A suspect has finally been arrested nearly a year after a mother-of-five was killed on a Maryland hiking trail.
DNA collected from the scene was eventually linked to an assault and home invasion across the country in California. That led to the arrest Friday of Victor Martinez Hernandez, 23, in connection with the death of Rachel Morin, 37.
"Rachel's murderer is no longer a free man," Hartford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler said at a news conference Saturday.
"Hopefully, he'll never have the opportunity to walk free again."
The suspect, from El Salvador, was reportedly arrested at a bar in Tulsa, Oklahoma, according to the Independent.
Morin was found dead in August 2023 along the Ma and Pa walking trail in Bel Air, Maryland.
She had been grabbed on the path and dragged into the woods, where her remains were found the next day.
"The lead we received was related to DNA evidence and allowed investigators to finally put a name to the image of the suspect in the [home surveillance] video from Los Angeles, which we released two weeks after Rachel's death," Gahler revealed.
Authorities disclosed that Hernandez had been living illegally in the U.S. since February 2023 and was believed to have killed a woman in El Salvador before coming to America.
A month later, he allegedly attacked a 9-year-old girl and her mother during the Los Angeles break-in.
"Victor Hernandez did not come here to make a better life for himself or for his family; he came here to escape a crime he committed in El Salvador," stated Gahler.
