Suspect in Rachel Morin killing arrives in Maryland following extradition from Oklahoma

The man accused of killing Rachel Morin on a scenic walking trail in Harford County last year arrived Thursday in Maryland, having traveled from Oklahoma, where he was arrested late last week.

A plane carrying Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, 23, landed at Martin State Airport in Middle River around 12:30 p.m. to an awaiting gaggle of news media and a contingent of law enforcement, including Baltimore County Police officers, Harford County Sheriff’s Office deputies and agents with the Department of Homeland Security.

Officers led Martinez-Hernandez from the aircraft and to an awaiting police vehicle, which took him to the Harford County Detention Center, where he’ll be booked, served with murder and rape charges in Morin’s homicide and go before a District Court commissioner to determine his bail status.

It’s unclear if Martinez-Hernandez is being represented by an attorney yet, but he waived his rights to contest extradition earlier this week, enabling authorities to transport him to Harford County to face charges.

The suspect’s highly-publicized arrival Thursday is exceedingly unusual in Maryland, where suspects are frequently extradited to face charges for crimes allegedly committed here, but reflects how the case has become a political flashpoint.

Former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president this year, called Morin’s mother, Patty Morin, Thursday morning to express his condolences to the family.

“I am deeply touched by President Trump’s kindness and concern,” Patty Morin said in a statement released by the family’s attorney. “He was genuine and truly wanted to know how our family was coping. He asked about Rachel and showed honest compassion for her untimely death. His words brought comfort to me during this very difficult time.”

Martinez-Hernandez is accused of killing Morin, a 37-year-old mother of five who was discovered dead along the Ma & Pa Heritage Trail in Bel Air last August, ending what authorities have described as an international crime spree spanning from his native El Salvador to Los Angeles and culminating on the opposite coast in sleepy Harford County.

Operating on FBI intelligence suggesting that he was in Tulsa, Oklahoma, police and federal agents arrested Martinez-Hernandez at a bar there late Friday. Police have credited a DNA analysis called genetic genealogy and a public tip, provided almost a year after Morin’s death, with enabling them to close in on their suspect.

When announcing the arrest Saturday, Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler said Martinez-Hernandez entered the country unlawfully and demanded President Joe Biden and federal lawmakers correct what he described as a broken American immigration system, adding fuel to a contentious political debate expected to be at the center of the forthcoming presidential election.

“To 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and to every member of both chambers of Congress: We are 1,800 miles away from the southern border here in Harford County and the American citizens are not safe because of failed immigration policy,” the sheriff said.

Authorities believe Martinez-Hernandez killed a woman in El Salvador in January 2023 before entering the United States unlawfully, Gahler told reporters. He also said DNA from the scene of Morin’s killing matched genetic matter collected from a March 2023 home invasion in Los Angeles where a mother and her 9-year-old daughter were attacked.

Police in El Salvador and the Salvadoran embassy in Washington, D.C., did not respond to questions. Nor did the Los Angeles Police Department or Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

After arresting Martinez-Hernandez, the Tulsa Police Department searched a one-story, brown stone house where he had been renting a room. The search turned up a laptop computer, a sketch pad, bus tickets and an identification from El Salvador, officers wrote in a search warrant return.

Martinez-Hernandez’s family spoke to detectives from the Harford County Sheriff’s Office who were investigating Morin’s killing, according to Tulsa police’s application for a search warrant. Amongst the belongings relatives turned over to police, detectives “located a sketch that resembled the victim’s face from the chest up.”

This article will be updated.

Baltimore Sun reporters Tony Roberts and Dana Munro contributed to this article.