Community members discovered the 150-foot blood trail leading to Rachel Morin’s lifeless body on a hiking trail as volunteers helped police search for the Maryland mom, opening remarks revealed in the long-awaited trial for her accused migrant killer.
Opening statements began Friday morning at the Harford County Circuit Court in Bel Air, Maryland, for the trial of Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, a 23-year-old from El Salvador, who is charged with murdering the 37-year-old Morin in 2023.
Morin’s family members, including her mother, Patty Morin, were seen arriving at the courthouse on Friday.
Martinez-Hernandez is accused of raping and killing Morin, a Harford County mother of five, whose body was discovered along a popular walking trail back in August 2023.
ILLEGAL ACCUSED IN JOGGER RACHEL MORIN’S MURDER SET TO FACE FAMILY, JURY
Morin was reported missing after she did not return home from some evening exercise on the Ma & Pa Trail in Bel Air on Aug. 5.
In opening statements Friday, Harford County State’s Attorney Alison Healey said that concerned community members had gone along the walking trail after seeing missing person posters on Facebook.
Along the creek line, they found a trail that resembled a deer trail, with flattened leaves, before finding rocks with blood on them. The pair walked through two tunnels, with overgrown brush, where they found Morin’s body, Healey said.
The community members immediately called 911. Authorities retraced the path where Morin’s body had been dragged after her brutal rape and murder. Police also collected large bloody rocks that authorities say she had been bashed with.
Healey said that Morin’s right shoe and socks had been left on, and her left shoe and socks had been discarded. She noted that Morin’s bra had been pulled over her breasts.
Healey said the defendant, Martinez-Hernandez, forced Morin against the tunnel wall and raped her. Evidence revealed that the brutal assault had taken place between 7:04 and 7:10 p.m., she said.
Authorities discovered her phone submerged in the water, completely shattered, along with her destroyed Apple Watch. Nearby, they also found her Apple AirPods.
MARYLAND SHERIFF’S ‘GUT’ SAYS RACHEL MORIN WAS ‘STALKED’ BY SUSPECT BEFORE HER MURDER
Autopsy results revealed that Morin had endured 15 to 20 blows to the head and had died from a combination of strangulation and blunt force trauma. Her death was officially ruled a homicide.
Her body bore bruises around her neck, and according to Healey, a DNA profile matched Martinez-Hernandez.
WATCH: VICTOR MARTINEZ-HERNANDEZ’S OKLAHOMA ARREST
On June 14, 2024, authorities pinged Martinez-Hernandez’s cellphone and responded to a bar in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He eventually admitted his identity after initially lying to police and providing a false name, authorities said.
When authorities searched his phone, they said they discovered internet queries for “Bel Air, [Md.]” and “Rachel”—including a misspelled version of Morin’s name—along with images of Morin and media coverage related to the investigation.
WATCH: BODY CAMERA FOOTAGE OF MIGRANT ACCUSED IN MURDER, RAPE OF MARYLAND MOM RACHEL MORIN
Martinez-Hernandez repeatedly told authorities that he had never been in Maryland, only in Texas and Oklahoma, they said.
“You will be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that all of it is the defendant’s DNA,” Healey said Friday. “I’m certain you will be convinced that he had a plan to grab her off the trail and conceal her in the tunnel, drug her in there, bashed her in the head, disrobed her and left his DNA.”
You will be convinced he left her there and fulfilled a mother’s worst nightmare.
Defense attorney Sawyer Hicks, representing Martinez-Hernandez, used his opening statement to cast doubt on the DNA match and suggest the incident was a crime of passion.
Hicks reiterated that the state has the burden of proof, noting that his client is presumed innocent until proven beyond reasonable doubt that he killed Morin.
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT INDICTED FOR RACHEL MORIN’S MURDER IN ‘CRUCIAL STEP’: FAMILY LAWYER
“When you retire to deliberate, we are confident that you will see there is reasonable doubt in this case and that Hernandez is not guilty,” Hicks said.
He said that Martinez-Hernandez and Morin were strangers, and appeared to be laying the groundwork to cast suspicion on her then-boyfriend, Richard Tobin.
Hicks challenged the jury with pointed questions: “Where is the motive? Where is Richard Tobin’s DNA?'”
Tobin has never been accused of any wrongdoing in the case.
Morin’s boyfriend took the stand on Friday, sharing the pair had talked for about 5 months before he asked her to be his girlfriend just five days before Morin’s murder.
After Morin failed to answer Tobin’s repeated text messages and phone calls, worry began to set in. He shared that his first thought was that she was cheating on him.
“Somebody messaged me on Facebook and said they had found her,” he said. “I freaked out. I cried. I screamed.”
Who is Rachel Morin?
Morin was reported missing in August 2023 by her boyfriend, who said she had never returned after going out for a run on the Ma & Pa Trail, a pedestrian trail in Bel Air, a quiet and typically safe town about 28 miles northeast of Baltimore, on Aug. 5, 2023.
Her body was found near the trail the next day.
In February, police released new sketches of Martinez-Hernandez.
WATCH: Rachel Morin murder suspect linked to LA home invasion, assault
The sketches came after DNA evidence linked Martinez-Hernandez to the location of a Los Angeles home invasion. Police used the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), which led them to a single DNA match for an unidentified Hispanic male.
The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) collected a hat left behind at the site of the March 2023 home invasion that had turned violent, injuring a nine-year-old girl and her mother.
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT SUSPECT IN RACHEL MORIN’S MURDER EXPECTED TO ARGUE FOR A CHANGE OF VENUE
The suspect allegedly broke into the home in the middle of the night and assaulted the family inside before he was chased out. Surveillance video footage captured the man leaving, shirtless, through the front door.
PHOTOS OF INITIAL SEARCH IN MARYLAND:
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“I’m going to make this short, because I’m very emotional,” Morin’s mother said previously. “I just want to take this time to thank all the law enforcement for all their hard work.
“They just really cared for our family and for our daughter,” she said. “They were going to diligently work and find the person who murdered her.”
Fox News’ Alexandria Hoff and Sally Persons contributed to this report.
