The family of Rachel Morin has returned to the trail where she was murdered. They paid an emotional tribute to her and her memory in a moment of grief. The family took down the wanted flyers for information on her killer that they hung on the trail. Instead, they've placed flowers at the trail.
Authorities discovered Morin's body there last year. He family wanted the area to "belong to Rachel again." Matt McMahon, who shared a daughter with Morin, said the return to the trail "finally feels different." Police have arrested her suspected murderer nearly a year later.
"I brought flowers and placed them on the rock at the trailhead, and I took down the flyers with Victor's sketch," McMahon tearfully told Fox 45 News. "I felt like up to this point Victor had taken this trail from us, but now this trail belongs to Rachel again."
He said that he felt "joy, relief," and "gratitude" in the moment he learned police arrested Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez for her mother. "Before answering the phone, just looking at the name and knowing the time, I knew what it meant," he told the outlet. It brings to a close the search for her suspected killer. McMahon revealed that their daughter is having a daughter of her own, and he wished that Morin could have been there.
"It's a happy moment and a sad moment too because Rachel should be here for that moment," he said. "Faye should be able to give Rachel that news, to tell Rachel you're going to be a grandmother. But she can never give that news."
Rachel Morin Died On The Trail
Authorities arrested Martinez-Hernandez for her death. He allegedly sexually assaulted and killed Morin on the Ma and Pa Heritage Trail in Bel Air, Maryland last August. Authorities found her body in the nearby ditch. Less than two weeks later, authorities found DNA from her alleged killer on a water bottle.
"Investigators even traveled to El Salvador as part of their efforts to identify this killer," Bill DelBango of the FBI Baltimore Field Office said."To find the suspect, we've provided technical assistance helping to pinpoint his location. That brings us to [Friday night], where Tulsa police and FBI agents were able to successfully apprehend and arrest the suspect in Oklahoma."
They finally caught Martinez-Hernandez in Tulsa. ."
"He came here and murdered Rachel," said Gahler during a press conference announcing his arrest. "That should not have been allowed to happen."
