Man wanted in woman's killing in El Salvador arrested in Maryland hiker's death
A fugitive wanted in El Salvador in the killing of a young woman was arrested in the murder last year of a Maryland hiker, authorities said Saturday.
The suspect, Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, 23, was arrested in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at about 11:30 p.m. Friday, Harford County, Maryland, Sheriff Jeff Gahler said at a news conference.
Rachel Morin’s body was discovered at Ma and Pa Trail in Bel Air, Maryland, on Aug. 6, 2023, the day after her boyfriend reported her missing, authorities said. The sheriff previously indicated she may have been murdered in the hour or two before sunset on Aug. 5.
In a statement Saturday, the sheriff’s office said investigators believe Martinez-Hernandez “was hiding adjacent to a trail and where Rachel was walking and attacked and killed Morin before fleeing Maryland.”
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Authorities have not said if a weapon was involved or how exactly Morin, a 37-year-old mother of five, was killed. On Saturday, Gahler said the suspect faces first-degree murder and first-degree rapecharges in Maryland in connection with the Morin attack.
Gahler alleged the suspect came to the U.S. in February 2023 without permission as he fled El Salvador, with authorities seeking him in the death of a young woman there. The sheriff didn’t name the gang he said the suspect claimed.
The sheriff used the news conference Saturday to criticize federal leadership regarding border security.
“American citizens are not safe because of failed immigration policies,” Gahler said.
He said Morin was the second woman in the county allegedly killed in recent years by someone with gang ties from El Salvador who was in the country illegally.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has vowed to “close” the border if he’s elected, and he has accused President Joe Biden of creating an “open border” with Mexico through which criminals from around the world are crossing.
Though spending on the border has risen steadily since the 1990s, Biden answered concerns about migration by taking executive action this month to “suspend the entry” of immigrants who cross the border illegally.
Oklahoma jail records state the suspect was being held with no bond in Tulsa County based on a “fugitive from justice” hold and holds from Maryland and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
It wasn’t clear if Martinez-Hernandez has retained counsel. The public defender’s office in Tulsa did not immediately respond to a request for comment; the public defender in Bel Air acknowledged the request but did not comment.
Gahler said he is concerned additional crimes could be connected to the Harford County case.
“The investigators fear that we are going to stumble across another crime,” Gahler said.
A March 2023 home invasion in south Los Angeles in which a 9-year-old girl was assaulted helped lead to an arrest in the Maryland case, the sheriff said.
Doorbell video from the home depicts a shirtless suspect exiting the residence. More importantly, Gahler said, DNA evidence from that crime scene matched genetic material found in the investigation of Morin’s murder.
William J. DelBagno, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Baltimore office, said familial DNA — genetic material that leads to a small pool of relatives — led to the suspect. Agents traveled to El Salvador as part of the investigation, he said.
Details about the El Salvador killing, described as taking place in January 2023, were unavailable. “We suspected that Rachel was not the first victim,” Gahler said.
The sheriff said investigators first zeroed in on Martinez-Hernandez on about May 20, Morin’s birthday.
There were differing versions of the story of the suspect’s arrest.
A statement from the sheriff’s office said the FBI contacted Tulsa Police Department detectives about the case “late last night.” “They had been working on information that the suspect was in the Tulsa area,” the statement read.
It said authorities “converged on a bar” and “found the suspect casually sitting at the bar and placed him under arrest.”
Gahler said at the news conference that Tulsa police happened upon the suspect late Friday and didn’t know he was wanted.
Officers at a Tulsa business park took him into custody on an allegation of trespassing and discovered Martinez-Hernandez was wanted after running his information, the sheriff said.
“He was hanging out at a business park, or a storefront,” he said, “and he was identified during that arrest and processing.”
The Tulsa Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Authorities at the news conference were confident Martinez-Hernandez would be extradited and tried in Maryland before authorities in El Salvador or California could consider prosecuting him. No charges have been announced in the California case.
Morin’s mother, Patricia “Patty” Morin, spoke at Saturday’s news conference, thanking investigators for cracking a difficult case and thanking the news media “for keeping the story alive.”
“At one point when things seemed really bleak and hopeless,” she said, “the lead detective said to me, he said, patience will win in the end.”
Dennis Romero is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.
Cristian Santana contributed.