The family of Rachel Morin have torn up wanted flyers for her killer on the road where her body was found and placed flowers instead, saying they want the spot to “belong to Rachel again” after an arrest was made for her murder.
Matt McMahon, the father of Morin’s 18-year-old daughter, said he had “finally had a change of heart” returning to the scene where his daughter was found murdered nearly a year ago after receiving news that a suspect in his ex-wife’s murder had been taken into custody.
“I brought flowers and placed them on the rocks at the trailhead and tore down the flier with Victor’s sketch on it,” McMahon said through tears. Fox 45 News Near where the mother of five’s body was found last August.
“Up until this point, it felt like Victor had taken this path from us, but now this path belongs to Rachel again.”
McMahon described the feelings of “joy, relief” and “gratitude” that came over him when he received a call from police at 1 a.m. on Friday informing him that the man suspected in Morin’s killer, Salvadoran gang member and illegal immigrant Victor Antonio Martinez Hernandez, had been arrested.
“Before I answered the phone, I just had to see the name and know the time and I knew what it meant,” he told media.
As the long, hard-fought search for the mother-of-five’s killer comes to an end, Mr McMahon said his daughter Faye, who he and Maureen have, is “expecting to bring a baby girl into the world later this year”.
“It’s a happy moment and a sad moment too because Rachel should have been here at that moment,” he said.
“Faye was supposed to be able to break the news to Rachel. She was supposed to be able to tell Rachel that she was going to be a grandmother. But she can’t break the news to her.”
Law enforcement officials said Martinez Hernandez, 23, had been in the U.S. illegally since February 2023, arriving in the U.S. just a month after fleeing his native El Salvador after being accused of murdering a young woman.
The violent immigrant had illegally entered the United States four times within two months, only succeeding in his final attempt.
He evaded border checks and roamed the US freely for around 16 months, leaving a trail of violent crimes behind him before being arrested.
In March 2023, Martinez-Hernandez is accused of assaulting a 9-year-old girl and her mother during a brutal home invasion in Los Angeles.
In August, he struck again, allegedly raping and killing Morin on the Mama and Papa Heritage Trail in Bel Air, Maryland.
Her body was found in a ditch on August 6th and her car was found in a parking lot.
Less than two weeks after Morin’s murder, police recovered a water bottle and hat left by the suspect during the break-in and were able to trace his DNA to the crime scene in Los Angeles.
Doorbell surveillance camera footage of the suspect in the home invasion has been released.
“Investigators have traveled to El Salvador as part of their efforts to identify this killer,” said Bill Delbango of the FBI’s Baltimore field office.
“In an effort to locate the suspect, we provided technical assistance to pinpoint his location. [Friday night]Tulsa Police and FBI agents were able to arrest a suspect in Oklahoma.”
Police arrested Martinez-Hernandez while he was “casually sitting” at a bar in Tulsa.
It’s unclear what Martinez-Hernandez was doing in Oklahoma, but Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler said it was clear the suspect wasn’t coming to the U.S. “to better his life or his family.”
“He came here and murdered Rachel,” Gahler said at a news conference announcing the arrest. “This should never have been allowed to happen.”
Martinez-Hernandez is charged with first-degree murder and first-degree rape in Morin’s death.
According to the Harford County State’s Attorney’s Office, extradition proceedings have already begun to bring the murder suspect back to Maryland.
