Overview of Rachel Morin
Rachel was passionate about her children and family more than anything.
Born on May 20, 1986, in New Hampshire, Rachel Morin was always the person in the room spreading joy with her infectious love for life.
Her family says Rachel was a devoted mother to her children Faye, Violet, Octavia, Deklan, and Lilah.
Beyond being a mother, she loved fashion and playing with style. Photos of Rachel depict her as a trendy woman — always with a smile as her greatest accessory.
Rachel was also an avid fitness enthusiast, often participating in 5ks, marathons, and lifting weights. She enjoyed traveling when she could, and she had visited numerous places, namely Miami, Aruba, Las Vegas, and New England.
Her family says Rachel was the life of every party.
"She had a special knack for making people laugh," Rachel's obituary reads. "Her presence was the joy she showed and her smile the light in the room. She was deeply devoted to her faith, which was a guiding force throughout her life."
On the Saturday evening of August 5, 2023, Rachel went out for an evening walk along the Ma & Pa Heritage trail — as she often did.
The trail is a scenic 6.25 mile multi-purpose path with varying terrain. Parts of the path are either paved, decked over, or within the woods.
But, when Rachel didn't make it home that night, her boyfriend Richard Tobin, reports her as missing to the police just before midnight at 11:23pm.
The next day, an organized search is put together, when a citizen discovers a woman's body inside a drainage tunnel.
She is later identified as Rachel Morin.
On August 17, 2023, investigators found a DNA match to another suspect after entering the male DNA found at the scene into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS).
The suspect is the same person who committed a home invasion and assault of a young girl in Los Angeles in March, 2023. Doorbell camera footage of the suspect shows the man leaving the home, wearing pants but no shirt. He’s described as a Hispanic male in his early-to-mid-20s, standing approximately 5’9” and weighing about 160 pounds.
Emotional Family Photos
Recently, Tim Pappa, former FBI Special Agent and Profiler with the BAU, worked with the Morin family to film emotional videos.
Pappa’s mission at the Ma and Pa Trail in Maryland was simple — give Rachel’s loved one’s the space to share their feelings following a traumatic event (the Meaning Making Model) while standing in a significant location (a.k.a., persuasive geography) to create moving content that could help drive the case.
In October 2023, evidence related to the crime leads investigators to the Washington D.C. metro area where they interview an individual they say is "relevant" to the case to help identify the suspect.
Then, in November 2023, the Morin family distributed flyers to the Los Angeles region, partnering with the US Postal Service's Targeted Mailing Program. The flyers are delivered to about 10,000 homes.
On November 29, 2023, AI cameras were starting to be installed along the Ma & Pa Hiking Trail. The project completion date is expected to be February 2024.
Suspect Charged in Tulsa, OK.
Through DNA evidence and tracking, local police and the FBI arrested Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez in Tulsa, Oklahoma in June of 2024. Martinez-Hernandez, allegedly entered the U.S. illegally last year from El Salvador, where he was wanted for murdering a woman, according to the sheriff and the FBI.
