The trial continues for Rachel Morin, a 37-year-old mother of 5 who was killed on August 5, 2023, jogging on the Ma & Pa Heritage Trail in Bel Air, Maryland.
The trial began on Friday, April 4, 2025, against Victor Martinez-Hernandez, who was arrested in June of 2024 for the murder of Morin. However, he pleaded not guilty to the kidnapping, rape, and murder of Morin.
Investigators believe Martinez-Hernandez had planned the attack on Morin before pulling her off of the trail, attacking, and then killing her. He was living with an aunt in Temple Hills, Maryland in 2023 but left the house one day after Morin’s death and never returned, according to his aunt.
Opening Statements
Harford County State’s Attorney Alison Healy revealed that Morin visited the Ma & Pa trail almost every morning during the summer of 2023 when she delivered the opening statements for the prosecution. Morin generally went on the same route every time she was on the trail.
Martinez-Hernandez’s lawyer Sawyer Hick delivered his opening statements. He claimed he disagreed about who killed Morin and believes Morin attracted male attention and claims the relationship between her and her boyfriend Richard Tobin could have been upsetting to any other man interested in Morin.
Testimonies
On the first day of the trial, some of Morin’s family and friends testified. Her 14-year-old daughter, Violet Custer being the first. She spoke on the day Morin disappeared and the last text message she received at about 7pm.
Morin’s boyfriend, Tobin, and Morin’s oldest child, 19-year-old Faye McMahon shared similar encounters of their last communication with Morin via text message.
On the second day of the trial, a Bel Air resident explained how she alerted the police that her friend had found Morin’s body in a tunnel.
On Wednesday, April 9th, a witness who was supposedly one of the last people to see Morin alive took the stand. Kylie Stacy explained he was walking on the trail on the evening of August 5, 2023, with his dog and girlfriend. He claims he heard a branch snap in a wooded area of the trail about half of a mile from where the trail begins and when he turned, saw a man with broad-shoulders and what he described to the police initially as a blonde beard. Martinez-Hernandez has a brown beard.
He also claimed the man was holding a black stick with an orange cap. He testified the man had been “acting sneaky” and when Stacey looked at him, the man looked like he had been caught.
Stacy told the jury the experience made him feel on-edge, so he cautiously made his way back to the trailhead. When he began making his way back, he saw Morin with headphones in, adjusting her apple watch.
Stacy told the jury that he had heard about the murder later and when he looked up an article, he had recognized Morin right away and alerted police.
Evidence
Detectives collected DNA from various places on Morin’s body and matched that DNA with DNA collected from socks that Martinez-Hernandez had left when he initially fled Maryland.
On Martinez-Hernandez’s cell phone, they found searches of the Bel Air area and pictures of Morin prior to the attack and months after Morin’s death, found he had searched online for information regarding Morin’s case, and took a screenshot of a news report.
Digital forensic examiner Megan Waltimyer found that according to health data from Morin’s phone and apple watch, her heartrate spiked at 7:07pm at 115 beats per minute. Her heartrate dropped to 69 beats per minute two minutes later and just 26 seconds after that, dropped to 62 beats per minute which is when investigators suspect Morin had died. Since Morin’s phone was found smashed, Waltimyer explained how they switched out Morin’s logic board from her smashed phone and inserted it into a functioning phone.
Lead detective Philip Golden explained how, even after a thorough search of Morin’s phone and social media, speaking with family, and searching the area, they found no other potential suspects directly linked to Morin.
Photos of the crime scene shown to the jury revealed a 150-foot trail of blood that led to Morin’s body from the Ma & Pa Trail.
A shovel was found in the woods days after discovering Morin’s body that matched the description of the walking stick Stacey gave in his testimony. The shovel was taken into evidence, and detectives have yet to explain what was found on the shovel when tested.
Attorney Randoph Rice explained, “[Stacey] saw him with what he believed was a walking stick, which they believe is obviously a shovel, but that walking stick had that very distinctive orange cap and tip on it, which matched the shovel that they found in the woods a couple days later.”
Prosecution evidence and witness testimony proved Martinez-Hernandez was in Bel Air close to the crime scene before and after the killing. His roommate explained that since March 2023, they had lived less than a mile away from “the park.” The general manager of a local Popeyes told the jury Martinez-Hernandez had been hired in April. According to a cook at Barretts on the Pike, Martinez-Hernandez was a dishwasher there shortly after.
According to Rice, “He had multiple fake names. Not only was he giving fake names to his employers, but it sounds like he was also using fake names on Facebook. So, nobody really knew who he was.”
The trial is expected to continue through April 16.