An arrest has been made nearly a year after Rachel Morin was found dead near a Harford County trail, authorities said on Saturday.
Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler announced that an El Salvador resident who came to the country illegally has been arrested in Tulsa, Oklahoma in connection to the August 2023 killing of the mother of five on the Ma and Pa Trail in Bel Air.
Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, 23, was taken into custody following an exhaustive investigation into Morin’s death.
Harford County Sheriff
Gahler said that DNA evidence was key in linking Martinez-Hernandez to the murder.
“Three weeks ago, on May 20, which should have been Rachel’s 38th birthday, investigators uncovered a lead, and we’re here today to tell you Rachel’s murderer is no longer a free man,” Gahler said. “Hopefully he will never have the opportunity to walk free again.”
According to Gahler, Martinez-Hernandez fled from El Salvador after committing a murder and entered to the United States illegally. He is also accused of assaulting a young girl and her mother.
“We knew what he looked like (from a video shared in Los Angeles), but we didn’t know who he was,” the sheriff said. “But new DNA evidence let us track him from Prince George’s to Tulsa.
“We knew this killer could have been laying his head in any community in the country, or world, and that was indeed completely accurate.”
Gahler used the announcement to call out the White House and Congress to tighten up their immigration laws.
“I want to direct these comments to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and both branches of Congress,” the sheriff pleaded. “We are 1,800 miles from the border here in Harford County, and American citizens are not safe because of failed immigration policies.
“This is the second woman in our county to be killed by an illegal alien,” Gahler continued. “Both were from El Salvador, and both had ties to criminal organizations.”
Martinez-Hernandez was arrested late on Friday night and charged with first-degree murder and first-degree rape on June 15. Once he is extradited from Oklahoma back to Maryland, prosecution will begin, according to the Harford County State’s Attorney.
“He did not come here to make a better life for himself or his family,” Gahler said. “He came here to escape a crime he committed in El Salvador and killed Rachel and god willing, nobody else.”
