Everything to Know About the Rachel Morin Murder Investigation

Yahoo

01-04-2025

Originally appeared on E! Online
On Aug. 5, 2023, went out for an early-evening walk along a well-trafficked trail in Bel Air, Md., and never came home.
Ten months later, Victor Martinez-Hernandez was arrested for her murder—and the news that an undocumented El Salvadorean immigrant was allegedly responsible turned Morin's case into a political lightning rod.
Amid the defense's stated concerns that their client won't be able to get a fair trial, and after their request for a change of venue was denied, the trial is underway, with opening statements expected to begin April 4.
He "asserts his innocence and looks forward to his day in court," assistant public defenders Marcus Jenkins, Sawyer Hicks and Tara LeCompte told the Baltimore Banner before jury selection kicked off April 1. "There are many unanswered questions in this case and we are prepared to hold the State to its burden."
But rabid national interest aside, at the heart of the case was a 37-year-old mother of five whose family wants justice.More from E! Online
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'I'm tired from all of this, going through all of this really wears you down, physically and emotionally,' Matt McMahon, the father of Morin's eldest child, told Baltimore's Fox 45 News. Her then-boyfriend Richard Tobin and her 19- and -14-year-old daughters were due to testify, according to McMahon, who added, "I see this as an opportunity to stand up for Rachel, defend her, stand up for themselves. So for them, I feel that it's extremely healing to be part of the process."
Martinez-Hernandez, 24, is charged with first- and second-degree murder, first- and second-degree rape, a third-degree sex offense and kidnapping. He's facing a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole.
Here is how the investigation into Morin's death unfolded from the beginning:
A passerby called 911 shortly after 1 p.m. on Aug. 6, 2023, to report finding a woman's body off to the side of the Ma & Pa (as in Maryland and Pennsylvania) Trail, according to Harford County Sheriff Jeff Gahler, turning what had been an hours-long missing person search for Morin into a homicide investigation.
The 37-year-old mother of five was last seen at 6 p.m. on Aug. 5 and her boyfriend reported her missing at 11:23 p.m., Gahler said during an Aug. 6 news conference. Investigators found Morin's car parked in a lot at the trailhead, where the boyfriend indicated the vehicle would be, the sheriff continued, and his office issued a public notice that was shared more than 11,000 times.
"That's been a good side of social media," Gahler noted. "The bad side is, there's also been a lot of false or early information shared that we don't want to see. We don't want to see false news out there."
But when it came to Morin's case, which he called a "very active criminal investigation," Gahler said, "If you think you have just the smallest tidbit of information, you saw something in this young lady's travels yesterday, to the trail, on the trail, investigators would like to talk to you."
At that time, the sheriff added, they had no suspects and he could not definitively say there was no further threat to the community.
"Right now," he said, "detectives continue to work the case as aggressively as they possibly can, and we will leave no stone unturned."
Characterizing the trail as a generally safe place that was important to their town, he advised those using it to stay vigilant and pay attention to their surroundings.
Yet they were sure that Morin was the victim of foul play, Gahler calling what happened to Morin a "violent homicide."
"It was more than obviously apparent to police officers and our detectives who came up that this was not an accidental injury— somebody out exercising who's fallen down and sustained a fatal injury," the sheriff told Fox News Digital. "This was not something that was self-inflicted...This was the action of one or more persons who took her life in a criminal homicide—an egregious, horrific act in what is very otherwise...a very, very safe area."
There were 10 detectives assigned to Morin's case, Gahler shared in an Aug. 10, 2023, video posted to the Harford County Sheriff's Facebook page. Along with forensic investigators and crime analysts, they were working "around the clock" to piece together "the hours, minutes and seconds" leading up to her death.
Gahler said some of the hundreds of tips that came in had been "promising and tremendous in advancing the investigation and bringing us closer to getting the answers that we need, the answers that Rachel's family needs and the answers that this community needs."
And since many people had asked, the sheriff said, his reply was yes, they had interviewed Rachel's boyfriend, "along with many other people who are close to Rachel. That is the way an investigation is conducted. We start with people in her close inner circle" and go from there.
"Together," Gahler concluded, "we will solve this crime and find this heinous coward who took Rachel Morin from her family and friends."
Authorities encouraged anyone with information to come forward, though they also reminded people to be prudent when it came to discussing the case publicly, particularly online.
"If people are putting false information out there or guesses out there, coming up with their own theories of what happened and people are running with that, that can distract our investigation," Harford Sheriff's Col. William Davis told NBC affiliate WBAL on Aug. 11, 2023. "Because if people have leads, we're going to follow up on those leads, and we want our detectives focused on things that are actual facts and not things that are made up by other people."
Also on Aug. 11, the sheriff's office shared that detectives had identified and contacted five people who were walking their dogs on the trail between 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. the night Morin was headed to the trail and may have been among the last to see her alive.
Authorities encouraged anyone with information to come forward, though they also reminded people to be prudent when it came to discussing the case publicly, particularly online.
"If people are putting false information out there or guesses out there, coming up with their own theories of what happened and people are running with that, that can distract our investigation," Harford Sheriff's Col. William Davis told NBC affiliate WBAL on Aug. 11, 2023. "Because if people have leads, we're going to follow up on those leads, and we want our detectives focused on things that are actual facts and not things that are made up by other people."
Also on Aug. 11, the sheriff's office shared that detectives had identified and contacted five people who were walking their dogs on the trail between 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. the night Morin was headed to the trail and may have been among the last to see her alive.
In the meantime, authorities increased patrols along the Ma & Pa Trail, Sheriff Gahler telling WBAL, "Not knowing whether this was a targeted event specific to Rachel, we are going to say...be aware, be thinking there could be somebody out here and this is a random event."
County officials also acknowledged the clamor for cameras to be installed along the trail, a portion of which goes through a tunnel. "It's unfortunate that it takes a tragedy for us to recognize our vulnerabilities and address those," Harford County Executive Bob Cassilly told WBAL on Aug. 15.
"I want the trail to be used," he said. "I want it to remain the wonderful asset that it is for our community, and recognize in order to maintain that wonderful asset. We're going to have to put the money into putting the cameras there and maintaining an appropriate level of safety."
In the meantime, authorities increased patrols along the Ma & Pa Trail, Sheriff Gahler telling WBAL, "Not knowing whether this was a targeted event specific to Rachel, we are going to say...be aware, be thinking there could be somebody out here and this is a random event."
County officials also acknowledged the clamor for cameras to be installed along the trail, a portion of which goes through a tunnel. "It's unfortunate that it takes a tragedy for us to recognize our vulnerabilities and address those," Harford County Executive Bob Cassilly told WBAL on Aug. 15.
"I want the trail to be used," he said. "I want it to remain the wonderful asset that it is for our community, and recognize in order to maintain that wonderful asset. We're going to have to put the money into putting the cameras there and maintaining an appropriate level of safety."
The person responsible for Rachel's death "could be someone who came to learn that routine and knew where she might be at that time, or it could be a random person," Gahler told Fox News Digital on Aug. 8, noting that the victim led an active lifestyle and "it wasn't unusual for her to be out."
On Aug. 17, Col. Davis told reporters that DNA found at the Morin crime scene had been analyzed by Maryland State Police and entered into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), where it matched evidence collected from a March home invasion in Los Angeles, during which a young girl was assaulted.
They had not yet identified the suspect, Davis said at a news conference, but they believed the figure seen on doorbell cam footage obtained by the LAPD from the house where the alleged assault occurred is their guy. So far, he explained, the DNA hadn't shown up in any other law enforcement database (from a prior arrest, etc.) and they were working with experts from the FBI crime lab to further analyze the sample.
The doorbell footage, which is posted on the Harford County Sheriff's social media accounts, shows a man wearing pants but no shirt (he appears to be carrying a piece of clothing) leaving through the front door of the house. From their analysis of the video and witness observations, Davis said, they were looking for a male of Hispanic descent in his early-to-mid-20s, height approximately 5-foot-9 and weighing about 160 pounds.
"We know nothing about him," Davis said, "other than he was in L.A. and committed that crime in March, and was here in August, and we believe him to be the murderer of Rachel Morin."
"This was not an accidentally [sic] death, and she did not go willingly, and she deserves a funeral worthy of her beauty," sister Rebekah Morin wrote on a GoFundMe page she set up for funeral expenses and Rachel's kids, which ultimately raised more than $56,000. "If there are any remaining funds, they will go towards things her five children may need."
The family also planned a memorial walk on the Ma & Pa Trail for the morning of Aug. 19 "so we can grieve the tragic loss of a woman who was so full of life," Rebekah wrote on Facebook. "Please join us as we pray and mourn for our beloved Rachel."
On June 15, 2024, Martinez-Hernandez was arrested at a bar in Tulsa, Okla., and taken into custody, where he has remained since.
"So far, we have learned that the suspect, now pictured on the screens, is a 23-year-old citizen of El Salvador who illegally crossed the border into the United States in February of 2023" after committing another murder, Gahler said at a press conference. And once he was in the U.S. "and likely emboldened by his anonymity," the sheriff continued, "he brutally attacked a 9-year-old girl and her mother during a home invasion in March of 2023 in Los Angeles."
It turned out his DNA was linked to the samples taken from the L.A. and Maryland crime scenes, according to FBI special agent Bill DelBagno, head of the agency's Baltimore Field Office.
"Our investigative genetic genealogy team in Baltimore worked countless hours to identify the suspect by using crime scene DNA and tracing that DNA to potential family members," DelBagno told reporters. "Investigators even traveled to El Salvador as part of their efforts to identify this killer."
Suffice it to say, Morin's family had been following the investigation extremely closely and continued to do so once an arrest was made.
"To see him on TV when we had the bail review hearing across the street is so different when you have him in the room," Morin family attorney Randolph Rice told CBS Baltimore after an October hearing during which the trial was postponed from December until April. "His hands are shackled, his feet are shackled, he's wearing the striped black and white jumpsuit. To be in the same room with the man who is alleged to have killed your daughter, it's just a very emotional day."
As for the defense's request to delay the proceedings, Rice said, "You're looking at 10 months of evidence. The state has had this since the day Rachel was found and they've been collecting evidence. The defense is three months and three days, four days into this so they've got a lot of catch-up to do."
"This was not an accidentally [sic] death, and she did not go willingly, and she deserves a funeral worthy of her beauty," sister Rebekah Morin wrote on a GoFundMe page she set up for funeral expenses and Rachel's kids, which ultimately raised more than $56,000. "If there are any remaining funds, they will go towards things her five children may need."
The family also planned a memorial walk on the Ma & Pa Trail for the morning of Aug. 19 "so we can grieve the tragic loss of a woman who was so full of life," Rebekah wrote on Facebook. "Please join us as we pray and mourn for our beloved Rachel."
Mom Patty Morin wrote on Facebook, per CBS News Baltimore, "If you have experienced the loss of a dear loved one, then you know how hard it can be to express the pain that you feel in your heart. When it's sudden and tragic, your mind looks for ways to cope. As a mom, I appreciate the outpouring of love and support from family, friends, and the worldwide community that grieves with me for my young daughter. Thank you for caring. Truly."
A celebration of life was held Aug. 27 at Greater Grace Church of Baltimore.
"Rachel just didn't deserve this," McMahon, the father of Morin's eldest child (who, he said, was expecting her first child), told CBS Baltimore in October after the postponement hearing. "We shouldn't have to be here. But at the end of the day, it's a good day because this is a day for justice for Rachel."
As the trial grew closer, he invited anyone attending to support Morin's family to wear pink and green, the favorite colors of her teen daughters who will be testifying.
(Originally published Aug. 19, 2023, at 5 a.m. PT)