A day late..
TRANSCRIPT OF PRESS CONFERENCE
17TH AUGUST
COLONEL - Last night we received critical pieces of information and our detectives have been working throughout the night and today, running down our new leads. Once the new evidence came to light, Sheriff (?), was adamant that we needed to inform our community as soon as possible, and that's why we're here tonight.
As you know, since Saturday, August 5th., 12 days ago, the Harford County Sheriff's Office has been working around the clock, to get justice for Rachel Morin and hopefully bring peace to her family. Since that first day, over 300 community tips have flooded our inboxes and emails. Her death has grabbed local, state, national and international headlines, everyone with the same goal, find the killer and bring justice to Rachel.
DNA evidence is part of nearly every modern day investigation, and in Rachel's case, DNA evidence was collected by our Forensic Services Unit. That DNA was analysed by the Maryland State Police and it was ran through the National CODIS system.
This DNA evidence has come back as a match, tied to a home invasion and an assault of a young girl in Los Angeles, this past March. Unfortunately, that suspect has not been positively identified, but he did leave behind his DNA. Based on the DNA evidence, we consider the individual in the video we obtained from the Los Angeles Police Department, and that we are about to show you on our TV screens, to be the person that murdered Rachel Morin on August 5th. So we're now going to show the
video. Just so everyone's aware, this video, after this press conference, will be posted on our social media.
Based on our analysis of this video and witness observations, we believe the suspect to be approximately 5ft 9, 160lbs. and of hispanic descent. If you have any information about this suspect, we are asking you to please call our detectives at our tip line and the tip line number is 410-836-7788, and we've also established a dedicated tip email address and that email address is
www.rmtips@Harfordsheriff.org
We want to make it clear that we believe the suspect acted alone and he doesn't represent the entire Hispanic community of Harford County, who we are now partnering with to identify this suspect. I know I can speak for the sheriff when I say - we are immensely proud of this community. Our community will not be defined by this tragedy. Our community is one that will work together to get the job done and bring this suspect to justice. In the meantime, in the light of this new evidence, I urge our citizens to use caution while walking on our trails and throughout our community. Be alert, walk with a friend, don't allow yourself to be distracted by your cell phone or headphones. And finally, if you see something that makes you feel uncomfortable, or that you think is suspicious, act on those instincts and call 911. And lastly, we will continue our increased presence on the Ma & Pa Trail.
REPORTER - Do you have any other details on what happened in Los Angeles, exactly where or, you know, anything about what this person did there?
COLONEL - So, when it comes to the details about Los Angeles that'sm information that the LAPD has, and we're just going to refer people to the LAPD to get those details. Only thing I can tell you, it was an attack on a young girl.
REPORTER - Any word about a possible motive, like was Rachel missing any money or anything like that?
COLONEL - So, we are not going to talk about the crime scene at this time, because as I've said in previous interviews, we don't want to talk about the crime scene or what happened at the crime scene, because once we catch this person, we want to make sure we got the right person and the only people that know what happened at that crime scene, when we catch the person, is us and that suspect, so we're not giving any details about that.
REPORTER - Again, how did you come across... what led you to this particular suspect, this person?
COLONEL - So, we collected DNA from our crime scene, the Maryland State Police analysed that DNA for us, ran it through the National CODIS system, and that came back as a match to the crime that occurred in Los Angeles, where they had recovered DNA from this person that you saw on the video.
REPORTER - The video that we watched - tell us about... I mean, Los Angeles police released it to you, but what is that, is it at a home, is it at a scene of a crime?
COLONEL - It is at a home and that is the suspect leaving the home, the scene of the crime there.
REPORTER - And that was a home invasion and an assault?
COLONEL - Correct.
REPORTER - Of a little girl, is that what you said?
COLONEL - A young girl and I'm gonna leave it at.. a young girl. I don't want to talk about the family there, but it was a young girl in the house that got assaulted.
REPORTER - What does this do to the case? You have an image there of a person you think is believed to be responsible for this. What does that do for the case?
COLONEL - Well, I think now it kind of leads us down the path that, we believe, this was a person that Rachel probably didn't know. Maybe, you could say, potentially, a random act of violence, and we're hoping that the community now can watch that video, and we've also got still pictures that we're going to be putting out and if somebody can identify him.
REPORTER - Have you narrowed it down to a certain area? Do you could think he could still be, like, somewhere on the Ma & Pa trail...?
COLONEL - We don't have any clue where he could be. We don't even know if he's still in Harford County or in the state of Maryland, because obviously in March, he was in California and then, here in August, he was here in Maryland, so we don't know if he's still here or not.
REPORTER - Do you have any evidence that he was targeting people along that trail, or do you believe this was completely random?
COLONEL - I don't need to be speculating, we do not know.
REPORTER - Do you think he may be armed, have any weapons, anything like that?
COLONEL - Again, speculation.
REPORTER - You describe him as 5ft 9, 160lbs., hispanic male. Do you have an approximate age?
COLONEL - Oh yeah, we believe he is low to mid 20s.
REPORTER - Do you have a date for when the Los Angeles home invasion happened?
COLONEL - I'm just gonna put out that it was in March. LAPD knows that we're doing this press conference, so if you call them they would probably be able to give you that information.
REPORTER - How rare is this to have a DNA hit from the other side of the country? Can you talk about that process and how that works?
COLONEL - This is the first time I've seen a hit in a case that I've been involved in, that was that far away for a DNA hit. So, I wouldn't say that it's unheard of, but certainly unusual.
REPORTER - For the record, you don't have his name or where he lives, or anything like that, if he's from LA or...?
COLONEL - We don't know. We know nothing more about him other than he was in LA and committed that crime in March, and he was here in August and is the murderer.. we believe, to be the murderer of Rachel Morin.
REPORTER - To follow up on that question. You identified him through DNA evidence, through this database, so there's no name associated with that..?
COLONEL - No. There's no name associated because it's just evidence from a crime that was submitted and his DNA... like being arrested and getting DNA, none of that is in the system. However, we are working with.. we have called the FBI, and we are working with some of their DNA experts and their crime lab to try to help us further analyse this DNA.
REPORTER - Without compromising the investigation, can you tell us - Rachel was found and it was determined that it was a homicide?
COLONEL - Correct.
REPORTER - Was there turmoil(?), was she beaten, what was the nature of..?
COLONEL - All we've said so far, and I think we're gonna leave it at, is that it was a violent attack.
REPORTER - Was there a relationship at all between Rachel and the suspect?
COLONEL - Well, again, we just got this information last night, not that we have been able to determine yet. We don't know of any relationship or that they were known to each other, before this incident, so I can't really say, right now, no.
REPORTER - Obviously, this already has the community on the edge. Somebody out here who's just murdered someone. What's your message to the community? Obviously people are scared.
COLONEL - Yeah, we want our community to be vigilant. Obviously, the Ma & Pa Trail has been opened since the day after Rachel was discovered. We have a very large amount of deployment on the Ma & Pa Trail. We're going to continue that deployment, until either this person is caught or we believe he's not in the area anymore, but our plan is to be vigilant for our community. Our community has been just tremendous with the support they give us and trying to figure out what's going on and calling in tips. And we're hoping that maybe even people from LA will see this interview and see that this person committed that crime there, and maybe somebody knows him. We believe, and we hope, that somebody who actually knows this suspect that's in the video, will be able to identify him for us.
REPORTER - Are you revealing where the DNA was found?
COLONEL - No.
REPORTER - Was it under her fingernails or..?
COLONEL - No, we're not going to reveal that.
REPORTER - That video was from Los Angeles, after the assault?
COLONEL - Yes. That is the suspect leaving the assault that occurred in March in Los Angeles.
REPORTER - Doorbell cam., right..?
COLONEL - Errr.. I mean...
REPORTER - Home security cam, right?
COLONEL - Yes.
Any other questions? All right. Well, thank you very much.
