A fugitive wanted in El Salvador in the killing of a tender girl was once arrested in the homicide ultimate yr of a Maryland hiker, government stated Saturday.
The suspect, Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, 23, was once arrested in Tulsa, Oklahoma, about 11:30 p.m. Friday, Harford County, Maryland Sheriff Jeff Gahler stated at a news convention.
Rachel Morin’s frame was once came upon at Ma and Pa Trail in Bel Air, Maryland, on Aug. 6, 2023, the day after her boyfriend reported her lacking, government stated. The sheriff prior to now indicated she will have been murdered in the hour or two prior to sundown on Aug. 5.
In a remark Saturday, the sheriff’s administrative center stated investigators consider Martinez-Hernandez “was hiding adjacent to a trail and where Rachel was walking and attacked and killed Morin before fleeing Maryland.”
Authorities have now not stated if a weapon was once concerned or how, precisely, Morin, a 37-year-old mom of 5, was once killed. On Saturday, Gahler stated the suspect faces first-degree homicide in addition to first-degree rape fees in Maryland in reference to the Morin assault.
Gahler alleged the suspect got here to the United States in February 2023 with out permission as he fled El Salvador government searching for him in the death of a tender girl there. The sheriff didn’t identify the crowd he stated the suspect claimed.
The sheriff used the news convention Saturday to criticize federal management referring to border safety.
“American citizens are not safe because of failed immigration policies,” Gahler stated.
He stated Morin was once the second one girl in the county allegedly killed in contemporary years by means of any person with gang ties from El Salvador who was once in the rustic illegally.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has vowed to “close” the border if he is elected, and he has accused President Joe Biden of constructing an “open border” with Mexico in which criminals from all over the world are crossing.
Though spending at the border has risen often because the Nineteen Nineties, Biden replied issues about migration by means of taking government motion this month to “suspend the entry” of immigrants who move the border illegally.
Oklahoma prison information state the suspect was once being held with out a bond in Tulsa County in line with a “fugitive from justice” cling and holds from Maryland and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
It wasn’t transparent if Martinez-Hernandez has retained suggest. The public defender’s administrative center in Tulsa didn’t straight away reply to a request for remark; the general public defender in Bel Air stated the request however didn’t remark.
Gahler stated he’s involved further crimes might be hooked up to the Harford County case.
“The investigators fear that we are going to stumble across another crime,” Gahler stated.
A March 2023 house invasion in south Los Angeles in which a 9-year-old lady was once assaulted helped result in an arrest in the Maryland case, the sheriff stated.
Doorbell video from the house depicts a shirtless suspect exiting the place of abode. More importantly, Gahler stated, DNA proof from that crime scene matched genetic subject matter discovered in the investigation of Morin’s homicide.
William J. DelBagno, particular agent in price of the FBI’s Baltimore administrative center, stated familial DNA — genetic subject matter that ends up in a small pool of kin — ended in the suspect. Agents traveled to El Salvador as a part of the investigation, he stated.
Details concerning the El Salvador killing, described as going down in January 2023, had been unavailable. “We suspected that Rachel was not the first victim,” Gahler stated.
The sheriff stated investigators first zeroed in on Martinez-Hernandez about May 20, Morin’s birthday.
There had been differing variations of the tale of the suspect’s arrest.
A remark from the sheriff’s administrative center stated the FBI contacted Tulsa Police Department detectives “late last night” concerning the case. “They had been working on information that the suspect was in the Tulsa area,” the remark learn.
It stated government “converged on a bar” and “found the suspect casually sitting at the bar and placed him under arrest.”
Gahler stated on the news convention that Tulsa police came about upon the suspect past due Friday and did not know he was once wanted.
Officers at a Tulsa industry park took him into custody on an allegation of trespassing and came upon Martinez-Hernandez was once wanted after operating his information, the sheriff stated.
“He was hanging out at a business park, or a storefront,” he stated, “and he was identified during that arrest and processing.”
The Tulsa Police Department didn’t straight away reply to a request for remark.
Authorities on the news convention had been assured Martinez-Hernandez could be extradited and attempted in Maryland prior to government in El Salvador or California may believe prosecuting him. No fees had been introduced in the California case.
Morin’s mom, Patricia “Patty” Morin, spoke at Saturday’s news convention, thanking investigators for cracking a troublesome case and thanking the news media “for keeping the story alive.”
“At one point when things seemed really bleak and hopeless,” she stated, “the lead detective said to me, he said, patience will win in the end.”