Man Arrested 10 Months After Mom Of 5 Killed Along Popular Hiking Trail

A man was arrested in connection to the August 2023 killing of Rachel Morin, a mom of five whose body was found near a popular hiking trail in Maryland, authorities announced Saturday.

Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, 23, was arrested Friday night in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and faces first-degree murder and rape charges in Morin’s killing, Harford County Sheriff Jeff Gahler announced in a news conference on Saturday.

The case had been shrouded in mystery for months after Morin was killed while out for a run, even as investigators connected DNA from the then-unknown suspect to another crime scene across the country. On Aug. 18, weeks after Morin’s body was found on Aug. 6 near Bel Air’s Ma & Pa Trail, investigators announced that the DNA believed to belong to the suspected killer matched DNA collected from a hat left behind by the man suspected in a March 2023 home invasion in Los Angeles. Residential security camera video from the LA home invasion had captured the man, but in spite of the footage and a police sketch, he remained unidentified.

Ultimately, FBI investigators used genetic genealogy methods to identify Martinez-Hernandez’s family members and then pinpoint his location, Special Agent in Charge Bill DelBagno said at Saturday’s news conference.

Martinez-Hernandez is a citizen of El Salvador and entered the U.S. illegally in February 2023, the sheriff said. Authorities said he is suspected of the “brutal murder” of a young woman in his home country and came to the U.S. as he fled accountability.

The sheriff also provided more details about the Los Angeles home invasion, saying that a 9-year-old girl and her mother had been “brutally attacked” there.

Investigators believe that Martinez-Hernandez had spent “some