Man Wanted for Woman’s Murder in El Salvador Arrested for Maryland Hiker’s Death

A fugitive desired in El Salvador in the killing of a girl was apprehended in the murder last year of a Maryland walker, authorities said Saturday.
The suspect, Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, 23, was detained in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at concerning 11:30 p.m. Friday, Harford County, Maryland, Constable Jeff Gahler said at a news conference.
Rachel Morin’s body was uncovered at Ma and Pa Route in Bel Air, Maryland, on Aug. 6, 2023, the day after her sweetheart reported her missing, authorities claimed. The constable formerly showed she may have been killed in the hour or more before sunset on Aug. 5.
In a statement Saturday, the sheriff’s workplace said investigators believe Martinez-Hernandez “was hiding adjacent to a path and where Rachel was walking and struck and eliminated Morin prior to getting away Maryland.”
Authorities have not claimed if a tool was included or exactly how exactly Morin, a 37-year-old mother of 5, was eliminated. On Saturday, Gahler stated the suspicious faces first-degree murder and first-degree rape charges in Maryland in connection with the Morin assault.
Gahler declared the suspect pertained to the united state in February 2023 without approval as he fled El Salvador, with authorities seeking him in the death of a girl there. The constable didn’t name the gang he claimed the suspect declared.
The constable made use of the press conference Saturday to slam federal management regarding border security.
” American people are not secure due to stopped working immigration plans,” Gahler claimed.
He stated Morin was the second woman in the area apparently eliminated in recent times by a person with gang ties from El Salvador who remained in the country unlawfully.
Republican presidential prospect Donald Trump has vowed to “shut” the border if he’s elected, and he has actually accused Head of state Joe Biden of developing an “open boundary” with Mexico where wrongdoers from around the globe are crossing.
Though investing on the border has actually increased steadily since the 1990s, Biden responded to concerns regarding migration by taking executive action this month to ” suspend the entrance” of immigrants that go across the border illegally.
Oklahoma prison records mention the suspect was being accepted no bond in Tulsa County based upon a “fugitive from justice” hold and holds from Maryland and United State Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
It wasn’t clear if Martinez-Hernandez has actually preserved advice. The public defender’s office in Tulsa did not quickly reply to an ask for comment; the general public protector in Bel Air recognized the demand yet did not comment.
Gahler said he is concerned added criminal offenses could be attached to the Harford County case.
” The detectives fear that we are mosting likely to stumble across an additional criminal activity,” Gahler stated.
A March 2023 home invasion in south Los Angeles in which a 9-year-old girl was assaulted assisted result in an apprehension in the Maryland situation, the constable claimed.
Doorbell video from the home illustrates a shirtless suspicious leaving the residence. More significantly, Gahler stated, DNA proof from that criminal activity scene matched hereditary product located in the examination of Morin’s murder.
William J. DelBagno, unique agent accountable of the FBI’s Baltimore workplace, claimed familial DNA– hereditary material that results in a little pool of loved ones– led to the suspect. Agents traveled to El Salvador as part of the investigation, he said.
Details regarding the El Salvador killing, referred to as taking place in January 2023, were not available. “We suspected that Rachel was not the very first sufferer,” Gahler claimed.
The constable stated private investigators initially zeroed in on Martinez-Hernandez on concerning May 20, Morin’s birthday.
There were varying versions of the tale of the suspect’s arrest.
A declaration from the constable’s office stated the FBI contacted Tulsa Cops Department detectives regarding the situation “late last night.” “They had been working on details that the suspect remained in the Tulsa location,” the declaration read.
It claimed authorities “converged on a bar” and “located the suspicious casually sitting at the bar and put him under arrest.”
Gahler stated at the press conference that Tulsa authorities discovered the suspect late Friday and didn’t recognize he was wanted.
Policemans at a Tulsa organization park took him right into guardianship on an allegation of trespassing and discovered Martinez-Hernandez was desired after running his information, the sheriff claimed.
” He was hanging out at a service park, or a shop,” he claimed, “and he was identified throughout that arrest and processing.”
The Tulsa Authorities Division did not right away react to an ask for comment.
Authorities at the news conference were certain Martinez-Hernandez would be extradited and attempted in Maryland prior to 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, talked at Saturday’s press conference, giving thanks to private investigators for fracturing a difficult instance and saying thanks to the news media “for maintaining the story to life.”
” At one factor when things seemed truly bleak and helpless,” she claimed, “the lead detective claimed to me, he said, persistence will win ultimately.”

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