daughter.”
An attorney representing Morin’s family, Randolph Rice, said her relatives, the family’s lawyers and the Harford County community are “incredibly relieved” an arrest was made and the suspect is no longer at large. He called it a “good day for the good guys.”
“A lot of mixed emotions,” Rice said. “They still lost Rachel, and she’s still not coming back.”
Having an arrest in the case is an ending to the search, but just the beginning of a legal process, he said.
“This is going to be a long, long road of hearings and appearances and motions,” Rice said.
The process for extradition from Tulsa to Harford County has begun, according to State’s Attorney Alison Healy, and could take from 10 to 60 days. Healy said she will personally lead the prosecution.
“I never want him to leave Maryland again,” Gahler said. “I want him to die in the Maryland prison system.”
Baltimore Sun reporter Dana Munro contributed to this article
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