BEL AIR, Md. — She had last visited the Ma & Pa Trail in Bel Air with her husband on Saturday, just hours before 37-year-old Rachel Morin went missing here, and this time, a woman who we will only refer to as “Patty” for her protection has returned here with a friend and her Mace in her hand.
“I do have some Mace,” said “Patty”, “Hopefully, this is never going to happen again and it’s an isolated incident and maybe whoever is responsible left the area. Let’s hope, and this doesn’t happen again.”
Volunteers discovered what police believe is the body of Morin on Sunday afternoon, about 19 hours after she was last seen at the Williams Street entrance to the trail where police on foot and in all terrain vehicles saturated the area on Monday.
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“As far as we’re concerned, we have no solid suspect,” said Gahler, “We can’t say, as I said last night, we cannot stand before the community and say that there’s not a random person out there who committed this act who still poses a threat to the community.”
In the absence of a suspect, speculation is running high here in the community over whether the woman’s murder was random or whether she was targeted.
For her part, “Patty” isn’t taking any chances.
She says her husband noticed something or someone on Saturday that seemed insignificant at the time.
“He said, ‘Did you see that guy staring at you?’ I said, ‘No. I really didn’t.’ But then when I turned around and looked, he did look like not somebody you would expect on this trail. It was just kind of like a weird and just a strange… not somebody typically out taking a walk, exercising,” said “Patty”.
Ironically, police in another area of Bel Air were looking for another missing woman, 58-year-old Karen Elliott, over the weekend, but the sheriff says that case is unrelated to that of Morin.
Police say they found Elliott unharmed on Monday and no foul play is expected in her disappearance.
