A fugitive wanted in El Salvador for the murder of a young woman was arrested in the killing last year of a Maryland hiker, authorities said Saturday.
The suspect, Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, 23, was arrested in Tulsa, Oklahoma, around 11:30 p.m. on Friday, Harford County, Maryland, Sheriff Jeff Gahler said at a news conference.
Rachel Morin’s body was discovered on Ma and Pa Trail in Bel Air, Maryland, on August 6, 2023, the day after her boyfriend reported her missing, authorities said. The sheriff previously indicated that she may have been killed an hour or two before sunset on August 5.
In a statement Saturday, the sheriff’s office said investigators believe Martinez Hernandez “was hiding next to a trail and where Rachel was walking and attacked and killed Morin before fleeing Maryland.”
Authorities have not said whether a gun was involved or how, exactly, Morin, a 37-year-old mother of five, died. On Saturday, Gahler said the suspect faces first-degree murder and first-degree rape. charges in Maryland in connection with Morin attack.
Gahler alleged that the suspect arrived in the United States in February 2023 without permission while fleeing authorities in El Salvador who were looking for him for the death of a young woman there. The sheriff did not name the gang he said the suspect claimed.
The sheriff used Saturday’s news conference to criticize federal leadership on 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 murdered in recent years by someone with ties to gangs from El Salvador who was in the country illegally.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has vowed to “shut down” the border if elected, and has accused President Joe Biden of creating an “open border” with Mexico through which criminals from around the world cross.
Although border spending has risen steadily since the 1990s, Biden responded to concerns about migration by taking executive action this month to “suspend entry” of migrants who cross the border illegally.
Oklahoma jail records indicate the suspect was being held without bail in Tulsa County based on a “fugitive from justice” arrest and arrests from Maryland and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. .
It was unclear whether Martínez Hernández has hired an attorney. The public defender’s office in Tulsa did not immediately respond to a request for comment; Bel Air’s public defender acknowledged the request but did not comment.
Gahler said he is concerned additional crimes could be connected to the Harford County case.
“Investigators are afraid we’re coming 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.
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Doorbell video from the home shows a shirtless suspect leaving the residence. More importantly, Gahler said, DNA evidence from that crime scene matched genetic material found in the Morin murder investigation.
William J. DelBagno, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Baltimore office, said familial DNA — genetic material that leads to a small group of relatives — led to the suspect. Agents traveled to El Salvador as part of the investigation, he said.
Details about the El Salvador assassination, described as having occurred in January 2023, were not available. “We suspected that Rachel was not the first victim,” Gahler said.
The sheriff said investigators first focused on Martinez Hernandez around May 20, Morin’s birthday.
There were different versions of the story of the suspect’s arrest.
A statement from the sheriff’s office said the FBI contacted Tulsa Police Department detectives “last night” about the case. “They had been working on information that the suspect was in the Tulsa area,” the statement said.
He said authorities “converged on a bar” and “found the suspect casually sitting at the bar and arrested him.”
Gahler said at the news conference that Tulsa police encountered the suspect Friday night and did not know he was wanted.
Deputies at a Tulsa business park stopped him on a trespassing charge and discovered they were looking for Martinez Hernandez after reviewing his information, the sheriff said.
“He was in a business park or a store,” 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 that Martínez Hernández 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 solving a difficult case and the media “for keeping the story alive.”
“At a time when things seemed really bleak and desperate,” he said, “the lead detective told me: Patience will win out in the end.”
Cristian Santana contributed.
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