Found Deceased MD - Rachel Morin, 37, left for walk on Ma & Pa Trail 6pm, car found at Williams St entrance, Bel Air, 5 Aug 2023 #3 *Arrest*

[otto]

Wow, is this the first case where genetic genealogy was used in an active case?

I think it's one of the first times we've heard that genealogical DNA is used internationally to identify the country where a suspect originated. From there, investigators were able to learn more about the suspect. I haven't yet read the related links posted upthread, but it is an interesting shift in police investigations.

 

[TexLil]

Wow, is this the first case where genetic genealogy was used in an active case?

I believe it was used for the April Tinsley case in Fort Wayne, IN. MOO

GUILTY - IN - April Tinsley, 8, Fort Wayne, 1 April 1988 *Arrest*

This is a cold case from Fort Wayne, Indiana that has always bothered me. This little girl was abducted, molested, and murdered in 1988 and her killer has never been found. Supposedly someone who says he is the killer has left notes in different areas of the Fort Wayne area claiming...

www.websleuths.com

ETA link to WS thread on precious April.

 

[PommyMommy]

@Knox, it looks like he's standing in front of Los Dos Amigos Sports Bar

Photo:

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Map:

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[Knox]

@Knox, it looks like he's standing in front of Los Dos Amigos Sports Bar

Photo:

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

www.google.com

Map:

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

www.google.com

Thanks @PommyMommy - clearly he wasn't expecting anything. That makes it all the sweeter, only wish he could be deported back to El Salvador to face charges there. A sentence in a US prison will be a cakewalk in comparasion

 

[AnyNameIWish]

"Sad statement is... our jails are better here than they are in El Salvador... "

He won't be deported until he answers for this murder - he also said.

May justice prevail in Maryland. What a horrible failure of protecting the border from this criminal. He is accused of a murder back home as well.

 

[whitelilac]

Imagine sitting in that bar quietly having a drink, and a SWAT team barges in with weapons. I expect everybody either hit the floor or froze.
The creep denied about who he is. DNA doesn't lie, and that DNA will result in more charges for horrible crimes I expect.

 

[Charlot123]

View attachment 510556

Surprisingly close. He obviously lost weight, maybe intentionally. Or, perhaps at the time of the assault he was employed at fast food chain, that would make one gain weight fast. However, at least one witness has amazing photographic memory. Ears, mouth, philtrum, all proportions of the sketch are fantastically close to the reality. I would like to know who the artist was, too.

 

[StarryStarryNight]

View attachment 510556

Wow! Great job with that sketch.

 

[Charlot123]

Thanks @PommyMommy - clearly he wasn't expecting anything. That makes it all the sweeter, only wish he could be deported back to El Salvador to face charges there. A sentence in a US prison will be a cakewalk in comparasion

I am not sure it is safer in El Salvador. The jails reflect the state of the country, in poorer countries, they are worse. However, corruption is worse there, too, so maybe his chance of staying behind bars is higher here.

 

[Charlot123]

States of travel: MD, VA, TX, CA! Many locations for crimes possible.

I’d like to know how he traveled. Flights are expensive and btw, is it possible for an illegal immigrant to board the plane? Buses are more realistic, unless he crosses the border from CA to Mexico, drives in Mexico and enters in in TX. But he had to drive or fly to VA and MD. I wonder if his travels marked more states. He was apprehended in AZ, so AZ, too. He clearly traveled in Mexico, maybe some women disappeared there?

 

[Yemelyan]

This is awesome! I just posted in here on Sunday that I wished Parabon was on it. Do we know if LE performed their own GG?

From the press conference, it sounded like LE performed their own genealogy analysis as they were thanking the strategic partnerships that led to this arrest and they didn't mention any private companies like Parabon. They did say that they were assisted by El Salvador LE in performing some ancestry tracing in that country.

 

[Yemelyan]

Wow, is this the first case where genetic genealogy was used in an active case?

I think you mean, a recent, active case as opposed to a "cold" case like the Golden State Killer?

As others have mentioned, it was utilized in the Kohberger case. Also, and someone can check my memory of this, but in today's press conference I believe one of the FBI agents who spoke stated that active cases would be prioritized for genetic genealogy analysis. Did anyone else hear him say that? I was trying to type on updates to the thread so I might have misheard. I know that (some) jurisdictions required investigators to show that they had exhausted all active leads before it could be used, but that might be a guideline that is being set aside as time goes on.

 

[Charlot123]

JMO, a theory - feel free to remove. I don’t think it violates anything, just an idea.

In March 2024, Scott Kay Bridge in Baltimore port collapsed with six victims whose bodies were recovered slowly. I noticed that at one point, the name of one victim was withheld from the public per family request (see Wikipedia), but now we know all six.

They were from different countries, Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, but as I imagine, you can live in Honduras and have a second cousin in El Salvador, like you can live in the US and have a second cousin in Germany, for example.

The way genetics works, you may have a second or third cousin who you have no idea about, you may be the most law-abiding citizen ever and have a cousin who spent years in jail (welcome to my tree; an unexpected discovery), you can be absolutely unaware of the person. All that criminology needs is a close enough match to find a common ancestor (2-3 cousin is great!) or two more distant matches to find a CA and build a tree. After that, you go down and look at potential suspects - ages, genders, place of living. Usually you don’t get one, you get several and work with their stories. So maybe when they traveled to El Salvador, it was to rule out other suspects, not rule anyone in.

What i am thinking of: there is going to be a lawsuit against Dali, and of course the names of the victims had to be confirmed by DNA tests.

Could it be so that in the process of confirming the victims, LE unexpectedly found the DNA of a close enough relative of the rapist/murderer that they could work with to build a tree?

The last victim was found on May 4th, but of course, DNA tests take much longer. Maybe everything was finished by May 20 and this is how LE got a hit?

Two clues: one, the withheld name of the third victim that is now known, and, the location, Maryland…

BTW, two of the victims have Hernandez as part of their name, but that is not indicative of anything as the name is super common, so I don’t think that should be paid attention to. Plus, naming convention differs between Spain and Portugal (order reversed), and here, people from Mexico/Central/South America would simply drop one of their family names not to confuse us. It is that piece of DNA. Moreover, I suspect LE might have already had one hit in their system, and what they got could be the remaining piece of the puzzle.

Again, a hit says nothing about yourself, your moral qualities or whether you are a law-abiding taxpayer. Genealogy just needs: either one or better, two close enough matches that could be traced up to common ancestors and build a tree; and, the hits need to know their family history well enough.

 

[Mica]

Facebook -

Victor Antonio Martínez Hernández​

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[SteveP]

When you follow these cases, as we all do here, you usually get invested in the cases that you follow. We all know, from experience, that there are far more bad days than good ones here. With the last couple cases that have pulled me in, and are still ongoing, it is a great feeling to hear of this arrest in another case that I was invested in. Kudos to all of the LE agencies that worked so diligently to bring this killer in, because it would only have been a matter of time before he would have killed again, if he hasn't already. Today is a good day! JMO

 

[Elley Mae]

Wow just wow.

Thank goodness

 

[Artis]

I am not sure it is safer in El Salvador. The jails reflect the state of the country, in poorer countries, they are worse. However, corruption is worse there, too, so maybe his chance of staying behind bars is higher here.

Things have radically changed in El Salvador with President Bukele. It's now safe and the population is no longer terrorized. Tourism has resumed. If this guy gets put in prison there, he's not getting out.

 

[Artis]

To bad. Is El Salvador the country with the horrific prisons we hear about?

Terrible if you're if a prisoner but great if you're just a non violent citizen. It's a very interesting story of a country that has been rescued and seen a drastic turn around. There are lots of videos on the prison:

el salvador prison at DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo. Privacy, Simplified.

duckduckgo.com

 

[Herat]

JMO, a theory - feel free to remove. I don’t think it violates anything, just an idea.

In March 2024, Scott Kay Bridge in Baltimore port collapsed with six victims whose bodies were recovered slowly. I noticed that at one point, the name of one victim was withheld from the public per family request (see Wikipedia), but now we know all six.

They were from different countries, Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, but as I imagine, you can live in Honduras and have a second cousin in El Salvador, like you can live in the US and have a second cousin in Germany, for example.

The way genetics works, you may have a second or third cousin who you have no idea about, you may be the most law-abiding citizen ever and have a cousin who spent years in jail (welcome to my tree; an unexpected discovery), you can be absolutely unaware of the person. All that criminology needs is a close enough match to find a common ancestor (2-3 cousin is great!) or two more distant matches to find a CA and build a tree. After that, you go down and look at potential suspects - ages, genders, place of living. Usually you don’t get one, you get several and work with their stories. So maybe when they traveled to El Salvador, it was to rule out other suspects, not rule anyone in.

What i am thinking of: there is going to be a lawsuit against Dali, and of course the names of the victims had to be confirmed by DNA tests.

Could it be so that in the process of confirming the victims, LE unexpectedly found the DNA of a close enough relative of the rapist/murderer that they could work with to build a tree?

The last victim was found on May 4th, but of course, DNA tests take much longer. Maybe everything was finished by May 20 and this is how LE got a hit?

Two clues: one, the withheld name of the third victim that is now known, and, the location, Maryland…

BTW, two of the victims have Hernandez as part of their name, but that is not indicative of anything as the name is super common, so I don’t think that should be paid attention to. Plus, naming convention differs between Spain and Portugal (order reversed), and here, people from Mexico/Central/South America would simply drop one of their family names not to confuse us. It is that piece of DNA. Moreover, I suspect LE might have already had one hit in their system, and what they got could be the remaining piece of the puzzle.

Again, a hit says nothing about yourself, your moral qualities or whether you are a law-abiding taxpayer. Genealogy just needs: either one or better, two close enough matches that could be traced up to common ancestors and build a tree; and, the hits need to know their family history well enough.

I like the way you think, Charlot123

 

[acutename]

JUN 15, 2024

Police arrest man in murder of Maryland mom Rachel Morin

The Harford County Sheriff's office announced on Saturday a suspect in the Rachel Morin murder was arrested in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

www.cbsnews.com

Hernandez had illegally crossed the border into the U.S. in February 2023, after murdering another young woman in El Salvador a month earlier in January 2023, Gaylor said. Interpol, the international law enforcement agency, had issued a warrant for his arrest for the homicide of the woman that occurred there.

The suspect has connections in the Washington, D.C. area, in both Virginia and Prince George's County, and ties to known gangs, Gaylor said.

Martinez is awaiting extradition to Maryland, which Gaylor said could take 30 to 60 days.

curious if he is driving himself from CA to TX to MD to OK with a fake driver's license? or no license... or if he gets driven around by gang associates- he can't fly so....