A former FBI special agent provided insights into how law enforcement apprehended the suspect in the multi-state investigation of Rachel Morin’s homicide. Retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent Scott Duffey explained to Fox News Digital that homicide investigations typically start with those closest to the victim.
“First and foremost, you start with loved ones, whether it be a spouse, a partner or a romantic partner,” he said. “And then once you exclude them, then you move outward.”
Duffey, who met with Morin’s family in Harford County, Maryland, after her murder, said the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) was crucial in connecting the case across state lines. CODIS is a database that compiles DNA profiles of convicted offenders, unsolved crime scene evidence, and missing persons.
A break in the case occurred when DNA evidence from Morin’s crime scene matched a sample in Los Angeles through CODIS. Duffey noted that CODIS operates under “strict guidelines,” ensuring the legitimacy of the match.
The investigation took an unexpected turn when the suspect, later identified as Victor Martinez Hernandez, an illegal El Salvador migrant, was found not to be a U.S. national. This led law enforcement to rely on FBI international offices, known as legal attachés, to coordinate with authorities in El Salvador.
“Having an FBI office in El Salvador, they’re able to bridge that gap with American law enforcement and with El Salvadorian authorities,” Duffey said.
El Salvador authorities informed U.S. law enforcement that Martinez Hernandez had fled his country after committing a murder there. The FBI then issued a “red notice” through Interpol, alerting law enforcement worldwide to detain Martinez Hernandez if encountered.
The FBI’s international office in El Salvador and Harford County investigators worked with LA authorities to advance the investigation. Duffey suggested that Martinez Hernandez’s “digital forensics footprint” played a role in locating him.
“Something like a cellphone, an email address… law enforcement can zone in, pinpoint to a relatively small, very tight area to where surveillance could go out and investigate,” Duffey said.
On Saturday, Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler announced the arrest of Martinez Hernandez in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The 23-year-old was charged with first-degree murder and first-degree rape. Police said he had illegally entered the United States in February 2023.
“We all suspected that Rachel was not his first victim,” Gahler said. “This suspect fled to the United States illegally after committing a murder in El Salvador in January 2023.”
Gahler noted that a DNA match linked Martinez Hernandez to a Los Angeles attack 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 2023 in Los Angeles,” Gahler said. “That was our first DNA match linking Rachel’s case to the one in Los Angeles.”
Rachel Morin, 37, was reported missing on August 5, 2023, by her boyfriend after she did not return from a run on the Ma & Pa Trail in Bel Air, Maryland. Her body was found on the trail the next day.
