Editor’s Note: This story contains discussions of rape or sexual assault that may be disturbing. Reader discretion is advised. If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, you can find help and discreet resources on the National Sexual Assault Hotline website or by calling 1-800-656-4673.
(NewsNation) — Pretrial proceedings begin Monday for the man accused of killing Rachel Morin, a 37-year-old mother of five, with the family’s attorney expressing confidence in the prosecution’s DNA evidence against the suspect.
“The DNA collected at the scene is certainly going to be one of the biggest pieces of evidence,” Randolph Rice, attorney and spokesperson for Morin’s family, said Sunday on “NewsNation Prime.” “There’s copious amounts of DNA at the scene that’s going to be the key, sort of the linchpin of this case.”
Morin’s family is “nervous and anxious” as the trial gets underway, according to Rice. He said Morin’s mother, Patty, has expressed feeling “helpless” throughout the ordeal.
“When Rachel was allegedly murdered by this suspect, she felt helpless that she wasn’t there to help her,” Rice said. “She has the same feelings this week, but she is confident that the prosecutors in this case are prepared to present the evidence to the jury.”
Investigators used DNA evidence and investigative genetic genealogy (IGG) to identify the suspect, Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez. Rice confirmed that the DNA linked the suspect to camera footage in Los Angeles and ultimately led investigators to a family member in Southern Maryland.
“Once they had that family member, they were able to interrogate them, ask them questions that ultimately led to a name,” Rice said. The suspect was later apprehended in a bar in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Despite the high-profile nature of the case, Rice believes a fair jury can be seated in Harford County.
“It’s not ‘have you heard about this case,’ it’s ‘can you be fair and impartial in judging the evidence and the facts of this case,'” Rice explained. “Even though Harford County is a small community, I think they’ve got a couple hundred thousand people that they can pull from.”
Rachel Morin murder case timeline
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Rachel Morin, 37, was last seen alive at around 6 p.m. Saturday when she left to take a walk on a nature trail. (Photo: Harford County Sheriff’s Office) -
Credit: Facebook -
DNA taken from the Rachel Morin crime scene has been linked to an unidentified suspect in a Los Angeles home invasion, Colonel William Davis of the Harford County Sheriff’s Office announced Thursday night. (Harford Co. Sheriff’s Office photos) -
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A memorial for Rachel Morin is displayed on a tree on the Ma & Pa Trail in Bel Air, Maryland. (Dillon Mullan/Baltimore Sun/Tribune News Service via Getty Images) -
Authorities have arrested Victor Martinez Hernandez in the killing of Rachel Morin, a Harford County, Maryland mother whose body was found near a popular hiking trail in August 2023. Hernandez, 23, had illegally crossed the border into the U.S. in February 2023, after murdering another young woman in El Salvador a month earlier, according to authorities.
Morin disappeared on Aug. 5, 2023, while running on a popular trail in Harford County, Maryland. Her body was found the next day, sparking a 10-month nationwide search for the suspect.
Martinez-Hernandez, 22, at the time of the killing, was arrested on June 15, 2024, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was indicted on July 2 and denied bail.
The case gained national attention due to Martinez-Hernandez’s immigration status. According to reports, he entered the U.S. from El Salvador illegally multiple times and is wanted for murder in his native country.
Authorities say his crime spree began in El Salvador, where he is accused of murdering a woman in December 2022. In early 2023, he crossed the U.S. southern border three times but was expelled each time by the Border Patrol.
He succeeded on his fourth attempt and later surfaced in Los Angeles, where he was linked to the assault of a woman and a 9-year-old girl. He then traveled to Maryland, where he was accused of killing Morin.
Rice, a former prosecutor, described the case as “one of the worst” he’s seen in his career.
“The nature of being dragged off the trail and raped and kidnapped and beaten and then murdered. It’s just a horrific story,” Rice said. “To have something that’s gruesome really shook the community of Harford County,” which typically averages six or seven murders per year.
Rachel Morin’s mom: I don’t want another mother to feel this pain
Patty Morin has testified in Congress about enhancing border security since her daughter’s death.
During a House Judiciary Committee hearing last September, Patty Morin talked about how she was also the victim of sexual violence when a man kidnapped her for three days and raped her at night.
Learning law enforcement had found Rachel Morin’s body “tore me apart,” Patty Morin previously told NewsNation, “because a part of me could understand some of what she suffered.”
NewsNation’s Ashley Soriano contributed to this report.
