Authorities announced on Saturday that a man wanted in El Salvador for the death of a young woman was apprehended in connection with the murder of a hiker in Maryland last year.
About 11:30 p.m., the 23-year-old suspect, Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, was taken into custody in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Sheriff Jeff Gahler of Harford County, Maryland, stated on Friday at a press conference.
The day after Rachel Morin’s boyfriend reported her missing, on August 6, 2023, her body was found at Ma and Pa Trail in Bel Air, Maryland, according to the authorities. Prior to nightfall on August 5, the sheriff had suggested she might have been slain in the hour or two before.
The sheriff’s office released a statement on Saturday stating that they think Martinez-Hernandez “was hiding close to a path where Rachel was strolling when she attacked and killed Morin and ran away from Maryland.”
The 37-year-old mother of five, Morin, was killed, but the details of her death and whether a weapon was used are yet unknown. Gahler stated on Saturday that the suspect in the Morin attack is charged in Maryland with first-degree rape and first-degree murder.
According to Gahler, the suspect entered the country illegally in February 2023 while evading investigators in El Salvador who were looking for him in connection with the death of a young woman there. The suspect made a claim about a gang, but the sheriff did not name them.
During the press conference on Saturday, the sheriff attacked the federal government’s border security policies.
“Immigration policies that have failed have left American citizens unsafe,” stated Gahler.
He claimed that Morin was the second woman in the county to have been assassinated in recent years by an illegal immigrant from El Salvador with gang affiliations.
Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, has promised to “close” the border if elected, and he has charged that President Joe Biden has allowed a “open border” with Mexico that allows criminals from all over the world to enter the country.
Despite the fact that border expenditure has increased steadily since the 1990s, Biden last month took administrative action to “suspend the entry” of illegal immigrants in response to worries about migration.
According to Oklahoma jail records, the suspect was being held in Tulsa County without bond due to a “fugitive from justice” hold, as well as holds from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the state of Maryland.
If Martinez-Hernandez has hired legal representation, it was unclear. A request for comment was accepted by the public defender’s office in Bel Air, but no response was received from them right away in Tulsa.
Gahler expressed his concern that the Harford County case may be linked to other crimes.
“The detectives worry that we’ll come across another crime,” Gahler stated.
According to the sheriff, an arrest in the Maryland case was aided by a home invasion that occurred in March 2023 in south Los Angeles and resulted in the assault of a 9-year-old child.
A suspect who is not wearing a shirt is seen leaving the house in doorbell footage. More significantly, according to Gahler, genetic material discovered during the Morin murder inquiry matched DNA evidence recovered from the scene of the crime.
Familial DNA, or genetic material that may be linked to a limited number of relatives, is what led to the suspect, according to William J. DelBagno, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Baltimore office. As part of the inquiry, agents went to El Salvador, he added.
There were no details available regarding the El Salvador killing, which was reported to have occurred in January 2023. Gahler stated, “We had suspicions that Rachel wasn’t the initial casualty.”
The sheriff stated that on May 20, Morin’s birthday, investigators initially focused on Martinez-Hernandez.
The suspect’s arrest narrative was told in a few different ways.
The FBI got in touch with Tulsa Police Department officers “late last night” regarding the case, according to a statement from the sheriff’s office. “Based on evidence that the suspect was in the Tulsa area, they had been working on,” said the statement.
According to it, law enforcement “converged on a bar” then “saw the guy idly seated at the bar and took him into custody.”
During the press conference, Gahler stated that Tulsa police had discovered the suspect late on Friday and were unaware that he was wanted.
Martinez-Hernandez was detained by Tulsa business park officers on a trespassing charge. Upon checking his identification, the officers found Martinez-Hernandez was wanted, according to the sheriff.
“He was loitering at a retail establishment or business park” he stated, “and he was identified during that arrest and processing.”
A request for comment from the Tulsa Police Department was not immediately answered.
At the press conference, officials expressed confidence that Martinez-Hernandez would be extradited and convicted in Maryland before being considered for prosecution by authorities in El Salvador or California. Regarding the California case, no charges have been declared.
At the press conference on Saturday, Patricia “Patty” Morin, the mother of Morin, gave a speech in which she thanked the news media for “keeping the story alive” and the investigators for solving a challenging case.
“At one point when things seemed really bleak and hopeless,” she continued, “In the end, patience will prevail, the lead detective told me.”