Illegal immigrant from El Savador charged with rape and murder of mother of five

An illegal immigrant from El Salvador has been arrested and charged with the rape and murder of a Maryland mother of five.

Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez was taken into custody on Friday after police officers found him in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The illegal immigrant was charged with killing Rachel Morin, who was found dead near a hiking trail in August 2023. Hartford County Sheriff Jeffery Gahler confirmed the arrest and said Martinez-Hernandez was charged with first-degree murder and rape.

“Five hours after meeting with (Morin’s) family and just before midnight our time, police in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with the assistance of our federal partners, located and arrested Rachel’s killer: Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez,” Gahler said.

Gahler believes Morin was not Martinez-Hernandez’s first victim.

The 23-year-old undocumented immigrant illegally crossed the US-Mexico border in February 2023. Gahler suspects that Martinez-Hernandez fled to the United States after killing a young woman in El Salvador in January 2023.

FBI agents said they even traveled to El Salvador to track down the suspected killer. pic.twitter.com/jb52TqhATY

— Maxine Streicher (@MaxineStreicher) June 15, 2024

“After being in our country, and likely emboldened by his convenience, he brutally attacked a nine-year-old girl and her mother during a burglary in Los Angeles in March 2023,” Gahler said, adding that law enforcement’s first DNA match to Martinez-Hernandez was from an attack he committed in March 2023.

In the LA case, investigators were able to link DNA samples from the crime scene in Harford County to surveillance video of the suspect in California – giving local and federal investigators the first images of Martinez-Hernandez.

An FBI special agent in Baltimore said they were able to trace the illegal immigrant’s DNA to possible family members in El Salvador and identify the suspect. Local law enforcement could locate and take him into custody in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

“I and everyone involved in this case hope that the arrest of the suspects brings some peace to her (Mornin’s) family and our community in Harford County,” Gahler said.