Rachel Morin’s alleged rapist and murderer arrested

Summary

In August 2023, Rachel Morin was murdered on the Ma and Pa Trail in Bel Air, a suburb of Baltimore, Maryland. The Ma and Pa Trail follows the path of the old Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad through Harford County, Maryland, and is known as a safe and frequently visited place to walk and run. Morin, a mother of five, went for a run on Saturday, August 5, 2023, and did not return home that evening. Morin was reported missing shortly before midnight on August 5. A search was launched the following day, and Morin’s body was found in a culvert off the trail. Officers determined that Morin, whose car was found in a nearby parking lot, had been raped and murdered. After Morin’s body was recovered, the Harford County Sheriff’s Office asked for the public’s help and requested information from anyone who may have seen Morin on or near the Williams Street trail or in the Ellendale Street parking lot between 5:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. on Saturday, August 5. Morin’s rape and murder attracted widespread attention across the country and the world and remained unsolved for ten months.

Evidence from the crime scene was collected and an STR profile was created for an unknown male subject and entered into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) database. Although there was no match to a known perpetrator in CODIS, the profile matched an unknown male perpetrator responsible for another unsolved crime in Los Angeles, California. The man responsible for Morin’s rape and murder had committed a burglary and assaulted a nine-year-old girl and her mother in Los Angeles just five months earlier, in March 2023. Los Angeles Police obtained video showing the suspect leaving the scene of the crime in Los Angeles. A still from the video, as well as a description of the man, were released to the public in hopes that Morin’s killer could be identified and arrested. The man, described as Hispanic, was believed to be between 20 and 30 years old, estimated to be 5’9″ tall and weighed approximately 165 pounds.

In February 2024, six months after Morin’s death, a mugshot of the perpetrator was released. At this point in the investigation, Harford County investigators had already conducted over 100 interviews, followed up on over 1,000 leads, and traveled to seven different states with the assistance of ten federal, state, and local agencies. Thousands of fliers containing information about Morin’s death were distributed in Maryland and California. A $35,000 reward was offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the unknown killer.

After CODIS testing failed to identify Morin’s killer in September 2023, the Harford County Sheriff’s Office worked with the FBI to submit forensic evidence to Othram in The Woodlands, Texas, in hopes that advanced DNA testing could help identify the perpetrator. Othram’s scientists used Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing® to create a comprehensive DNA profile of the unknown suspect. After successfully completing the process, the DNA profile was turned over to the FBI Baltimore Division’s Investigative Genetic Genealogy (IGG) Team. This team conducted the necessary genetic genealogy research to develop new investigative lines for the case.

Based on these new leads, another investigation was launched. In early May 2024, a potential suspect was identified through genealogy as 23-year-old Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador. Although his identity was confirmed, Martinez-Hernandez’s whereabouts were not immediately known. On June 14, 2024, late in the afternoon, additional information and evidence was obtained that confirmed Martinez-Hernandez was the suspect in this case. A warrant for his arrest was then obtained by detectives from the Harford County Sheriff’s Office. Their investigators quickly tracked Martinez-Hernandez to Tulsa, Oklahoma. On June 14, 2024, detectives and patrol officers from the FBI and Tulsa Police Department met at a bar on the corner of 21st and Garnett in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where officers found Martinez-Hernandez sitting at the bar. When approached by officers, Martinez-Hernandez initially lied about his identity and denied knowing anything about the crimes he was charged with. He was arrested at 11:28 p.m. and booked into the Tulsa County Jail.

Martinez-Hernandez is charged with first-degree premeditated murder and rape for the rape and murder of Rachel Morin. Efforts are underway to extradite Martinez-Hernandez from Oklahoma to Maryland, which could take 30 to 60 days. Harford County District Attorney Alison Healy will prosecute the case. Martinez-Hernandez crossed the border into the United States in February 2023 after a warrant was issued for his arrest in January 2023 for the murder of a young woman in El Salvador. Hernandez has ties to the greater Washington, DC area, including Virginia and Prince George’s County, Maryland, as well as known gangs.

Although the DNA profiles from the March 2023 Los Angeles crime and Morin’s August 2023 rape and murder matched in CODIS, they could not be linked to any known individual. The investigative approach taken in this case highlights the value of combining traditional DNA testing and databases with forensic genetic genealogy (FGG) to solve cases where a suspect’s DNA profile is present in CODIS but not linked to a known individual. FGG allows law enforcement to leverage familial matches to build potential family trees that may lead to the suspect’s identification. This is especially important when a suspect is linked to multiple crimes. If a DNA profile appears more than once in CODIS but the perpetrator is not identified, FGG can be used to establish the individual’s identity.