A former FBI special agent gave an inside look into how federal and state regulation enforcement apprehended the El Salvador migrant suspect in the multi-state murder investigation of Rachel Morin.
Retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent Scott Duffey instructed Fox News Digital that, initially of any murder investigation, regulation enforcement begins with these closest to the sufferer.
“First and foremost, you start with loved ones, whether it be a spouse, a partner or a romantic partner,” he mentioned. “And then once you exclude them, then you move outward.”
Duffey, who met with Morin’s household in Harford County, Maryland, after her homicide, mentioned the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) allowed regulation enforcement throughout state strains to remain on the identical web page because the 10-month investigation progressed.
Victor Martinez Hernandez, 23, was arrested in the homicide of Rachel Morin. (Harford Co. Sheriff’s Office)
CODIS is a database utilized by federal and state regulation enforcement to compile DNA profiles of convicted offenders, unsolved crime scene proof and lacking individuals.
A break in Morin’s murder case got here after a bit of DNA proof confirmed up hundreds of miles from Morin’s Maryland hometown in Los Angeles weeks after her disappearance.
Scott Duffey, a retired former FBI particular agent, mentioned Rachel Miron’s murder with Fox News Digital. (Fox News Digital)
“And lo and behold, the two DNA matches from DNA from Rachel Morin’s crime scene and the DNA from LA were a match through CODIS,” he mentioned.
Morin mentioned the CODIS operates beneath “strict guidelines,” which gave him consolation concerning the legitimacy of the DNA match.
“They have very strict guidelines, and the fact that you had two DNA matches was very comforting to me as a former investigator,” he mentioned.
Rachel Morin went lacking after taking a stroll on a Maryland path. (Harford County Sheriff’s Office/FB)
The former particular agent mentioned the surprising twist got here after investigators found Morin’s suspected killer, later recognized as Victor Martinez Hernandez, an illegal El Salvador migrant, was not a U.S. nationwide.
Martinez Hernandez’s immigration standing prompted regulation enforcement to depend on FBI worldwide places of work, known as authorized attachés.
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“What’s their next stop out of the country into El Salvador?” Duffey mentioned. “Now, it’s one thing when you have a genealogical tree, and you’re able to say, ‘OK, we’re getting closer’ and the DNA experts are able to say, ‘Hey, this is a match’.
“But if you exit of the nation, you lose sure possession of an investigation.”
A photo of Rachel Morin was posted to a tree by her family along the Ma and Pa Trail in Bel Air, Md., Aug. 10, 2023. The 37-year-old was murdered while hiking the trail. (Mega for Fox News Digital)
The FBI international office in El Salvador was used to “bridge that hole” with law enforcement in the U.S. on Morin’s case,” Duffey mentioned.
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“But having an FBI office in El Salvador, they’re able to bridge that gap with American law enforcement and with El Salvadorian authorities,” he mentioned.
Victor Martinez Hernandez, 23, was arrested in the homicide of Rachel Morin. (Harford Co. Sheriff’s Office)
El Salvador authorities then communicated with U.S. regulation enforcement that Martinez Hernandez had fled his nation of origin after brutally killing somebody in the Central American country.
The information prompted the FBI to place out a “red notice,” which instructed all regulation enforcement concerned in Interpol to be looking out for Martinez Hernandez.
“That red notice would have alerted authorities, ‘Do not let this individual go any further. Stop and detain,'” Duffey mentioned. “All those things are falling into place, not to mention the hard work that Harford County investigators pursued with LA authorities.”
Rachel Morin, a mom of 5, was discovered useless on a mountain climbing path. She was reported lacking by her new boyfriend, far proper, Richard Tobin. (Facebook)
Duffey mentioned he believes regulation enforcement used Martinez Hernandez’s “digital forensics footprint” to piece collectively the ultimate touches on its investigation.
“A cell phone, an email address, something that this individual is communicating with anybody else and thereby having such a footprint that law enforcement can zone in, pinpoint to a relatively small, very tight area to where surveillance could go out and investigate,” he mentioned.
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Duffey mentioned it was “amazing” Martinez Hernandez, a needed fugitive, managed to evade capture for 10 months after Morin’s murder.
“It will be interesting to see what his means were,” he mentioned. “Who was supporting this particular person who was already a fugitive from justice from his country of origin?”
Richard Tobin, far left, denied he had any function in his girlfriend Rachel Morin’s loss of life after her physique was discovered on a Maryland mountain climbing path. (Facebook)
RACHEL MORIN MURDER
On Saturday, Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler introduced the arrest of Martinez Hernandez.
Gahler mentioned the 23-year-old was arrested in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and charged with first-degree homicide and first-degree rape.
The 23-year-old migrant illegally crossed into the United States in February 2023, police introduced.
“We all suspected that Rachel was not his first victim,” Gahler mentioned. “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.”
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Gahler mentioned a primary DNA match for Martinez Hernandez was from a Los Angeles assault in March 2023.
“Once in our country, and likely emboldened by his anonymity, he brutally attacked a 9-year-old girl and her mother during a home invasion in March of 2023 in Los Angeles,” Gahler mentioned. “And as everyone I believe is aware, that was our first DNA match linking Rachel’s case to the one in Los Angeles.”
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Morin, 37, was reported lacking in August by her boyfriend, who mentioned she by no means returned after going out for a run on the Ma & Pa Trail, a pedestrian path in Bel Air, a quiet and sometimes protected city about 28 miles northeast of Baltimore, Aug. 5, 2023.
Her physique was discovered on a path the subsequent day.