A fugitive wanted in El Salvador for the murder of a young girl was arrested in the killing of a Maryland hiker last year, authorities said Saturday.
The suspect, Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, 23, was arrested in Tulsa, Oklahoma, around 11:30 p.m. Friday, Harford County, Maryland, Sheriff Jeff Gahler said at a news conference.
Rachel Morin’s body was discovered on the Ma and Pa Trail in Bel Air, Maryland, on Aug. 6, 2023, the day after her boyfriend reported her missing, authorities said. The sheriff previously indicated that she may have been murdered an hour or two before sunset on August 5th.
In a statement Saturday, the sheriff’s office said investigators believe Martinez-Hernandez “was hiding near a trail and where Rachel was walking and attacked and killed Morin before fleeing Maryland.”
Authorities have not said whether a gun was involved or how exactly Morin, a 37-year-old mother of five, was killed. On Saturday, Gahler said the suspect faces first-degree murder as well as first-degree rape charges in Maryland related to the attack on Morin.
Gahler alleged that the suspect came to the United States in February 2023 without permission while on the run from authorities in El Salvador who were looking for him in the death of a young woman there. The sheriff did not reveal the name of the gang he said the suspect claimed.
The sheriff used Saturday’s press conference to criticize federal leadership regarding border security.
“American citizens are not safe because of failed immigration policies,” Gahler said.
He said Morin was the second woman in the county allegedly killed in recent years by someone with ties to El Salvador gangs who was in the country illegally.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has promised to “close” the border if elected and accused President Joe Biden of creating an “open border” with Mexico through which criminals from around the world are crossing.
While spending at the border has risen steadily since the 1990s, Biden responded to concerns about migration by taking executive action this month to “suspend entry” of immigrants crossing the border illegally.
Oklahoma jail records state the suspect was being held without bond in Tulsa County based on a “fugitive from justice” arrest and holds from Maryland and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
It was unclear whether Martinez-Hernandez had retained an attorney. The public defender’s office in Tulsa did not immediately respond to a request for comment; the public defender in Bel Air acknowledged the request but did not comment.
Gahler said he is concerned that additional crimes may be linked to the Harford County case.
“Investigators are afraid we may have stumbled upon another crime,” Gahler said.
A March 2023 home invasion in South Los Angeles in which a 9-year-old girl was assaulted helped lead to the arrest in the Maryland case, the sheriff said.
Doorbell video from the home shows a shirtless suspect leaving the residence. Most importantly, Gahler said, DNA evidence from the crime scene matched genetic material found in the Morin murder investigation.
William J. DelBagno, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Baltimore office, said familial DNA — genetic material that leads to a small group of relatives — led to the suspect. Agents traveled to El Salvador as part of the investigation, he said.
Details about the killing in El Salvador, described as taking place in January 2023, were not available. “We suspect Rachel was not the first victim,” Gahler said.
The sheriff said investigators first reached out to Martinez-Hernandez around May 20, Morin’s birthday.
There were different versions of the story of the suspect’s arrest.
A statement from the sheriff’s office said the FBI contacted Tulsa Police Department detectives “last night” about the case. “They were working on information that the suspect was in the Tulsa area,” the statement said.
He said authorities “converged on a bar” and “found the suspect sitting casually at the bar and arrested him.”
Gahler said at the news conference that Tulsa police found the suspect Friday night and did not know he was wanted.
Police officers at a Tulsa business park took him into custody on a trespassing allegation and discovered Martinez-Hernandez was wanted after reviewing his information, the sheriff said.
“He was in a business park or in a store,” he said, “and was identified during arrest and processing.”
The Tulsa Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Officials at the news conference were confident that Martinez-Hernandez would be extradited and tried in Maryland before authorities in El Salvador or California could consider prosecuting him. No charges have been announced in the California case.
Morin’s mother, Patricia “Patty” Morin, spoke at Saturday’s news conference, thanking investigators for solving a difficult case and thanking the media “for keeping the story alive.”
“At one point, when things seemed really bleak and hopeless,” she said, “the lead detective told me, he said, patience will win out in the end.”
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
