Newly released body camera footage shows the arrest of an illegal immigrant accused of killing Maryland mother Rachel Morin.
In a video released by the Tulsa Police Department: From FOX 5Officers encountered Victor Martinez Hernandez at a bar in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
His arrest came 10 months after an intense nationwide manhunt began.
The mother of five children, ages 8 to 18, was raped and then murdered while jogging on Mama & Pa Trail in Harford County, Maryland, in August.
Illegal immigrant charged in Rachel Morin murder case, important step: family lawyer
Watch the body camera footage:
In the video, officers arrive at the bar where Martinez-Hernandez was sitting.
After the initial encounter, he complied as he was escorted out of the bar and police began asking him for identification.
Martinez-Hernandez told officers he did not have any identification and gave a false name.
“Do you live in El Salvador?” one of the officers can be heard asking.
Once the migrants’ identities were known, officers took photos to publicize the long-awaited arrest of the suspect in Morin’s murder.
Rachel Morin was dragged off a hiking trail on August 5, 2023 and brutally murdered. (Handouts for families)
in Press ConferenceHarford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler said Victor Martinez-Hernandez was arrested in Tulsa and booked.
“Five hours after we met [Morin’s] “Just before midnight, our family’s time, police in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with the assistance of our federal partners, located and arrested Rachel’s murderer, Victor Antonio Martinez Hernandez,” Gahler said.
He was charged with first-degree murder and first-degree rape.
Maryland sheriff’s ‘intuition’ suggests Rachel Morin was ‘stalked’ by suspect before she was killed
Victor Martinez Hernandez is scheduled to be extradited to Maryland on June 20. (Tathra Police Station)
Police said the 23-year-old immigrant entered the United States illegally in February 2023.
“We all suspected that Rachel was not his first victim,” Gahler said. “My understanding is that this suspect, this monster, had brutally murdered a young woman and then illegally fled to the United States. El Salvador It’s one month early, in January 2023.”
Watch Martinez-Hernandez’s alleged attack in Los Angeles:
Rachel Morin murder: Maryland police link crime scene DNA to Los Angeles assault, burglary
Gahler said the first DNA match to Martinez-Hernandez was from the March 2023 attack in Los Angeles.
“Once in our country, and perhaps emboldened by his anonymity, he went on to brutally assault a 9-year-old girl and her mother in Los Angeles in March of 2023,” Gahler said. “And as we all know, this was the first DNA match linking Rachel’s case to the Los Angeles case.”
The sheriff noted the crisis at the southern border, saying: The White House And to “both members of Congress.”
“We are 1,800 miles away from the southern border,” Gahler said, “and the American people are not safe because of failed immigration policies.”
Rachel Morin (Harford County Sheriff’s Office)
“This is the second time in two years that an innocent woman in Harford County has had her life wrongfully taken by criminals in our country,” he said. “In both cases, the suspect was an individual from El Salvador with ties to organized crime. This should never have happened.”
“Victor Hernandez did not come to this country to better his life or his family’s. He came to escape the crimes he committed in El Salvador. He came to kill Rachel. And, God’s will, he would not kill anyone else. But that should never have been allowed to happen.”
Rachel Morin murder case
Maureen, 37, was reported missing by her boyfriend in August 2023, who said she had gone for a run on the Ma & Pa Trail in Bel Air, a quiet and usually safe town, and never returned. Northeast of BaltimoreAugust 5, 2023.
Her body was found by the side of the road the next day.
The Harford County Sheriff’s Office in Maryland posted a sign at the trailhead of Mama & Papa Trail on June 17, 2024 announcing an arrest in the August 2023 murder of Rachel Morin. (Harford County Sheriff’s Office/Facebook)
In February, police released a new sketch of Martinez-Hernandez.
The sketch was created after DNA testing linked Martinez-Hernandez to a home invasion scene in Los Angeles.
Police used the Combined DNA Indexing System (CODIS) and found a single match to the DNA of an unidentified Hispanic male.
Rachel Morin murder case: Maryland sheriff’s office releases new sketch of suspect
The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) recovered a hat that was left at the scene of a home invasion that escalated into riots in March 2023, leaving several people injured, including an underage child.
Richard Tobin (far left) denied any involvement in the death of his girlfriend, Rachel Morin, after her body was discovered on a Maryland hiking trail on Sunday. (Facebook)
The suspect is said to have broken into the home in the middle of the night and assaulted the family inside before being forced out. Security camera footage showed a shirtless man leaving through the front door.
Sign up to get True Crime Newsletter
“I’m going to keep this short because I’m very emotional,” said Rachel’s mother, Patricia Morin. “I want to take this time to thank everyone. Law enforcement We thank them for their hard work.
Photos from the first search:
Click here to get the FOX News app
“They really cared about our family and my daughter,” she said. “They were working hard and trying to find who killed my daughter.”
