Rachel Morin murder: Illegal migrant suspect to be extradited to Maryland this week
Victor Martinez Hernandez, the illegal migrant suspected of murdering mother of five Rachel Morin last year, is expected to be extradited to Maryland this week to face charges, Fox News Digital has learned.
Martinez Hernandez is scheduled to leave Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Thursday morning and arrive at Martin State Airport between 12:30 and 1 p.m., the Harford County Police Department confirmed.
Following his arrival in Maryland, the 23-year-old will be taken to the Harford County Detention Center, police said.
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Martinez Hernandez was arrested on June 14 after a lengthy 10-month investigation into Morin's murder.
He was charged with first-degree murder and first-degree rape.
Authorities said that Martinez Hernandez illegally crossed into the United States in February 2023.
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"We all suspected that Rachel was not his first victim," Harford County Sheriff Jeffery Gahler said during the arrest announcement on Saturday. "It is my understanding that this suspect, this monster, fled to the United States illegally after committing the brutal murder of a young woman in El Salvador a month earlier in January of 2023."
Morin, 37, was reported missing in August by her boyfriend, who said she never returned after going out for a run on the Ma & Pa Trail, a pedestrian trail, in Bel Air, a quiet and typically safe town about 28 miles northeast of Baltimore, on Aug. 5, 2023.
Her body was found on a trail the following day.
Morin's suspected killer being identified as an illegal migrant prompted a flurry of discussion on the Biden administration's immigration policy.
At the announcement of Martinez Hernandez's arrest, Gahler slammed the administration's "failed immigration policies."
"We are 1,800 miles from the southern border," Gahler said. "And American citizens are not safe because of their failed immigration policies."
"This is the second time in two years that an innocent Harford County woman has lost her life to a criminal in our country illegally," he said, repeating his statement. "In both cases, they are suspects from El Salvador with ties to criminal gangs. This should not be happening."
"Victor Hernandez did not come to this country to make a better life for him or his family, he came here to escape the crimes he committed in El Salvador. He came here to murder Rachel and, God-willing, no one else," he said.
"But that should have never been allowed to happen," Gahler said.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore expressed his anger toward failed immigration policy during an appearance on "Fox & Friends" on Wednesday.
"I'm infuriated, and our state is still mourning," Moore said.
"Harford County in our state … where this brutal murder happened is 1,800 miles away from the border, and so when people think this is only impacting a few states, this is impacting every single one of us," he said.
"This inaction that we continue to see to get any form of sensible immigration policy done is impacting all of us, because all of us and local jurisdictions deal with the consequences of this," he said.
Fox News Digital's Baille Hill contributed to this report.