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*

[Calcano]

It's almost hard to believe this guy hasn't had any run-ins with police during his time across multiple states doing God knows what.

 

[Charlot123]

He was probably making a face for the photo.

His picture in the blue Nike t-shirt is at least five years old (posted on his fb in 2019 when he would be 18). So he didn't slim down since the LA attack as some were speculating.

There is a condition described by Jo Nesbo in the series about Harry Hole. It is connected to hypermobility of the face when the person looks different in different photos and can be unrecognizable. I don’t remember the name of that book (I think an assassin came from former Yugoslavia) but the condition exists. I wonder whether our murderer looks the same and the photos are taken from different angles, or if he, indeed, has facial hyper mobility. Seems that both things are valid. For such people, it is easier to escape.

 

[sunspun]

It's almost hard to believe this guy hasn't had any run-ins with police during his time across multiple states doing God knows what.

Well, he did have a minor run-in w/police at least one other time that we know of, and that turned out to be what got him arrested at the bar in Tulsa and led to the end of his running. I was confused how Tulsa police knew to find him sitting in that bar in Tulsa, and I finally found out how. It was also mentioned in an earlier post in this thread:

"Gahler said Martinez-Hernandez was hanging out at a storefront in Tulsa when officers charged him with trespassing and he was identified during the processing as the suspect wanted in Maryland for Morin's death."

I assume they already had the warrant out for him nationwide, and he must have given cops his real ID when they cited him for trespassing, and they realized he was wanted out of state. Then I figure they must have alerted FBI and other agencies from the states he was wanted in, and kept their eye on him until it was time to arrest him. I guess they didn't alert him to the fact that they knew he was wanted, and just kept him under surveillance while they consulted with the other agencies. Then they must have followed him to the bar where they made the arrest. All that last part is just my assumption on how it went down though. Didn't see any more details reported, but I don't know how else they could have known he was there at that bar!

So that means all it took was a dumb little trespassing charge to take him down in the end, even after he murdered, home invaded, assaulted, and murdered again but was still running free w/no one the wiser. Or so he thought! Little did he know of the feverish hard work investigators were putting in behind the scenes while he ran.

But it does make me wonder what he was doing to get their attention in Tulsa when they ended up citing him for trespassing. Just said he was hanging out in front of a store. That's usually not going to get you arrested. He must have been up to something. And they knew it!

One thing I STILL don't know is WHY he came to Tulsa at all! Just randomly landed here, crisscrossing the country, looking for more crimes to commit? I wonder if he had/has any connection to here somehow. (I'm in Tulsa.) Maybe he just wanted to cause some pain in the "Heartland" since he'd already hit both the West and the East Coast. Anyway, they got him now.

 

[Elley Mae]

The FBI contacted Tulsa Police Department Special Investigations Division detectives Friday after receiving information that Morin was in the Tulsa area.

According to the report, the FBI and TPD detectives found Morin at a bar located at 21st Street and Garnett Road, where he allegedly lied about his true identity and denied any knowledge of the crimes for which he is wanted.

International murder suspect arrested in Tulsa

Authorities in Tulsa arrested a man in a Tulsa bar late Friday who was described as an international murder suspect, a report states

tulsaworld.com

 

[Mert]

The FBI contacted Tulsa Police Department Special Investigations Division detectives Friday after receiving information that Morin was in the Tulsa area.

According to the report, the FBI and TPD detectives found Morin at a bar located at 21st Street and Garnett Road, where he allegedly lied about his true identity and denied any knowledge of the crimes for which he is wanted.

International murder suspect arrested in Tulsa

Authorities in Tulsa arrested a man in a Tulsa bar late Friday who was described as an international murder suspect, a report states

tulsaworld.com

Morin is the name of the victim…

 

[x_files]

VMH is likely a member of the MS-13 gang.

Interesting information at link; including the location - a park, and the way the victim was killed - a rock, as well as a stream.
The motivation for the murder isn't the same, but interesting nonetheless.

MS-13 Gang Member Sentenced for Racketeering Conspiracy

A Maryland man was sentenced today to 26 years in prison for racketeering conspiracy, including murder, connected to his participation in La Mara Salvatrucha, a transnational criminal enterprise also known as MS-13.

www.justice.gov

strange that he doesn't seem to have any gang-affiliated tattoos, that we know of.

 

[x_files]

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

But if they they released him? Only to return again? It's better to know exactly where he is in the USA prison system.

 

[x_files]

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.

Do you think he was staying with extended family and then assaulted them? Then fled to Maryland and assaulted/murdered Rachel?

 

[x_files]

Dude is so barbaric I wouldn't be surprised if he killed someone for their driver's license. MOO

Sounds like he is a coward and only assaulted. killed Mothers with young children. But, I'm sure we will find out soon enough...wasn't there a report of a HOT PROWL involving stealing their car? Then that info was dropped?

 

[x_files]

Facts are facts.
In my opinion, these women would certainly be alive today if…

I don't want violent gang members in the USA either. Or any violent criminal born here either.
I doubt he crossed legally which is hard to vet them.

 

[Elley Mae]

The FBI contacted Tulsa Police Department Special Investigations Division detectives Friday after receiving information that Morin was in the Tulsa area.

According to the report, the FBI and TPD detectives found Morin at a bar located at 21st Street and Garnett Road, where he allegedly lied about his true identity and denied any knowledge of the crimes for which he is wanted.

International murder suspect arrested in Tulsa

Authorities in Tulsa arrested a man in a Tulsa bar late Friday who was described as an international murder suspect, a report states

tulsaworld.com

Will this information Le received get the reward?

Rachel Morin investigation: Reward increased to $35K in Maryland mother's death

The increase comes after a $5,000 donation from Mile Higher, a true crime podcast, hosted by husband-and-wife Josh Thomas and Kendall Rae.

www.cbsnews.com

 

[Charlot123]

.
Just wanted to mention that hyperelasticity syndrome is mentioned in Jo Nesbo's "the Redeemer" and there are at least 5 known conditions associated with it FloridaHealthFinder | Hyperelastic skin | Health Encyclopedia | FloridaHealthFinder

 

[PommyMommy]

Sounds like he is a coward and only assaulted. killed Mothers with young children. But, I'm sure we will find out soon enough...wasn't there a report of a HOT PROWL involving stealing their car? Then that info was dropped?

I don't recall anything about a car being stolen but here's the article that refers to the LA incident as a "hot prowler" burglary.

South L.A. prowler tied by DNA to slaying of mother of five in Maryland

A South L.A. burglar who was caught on a home security video has been tied by DNA to the slaying of a mother of five in Maryland.

www.latimes.com

LAPD Capt. Kelly Muniz said the video comes from a March 26 “hot prowler” burglary in South L.A., which means he burglarized an occupied home. Muniz said a person was assaulted in that incident, but it was not a sexual assault. Hartford County sheriff’s officials said the assault victim was a minor. LAPD collected DNA during the burglary investigation.

 

[HmmMysterious]

This is the news that I've been waiting for. And jfc this man is evil. I believe the best way to deal with him is to lock him up and throw away the key. My thoughts go out to his victims including the woman he killed in El Salvador.

It seems like genetic genealogy was the key to solving this case. That really surprises me considering that Hispanics are a tricky group when it comes to GG. Did a relative of his had DNA in GEDMatch or something? Edit: The police in his home country assisted in ancestry tracing. Wow. This really needs to be used in cases of unidentified migrants.

Rachel Morin killing: Police arrest Victor Hernandez in connection to murder

 

[Charlot123]

This is the news that I've been waiting for. And jfc this man is evil. I believe the best way to deal with him is to lock him up and throw away the key. Deportation would just enable Victor to commit more heinous crimes in his home country. My thoughts go out to his victims including the woman he killed in El Salvador.

It seems like genetic genealogy was the key to solving this case. That really surprises me considering that Hispanics are a tricky group when it comes to GG. Did a relative of his had DNA in GEDMatch or something?

Rachel Morin killing: Police arrest Victor Hernandez in connection to murder

No group is tricky but there is a question of enough representation/not enough representation in databases. What happened was that a year ago, there were no close enough relatives in the databases to build a tree, and now they got a new DNA match. One good match could be enough, but then it has to be at a really close level. Or two, at the farther ones. Here is an example: a first cousin, and the Y-haplogroup matches. That means, father's side and common ancestors are paternal grandparents. The genetic criminologists go at the CA level and make the tree for all descendants and rule out/in possibilities. If it is a cousin and mito DNA match, it is a direct maternal line. Same thing. The two other versions could be when neither Y nor mito match in cousins, but it is doable. In endogamous communities the level of the match is closer than in reality (e.g., fifth cousins on both maternal/paternal lines may look like third cousins), but this factor disappears at the level of first-dergee or second-degree relative. So either the LE hit a paydirt and somehow got the good DNA ofp one close relative, or they had one match, but not close enough, and now they got a second one.

 

[Elley Mae]

Authorities tracked the alleged serial assailant in Tulsa two weeks ago and executed an arrest warrant just before midnight Friday.

Rachel Morin murder: Illegal immigrant from El Salvador charged in rape, killing of Maryland mom-of-5

Victor Martinez-Hernandez, 23, was tracked down in Tulsa, Oklahoma Friday, after police matched his DNA to the gruesome crime scene, Harford County Sherriff Jeffrey Gahler told reporters Saturday.…

nypost.com

….

The Los Angeles case was the through line which allowed investigators to connect DNA samples from the murder scene in Harford County to the surveillance video of the suspect in California. This gave local and federal investigators their first images of Martinez-Hernandez.

"After we had the video, we knew what he looked like, but we didn't know who he was," Gahler said.

Illegal immigrant charged in killing of Rachel Morin, mom found dead near trail in 2023

A man has been arrested in the killing of Rachel Morin, a Maryland mother of five who was found dead near a hiking trail in August of 2023.

abc6onyourside.com

FBI Baltimore field office special agent in charge William DelBagno explained that they were able to trace his DNA to potential family members in El Salvador to help identify the suspect. Then with support from local law enforcement, they were able to track him down to Tulsa, Oklahoma and take him into custody.

 

[LeahBee]

Do you think he was staying with extended family and then assaulted them? Then fled to Maryland and assaulted/murdered Rachel?

I think he would have been identified a lot sooner if he was related to the people he assaulted in LA. It wasn't until genetic genealogy was used that they identified him. Imo

 

[x_files]

I think he would have been identified a lot sooner if he was related to the people he assaulted in LA. It wasn't until genetic genealogy was used that they identified him. Imo

If my extended family member or a close friend of the family assaulted or threatened me with gang affiliations NOT sure I would snitch.

 

[LeahBee]

If my extended family member or a close friend of the family assaulted or threatened me with gang affiliations NOT sure I would snitch.

True, but it was reported

 

[Charlot123]

Do you think he was staying with extended family and then assaulted them? Then fled to Maryland and assaulted/murdered Rachel?

JMO, as i don't know the details. I would suspect that he was staying in the area close to the residence of the first family but I don't know if he were their relative. My guess would be, not, but he was staying with the people he knew in the same neighborhood.