BEL AIR, Md. — At the entrance to the Ma & Pa trail, there’s a message left for Rachel Morin, signed, “from a friend you’ve never met.” The gesture illustrates the impact Rachel’s murder had on the Bel Air community.
"I know that Rachel knew a lot of people. But it really hits here when people who never met Rachel show that they love her,” Matthew McMahon, the father of Rachel’s oldest child, told WMAR-2 News on Monday.
Around 1 a.m. Saturday, McMahon got the call he’s been waiting 10 months to receive.
"And that's when my heart just started exploding. I didn't even need to answer the phone to know what they were telling me. They already had pictures of the guy, they knew the guy's name, they knew the general location he was in. There's only one reason to call someone in the middle of the night."
Later that day, Harford County Sheriff Jeff Gahler made the announcement:
"I'm here to tell you that Rachel's murderer is no longer a free man. Hopefully he will never have the opportunity to walk free again," the sheriff said during a Saturday press conference.
The first break in the case came two weeks after Rachel’s body was found on the trail. A DNA match with a suspect in another case provided police with an image of who they believed to be her murderer. The surveillance footage shows a man wanted or assaulting a woman and a 9 year-old girl at their Los Angeles home in March of 2023. It was a short video, and you never get a good look at his face. Police still had no name.
That finally change a few weeks ago, on what would have been Rachel’s 38th birthday.
Using genealogy testing through Othram Labs, FBI investigators worked with their counterparts in El Salvador to identify Victor Martinez-Hernandez. But they still didn’t know where he was. Authorities put out a “red notice” on Hernandez, which alerts law enforcement across the globe of wanted persons. They finally tracked him down in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
According to the Tulsa Police Department’s Facebook page, "Officers found the suspect casually sitting at the bar and placed him under arrest. Initially the suspect lied about his true identity and denied any knowledge of the crimes he is wanted for. The suspect was booked into Tulsa County and awaiting extradition for his heinous crimes. This is the culmination of tremendous efforts from multiple agencies across the US. We are proud of our Tulsa Police Officers for putting an end to Hernandez’s violent attacks on innocent people."
During Saturday’s press conference, Rachel’s mother, Patty Morin, expressed gratitude to the investigators for never giving up.
"At some points during this, I didn't think we were ever gonna have an end, that it was gonna be a cold case,” she told reporters. "At one point when things seemed really bleak and really hopeless, the lead detective said to me, ‘patience will win in the end.’”
McMahon echoed that sentiment in an interview with WMAR-2 News on Monday: "The Harford County Sheriff’s office being in constant contact, giving us updates, letting us know they hadn’t given up, and just knowing they were pouring an unparalleld level of resources into this. That’s what let me never completely lose hope, even though there were times that level was dropping."
After identifying Hernandez, police also learned, Rachel is not the first woman he’s accused of killing. He’s wanted for murder in his home country of El Salvador. He fled in February 2023 and entered the U.S. illegally. The following month, he was wanted for another violent crime: the assault in Los Angeles.
On this issue, Sheriff Gahler didn’t mince words.
"Victor Hernandez did not come here to make a better life for himself or for his family. He came here to escape a crime he committed in El Salvador. […] Here in Harford County, we are 1,800 miles away from the Southern border and the American citizens are not safe because of failed immigration policies."
The next day, Governor Moore went on national television and agreed.
During an appearance on CBS’s Face The Nation, Moore said, "We have an immigration policy that needed to be dealt with and was not.” He said he supports President Biden’s executive order that “bars migrants who cross our Southern border unlawfully from receiving aslyum,” according to the White House. But he also believes it's not going to be enough.
"Politics should not get in the way of public safety. I know for all of us who have to deal with the downstream impacts of broken policies that we know we need Congress to act on this," Governor Moore said.
Sheriff Gahler said, "This is the second time in just two years that an innocent Harford County woman has lost her life to a criminal in our country illegally. […]“This should not be happening.”
The other case he’s referencing is the murder of Kayla Hamilton, a 20 year-old woman with autism who was raped and strangled to death in a home in Aberdeen. That happened in July 2022. In January 2023, police arrested a 17 year-old man, also from El Salvador, and also in the U.S. illegally. Gahler says both suspects had ties to violent gangs, including MS-13.
Hamilton’s family is suing the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services in a $100 million wrongful death lawsuit, accusing DHHS of committing “operational negligence,” and blaming DHHS for allowing the suspect to stay with an “unverified” sponsor.
In Hernandez’s case, authorities in Harford County immediately began the extradition process. Martinez-Hernandez waived the extradition proceedings, and the Harford County State’s Attorney’s office is currently coordinating his transport, “which will be done as expeditiously as possible."
Sheriff Gahler says he hopes Hernandez spends the rest of his life behind bars in the Maryland prison system.
McMahon said he plans to attend every hearing he’s permitted to attend. "I plan to be sitting there until the jury returns a verdict.”
As for the 19 year-old daughter he shares with Rachel, "I think what a lot of people don’t understand is, when some people might view this as good news. For Rachel’s children, this is just a reminder of what happened to their mother. It’s hard for them to feel happy about this. I’m sure that there’s a sense of relief, but that amount of pain is going to overshadow everything in their life for probably a really long time."
Sheriff Gahler said investigators are still piecing together the timeline of Hernandez's movements, and whether he targeted Morin. They believe he had connections to the D.C. and Maryland areas.
