A Maryland sheriff has opened the U.S. southern border after an illegal immigrant who was already wanted for the murder of a woman in his native El Salvador was arrested Friday and charged with the rape and murder of Rachel Morin, a mother of five who was killed while hiking last year.
Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler said 23-year-old illegal immigrant Victor Antonio Martinez Hernandez should never have been in the country to commit this horrific crime in the first place.
He was arrested on Friday night while “casually sitting” at a bar in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Investigators say they were able to solve the case and track him down thanks to a tip from police and DNA evidence.
“He murdered a woman in El Salvador, so he fled there and came here through the open border,” Gahler told America’s Newsroom on Monday.
Rachel Morin murder: Illegal immigrant from El Salvador charged with raping, murdering Maryland mother of five
On the left is illegal immigrant Victor Antonio Martinez Hernandez, on the top right is Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler, and on the bottom right is Rachel Morin and her boyfriend Richard Tobin. (Tulsa Police Department, Fox News, Facebook)
“He tried to enter the country legally and was turned away. But that didn’t deter him, because our borders are so porous, he just went right through… and this is the result.”
Maureen’s nude, beaten body was discovered in a culvert on Aug. 6. Maureen, 37, had gone missing the previous day from Mama and Papa Trail in Bel Air, a quiet and usually safe town about 18 miles northeast of Baltimore.
Gahler said Martinez-Hernandez entered the U.S. illegally in February 2023, about a month after he was wanted on a murder charge in El Salvador, and is moving freely around the U.S. Police linked Martinez-Hernandez’s DNA to a March home invasion in Los Angeles in which a mother and her 9-year-old daughter were assaulted.
“For the residents here in Harford County and for every citizen of this country, this is a public safety crisis and a problem that can be easily solved by really coming up with a workable immigration policy in this country. It would be insane to allow something like Rachel’s murder to happen. When I say ‘allow’, we allowed it by allowing him to enter this country unopposed.”
“That should not happen to our nation’s families. It is preventable.”
Rachel Morin murder case: Ex-FBI agent reveals details of arrest of illegal immigrant accused of murder
The Harford County Sheriff’s Office in Maryland posted a sign at the entrance to Mama & Papa Trail on June 17, 2024 announcing an arrest in the August 2023 murder of Rachel Morin. (Harford County Sheriff’s Office/Facebook)
Gahler said Maryland does not have the death penalty but that he hopes Martinez-Hernandez dies in prison for the crimes he allegedly committed, and that a bipartisan effort is needed to address the border problems that have been going on for decades.
“The border has never been more secure than it was under President Trump’s presidency, but this is an issue that dates back to my 40 years in law enforcement.”
Meanwhile, President Trump spoke out about Morin’s death on Monday, likening it to the death of Georgia student Laken Riley and claiming President Biden was to blame.
“Rachel Maureen was a fugitive in Maryland, brutally murdered by an illegal monster wanted for murder in El Salvador, just like Georgia’s Laken Riley, who fled to the United States knowing Crooked Joe would let her in,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Now, because Crooked Joe refuses to close the border, Rachel Maureen’s five young children will grow up without a mother.”
Video: Attorney Randolph Rice responds to arrest of illegal immigrant in Rachel Morin case
Randolph Rice, an attorney for Morin’s family, said it was astonishing that someone like Martinez-Hernandez, who was already wanted on murder charges in his home country, was able to enter the United States.
“This is an American issue, and the Border Patrol should be able to stop people and say, ‘Hey, are you wanted for murder in your home country? If so, you can’t come here,'” Rice told Fox & Friends First on Monday.
“This is certainly a big problem. Maryland is a long way from the southern border. So it’s obviously not just a problem for the southern states. It affects Maryland and even Harford County, which is a very rural, small county. This could happen anywhere in America and it’s a problem that Washington really has to solve.”
A Maryland sheriff’s “intuition” suggested Rachel Morin had been “stalked” by the suspect before she was killed.
Victor Martinez Hernandez (23, right) was arrested on suspicion of murder for the murder of Rachel Morin (left).
Rice told Fox News late Monday that Martinez-Hernandez has waived extradition and is expected to be returned to Maryland soon.
The DNA results provided on May 20, what would have been Morin’s 38th birthday, would have been the clue that ultimately led to Martinez-Hernandez’s arrest.
“The DNA found in Los Angeles was a major breakthrough in our investigation,” Gahler said. “Working together across a planet of billions of people, we were able to locate and identify one individual, find him sitting on a bar stool in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and take him into custody.”
Surveillance camera footage released in February showed a shirtless man fleeing a Los Angeles home. The suspect broke into the home in the middle of the night and allegedly assaulted a family member inside before being kicked out, leaving a hat at the scene.
Gahler said the thorough investigation involved the cooperation of multiple agencies, including the FBI and law enforcement agencies in Los Angeles and Tulsa.
Rachel Morin murder: Maryland State Police link crime scene DNA to Los Angeles assault, burglary
Rachel Morin’s family put a photo up on a tree last night along the Mommy and Daddy Trail on Aug. 10, 2023 in Bel Air, Maryland. (Mega from Fox News Digital)
FBI agents have traveled to El Salvador as part of efforts to identify suspects in Morin’s murder, Bill Delbango of the FBI’s Baltimore field office said at a press conference Saturday.
“Our genetic genealogy team in Baltimore has spent countless hours using crime scene DNA and tracing that DNA to potential family members to identify suspects,” Delbango said.
“In an effort to locate the suspect, we provided technical assistance to assist in locating him, which led to Tulsa Police and FBI agents being able to successfully apprehend him in Oklahoma (Friday night).”
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Police in the Williams Street section of Mama & Pa Trail in Bel Air, Maryland on August 8, 2023. (Mega from Fox News Digital)
Morin’s mother, Patricia, praised law enforcement for their efforts at the press conference.
“At one point, when things looked really bleak and hopeless, the lead detective said to me, ‘In the end, perseverance will prevail,’ and that’s exactly what (investigators) have done,” she said.
“They’ve been working really hard and they’ve been really patient and they’ve been looking at all the leads and that’s what has led to an arrest today so I’m really grateful to them and I really appreciate it.”
