Rachel Morin murder suspect is alleged serial migrant predator

A Maryland county sheriff exposed the scourge of migrant crime in the United States after accusing a Salvadoran gang member of the brutal rape and murder of mother-of-five Rachel Morin on a hiking trail popular.

Police arrested Victor Martinez Hernández, 23, who is in the country illegally, after a months-long investigation that relied heavily on DNA evidence.

Federal authorities were eventually able to track him down at a bar in Tulsa, Oklahoma, according to WBAL TV 11.

There, they found the career criminal — who is also wanted for murder in El Salvador and for assaulting a mother and young daughter in Los Angeles — “casually sitting at the bar” Friday night, Tulsa cops said in a post on Facebook.

“We’re 1,800 miles from the southern border here in Harford County,” he said. “This is the second woman in our county to be killed by illegal suspects.”

At a news conference Saturday, Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler of Harford County, Maryland, said Morin's killing was the second local killing of an innocent woman by a migrant in the past two years.

“In both cases, these are suspects from El Salvador and linked to criminal gangs,” he continued. “(This) shouldn’t happen. Victor Hernández did not come here to improve his life or that of his family, he came here to escape a crime he committed in El Salvador.

Morin, the 37-year-old mother, was kidnapped from the Ma and Pa Trail in Bel Air last August and dragged into the woods, according to authorities.

Her body was found in a culvert on August 6 and her car was found in a parking lot.

Authorities released a sketch of the suspect in February and increased the reward for information leading to his arrest to $35,000, according to the outlet.

Meanwhile, local detectives worked with several state and federal agencies – as well as Morin's family – to solve the case.

“At one point, when things were looking really dark and hopeless, the lead detective said to me, 'Patience will win out in the end.' And that’s what (investigators) did,” Morin’s mother, Patricia Morin, said, according to the network.

“They were diligent, worked very hard and patiently explored all avenues,” she continued. “It’s because of this that we have an arrest today. So I'm very grateful and just very grateful to these men.

Authorities finally caught a break about three weeks ago – on what would have been Morin's 38th birthday.

“The lead we received was linked to DNA evidence and allowed investigators to finally put a name to the image of the suspect in the Los Angeles video, which we released two weeks after Rachel's death,” Gahler said.

“As I have said many times, this killer could have laid his head in any community across the country or even the world and indeed, that was entirely correct.”

“Over the past two weeks, investigators continued their diligent investigation and tracked our suspect from Prince George's County to Tulsa, Oklahoma,” the sheriff continued. “Our investigators also obtained an arrest warrant (Friday) afternoon.”

Police say Hernandez has been living in the United States illegally since February 2023, just one month after allegedly murdering a young woman in El Salvador.

He is also wanted for allegedly assaulting a 9-year-old girl and her mother during a brutal home invasion in Los Angeles, the station said.

Hernandez was charged with first-degree murder and first-degree rape for Morin's killing.

“Our genetic genealogy investigation team in Baltimore worked countless hours to identify the suspect by using DNA from the crime scene and tracing that DNA back to potential family members,” said Bill DelBango, from the FBI's Baltimore field office.

“Investigators even traveled to El Salvador as part of their efforts to identify this killer,” he continued. “To find the suspect, we provided technical assistance to locate him. That brings us (Friday evening) where Tulsa police and FBI agents successfully apprehended and arrested the suspect in Oklahoma.

The extradition process to bring the alleged killer to Maryland has already begun, Harford County State's Attorney Alison Healy said.

This should last between 10 days and a month.

ICE also took Hernandez into custody because he is living in the United States illegally, Gahler said.

“I'm here to tell you that Rachel's killer is no longer a free man,” Gahler said. “I hope he never gets the chance to go free again.”