Shoes and clothing belonging to Rachel Morin’s alleged killer turned out to be crucial evidence that identified the murder suspect, according to charging documents.
Victor Antonio Martinez Hernandez’s relatives turned over two bags of clothes and a pair of shoes that he left behind at their Maryland home after he took off in the wake of raping and killing Morin, 37, on Aug. 4.
The DNA samples obtained from the clothing were processed at the Maryland State Police Forensics Lab, matching the DNA from the crime scene, documents show.
Hernandez is charged with murder, rape and assault for attacking Morin on the Ma & Pa Heritage hiking trail in Bel Air.
According to police, the fatal assault was so brutal that her heartbroken family said it appeared as though “her head had been smashed with a rock.”
About a month later, police matched Hernandez’s DNA from a home invasion and assault of a young girl in Los Angeles — which includes surveillance video of the brute leaving the scene of the crime — to the Maryland crime scene, authorities said.
He was officially identified in May.
Hernandez’s family members told detectives he had been staying with them from December 2023 until May 2024.
Hernandez was arrested at a bar in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on June 14, and extradited to Maryland on Thursday under heavy security.
The Morin family’s attorney Randolph Rice said Hernandez is due to be hauled in front of a judge in Hartford County after being extradited from Tulsa and is scheduled for a bail hearing on Friday, with the case to be presented to a grand jury.
Authorities said Hernandez entered the US illegally in February 2023, and was known to be affiliated with violent street gangs in El Salvador, where he is suspected in the murder of another woman.