In a shocking development, an illegal Salvadoran immigrant and member of a criminal gang has been charged with the brutal rape and murder of Rachel Morin, a mother of five, on a popular hiking trail in Maryland. The 23-year-old suspect, Victor Martinez Hernandez, was apprehended by law enforcement officials after an extensive months-long investigation that relied heavily on DNA evidence.

Federal authorities were able to track Hernandez to a bar in Tulsa, Oklahoma, nearly 1,800 miles away from the southern border of the United States. Tulsa police officers found him "casually sitting at the bar" on Friday night, leading to his arrest. Hernandez, also wanted for murder in El Salvador and the assault of a mother and young girl in Los Angeles, had been living illegally in the US since February 2023.

Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler of Harford County, Maryland expressed his deep concern over the rise in migrant crime, emphasizing that this was the second murder of a woman in their county committed by illegal suspects from El Salvador with ties to criminal gangs. Gahler stated that Hernandez had not come to the US seeking a better life, but rather to escape a crime he committed in El Salvador.

The 37-year-old victim, Rachel Morin, was abducted from the Ma and Pa Trail in Bel Air last August and dragged into the woods, where she was brutally assaulted. The investigation initially released a suspect sketch in February, increasing the reward for information leading to his capture to $35,000. Detectives collaborated with numerous state and federal agencies, as well as the Morin family, to crack the case.

Patricia Morin, Rachel's mother, expressed her gratitude for the devoted efforts of the investigators, stating that their patience and diligence ultimately led to the arrest of her daughter's alleged killer. About three weeks ago, on what would have been Rachel's 38th birthday, authorities received a lead related to DNA evidence, which allowed them to identify Hernandez from a video in Los Angeles released two weeks after Rachel's death.

Sheriff Gahler commended the tireless work of the investigative genetic genealogy team in Baltimore, who used crime scene DNA to trace the suspect to potential family members. They even traveled to El Salvador as part of their efforts to identify the killer. The investigation led authorities to track Hernandez's movements from Prince George's County to Tulsa, where they obtained an arrest warrant on Friday afternoon.

Hernandez now faces charges of first-degree murder and first-degree rape for the killing of Rachel Morin. The extradition process to bring him to Maryland has already begun, with the support of Harford County State's Attorney Alison Healy. In addition, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has issued a detainer on Hernandez due to his undocumented status.

Sheriff Gahler concluded by assuring the community that Hernandez was no longer a free man and expressed hope that he would never have the opportunity to walk free again. The arrest of this notorious gang member serves as a grim reminder of the dangers posed by illegal immigrants with criminal backgrounds and highlights the urgent need for increased border security measures.