Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - TRAIL-MOM RACHEL MORIN'S BLUDGEON-DEATH KILLER BUSTED IN TULSA

Episode Date: June 17, 2024

The man suspected in the bludgeoning death of Rachel Morin is no longer on the run. Harford Sheriff Jeff Gahler announced the arrest of Victor Antonio Martinez Hernandez, an undocumented migrant from El Salvador. Police say the 23-year-old is suspected of a murder in his home country and the rape and assault of a 9-year-old California girl and her mother.  Morin's body was found along the Ma & Pa Trail 10 months ago. DNA found at the crime scene matched a home invasion in Los Angeles, leading to the suspect's arrest in Oklahoma.  Joining Nancy Grace Today:  Matthew Mangino – Attorney, Former District Attorney (Lawrence County); Author: “The Executioner’s Toll: The Crimes, Arrests, Trials, Appeals, Last Meals, Final Words and Executions of 46 Persons in the United States” Caryn L. Stark – Psychologist, Renowned TV and Radio Trauma Expert and Consultant; Instagram: carynpsych/FB: Caryn Stark Private Practice Chris McDonough – Director at the Cold Case Foundation, Former Homicide Detective; Host of YouTube channel: “The Interview Room” Dr. Kendall Crowns – Chief Medical Examiner Tarrant County (Ft Worth) and Lecturer: University of Texas Austin and Texas Christian University Medical School Alexis Tereszcuk - CrimeOnline.com Investigative Reporter, Writer/Fact Checker at Lead Stories; X:@swimmie2009    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A beautiful young mom, the so-called trail mom, Rachel Moran's killer, responsible for bludgeoning her dead and raping her, leaving her naked body lying out on a public trail in the last hours, busted in Tulsa. Good evening. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories.

Thank you for being with us. When I woke up, it felt like, um, it felt like a shadow. It also felt like profound sadness, emptiness. I just knew that there was something that, I think it's just mother's intuition. I just knew there was something that wasn't right, that there was something terribly wrong, but I didn't know what it was. Just over three weeks ago, on May 20th, on what should have been Rachel's 38th birthday, and then a poetic coincidence, or perhaps in Rachel's own divine assistance, our investigators uncovered a lead that led us to this day. And on this day, I'm here to tell you, Rachel's murderer is no longer

a free man. Hopefully, he will never have the opportunity to walk free again. You were just hearing Rachel's mother telling me the anguish that she has been through and describing the moment that she learned her daughter, a mother of five, the so-called trail mom, beautiful woman, mother of five, found bludgeoned dead, left naked and bloody on a trail. And then we hear in the last hours, Sheriff of Harford County, Jeff Galler, speaking out. And what an arrest it was. Busted. Who is he? This guy is a non-citizen migrant. Some people would call an illegal alien, a non-citizen migrant on the run from a murder charge in El Salvador.

And let me just remind everybody that he is suspected in the rape of a girl in L.A. What was the straw that broke the camel's back for Victor Antonio Martinez Hernandez? Listen. The lead we received was related to DNA evidence and allowed investigators to finally put a name to the image of the suspect in the video from Los Angeles, which we released two weeks after Rachel's death. After we had the video, we knew what he looked like. After we had, we knew what he looked looked like but we didn't know who he was

with the new dna evidence now we know who he is but we still didn't know where he was and they tracked him they tracked this guy all around the world because remember rachel Morin is found brutally, brutally murdered. And very interestingly, her face totally destroyed. Half of her face just beaten in. Of course, I'm just a trial lawyer. I'm not a shrink. But I know that means something psychologically that this beautiful woman, this mom of five is brutalized, her face destroyed. We now know this is the same guy, according to DNA evidence, that killed a woman in El Salvador and attacked a young girl in LA. Oh, this guy was tracked like hounds from hell. Listen. Over the past two weeks,

investigators continued their diligent investigation and tracked our suspect all the way from Prince George's County to Tulsa, Oklahoma. Our investigators also obtained an arrest warrant yesterday afternoon. many of whom are with us today, to update them on the case and ask of them an almost impossible request, and that was to keep the information about the identity and the arrest warrant to themselves and protected to allow investigators the opportunity to try to apprehend this suspect before it was made public in the news so that our suspect did not have the opportunity to learn that he was wanted and to once again flee. Yeah, he was just living his best life, going about his business. So from what I understand, the sheriff goes to the family. Rachel's mom tells them, we think we've got him, but you've got to keep it a secret.

And then out they go to continue tracking this guy. They think they've got him, but you got to keep it a secret. And then out they go to continue tracking this guy. They think they've got a line on him. Who is this guy, this non-citizen migrant with a murder charge out of El Salvador? Listen. Five hours after meeting with the family and just before midnight our time, police in Tulsa, Oklahoma, assisted by our federal partners, located and arrested Rachel's murderer, Victor Antonio Martinez Hernandez. So far, we have learned that the suspect, now pictured on the screens, is a 23-year-old citizen of El Salvador who illegally crossed the border into the United States in February of 2023. Okay, why did he leave El Salvador? There's so much to figure out. Joining me in All-Star Panel to make sense of what we know right now.

But as we speak, I want to keep our mind and our heart on Rachel Morin. We have been working this case, investigating this case. We knew a lot about this guy, but we just couldn't get our hands on him. Joining me, investigative reporter for CrimeOnline.com, Alexis Tereszczuk. This guy, a non-citizen migrant, some say illegal alien, is on the run from El Salvador. Explain. So, Nancy, this 23-year-old man is here illegally, which the police officer said, from El Salvador. Explain. So Nancy, this 23 year old man is here illegally, which the police officer said from El Salvador. He has been accused of murder in El Salvador.

He apparently killed another young woman and then fled his country, came to the United States and went on a cross country crime spree. I want to go straight up to Chris McDonough, director of the Cold Case Foundation now, former homicide detective with over 300 homicide inquiries under his belt, star of the interview room. That's where I found him during the Koberger investigation. Chris McDonough, I actually have chills on my whole body. So, number one, let's just put it out there.

He's innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Bam. Now, can we talk reality? This guy has a murder charge of a young woman. Don't know her age yet in El Salvador. Late, late, late last night, I got word from a bounty hunter about the facts surrounding that case but I don't know for sure yet so I'll keep that under my hat until I know for sure those facts a woman dead in El Salvador talked up to him he goes on the run then he goes to LA and sex assaults a nine year old little girl. There he is, Victor Antonio Martinez Hernandez. There he goes. Doesn't even bother. And he doesn't run. He walks out. And inside he's left behind a wake of pain that will never, ever be repaired. There's no telling, Chris McDonough, how many other victims this guy has. Okay, your turn. Hit it. We know for sure now that in El Salvador, he had a case and that Interpol had a what they call a red notice on him. And what that is, is it's a

worldwide alert, kind of like a BOL for this individual they had in the system. Did you say BOL? Are you talking about a BOLO, be on the lookout? Yes, ma'am. Like be on the lookout. And what it is, it's not an international arrest warrant. It's basically to notify all countries that participate in Interpol that this is one dangerous dude. And LAPD gets that hit on the DNA. They match a name to it. They get this red notice and boom, they're off to the races and they're on the hunt for this guy. You know, Chris McDonough and everybody on the panel, please jump in.

A lot is happening. We're getting information fast and furious. According to detectives, this guy Hernandez was waiting, lying in wait there at the Ma and Pa Trail near Bel Air, Maryland, waiting for a victim. You know what that tells me? Karen Stark. We're now in psychologists joining us out of Manhattan. You can find her online, karenstark.com, Karen with a C if you're looking for her. Karen, that tells me as we discussed when this first happened, this is not his first attack. Now we know that now because of DNA, but what I'm trying to say is that I think there are going to be other attacks. I would be looking in Tulsa. I would be looking everywhere in between

LA, Bel Air, Maryland, and Tulsa because a guy, a predator like this, um, non-citizen migrant from El Salvador, a guy that knows how to lie in wait. And remember, we learned, Karen Stark, that at the time Rachel was attacked and murdered and her whole face beaten in, bludgeoned in, there was a lot of foliage and you would be going down the Ma and Pa trail and then it would turn. And he knew that and was hiding in the foliage just around the turn, waiting for a woman, any woman probably, to come around that bend. He wasn't worried about robbing them. He was there to rape and kill. He was, Nancy, and this was very carefully planned. If you think about it, he left El Salvador and could have just started again,

and maybe he wouldn't have been caught, but he can't stop. He gets pleasure. It derives pleasure from doing this. It was planned, although he's pretty indiscriminate because he does a child, her mother, this person in El Salvador who's a young woman, and then Rachel. So all ages, and he doesn't care as long as he's able to rape and kill. And it's very fortunate that the nine-year-old to the family came and he wasn't able to kill her. I have no doubt he would have because that's where he gets his pleasure. And by the way, smash the face in because he doesn't want her to see him symbolically.

A non-citizen migrant who has just been busted in the murder and rape of a gorgeous young mother of five, Victor Antonio Martinez Hernandez, a non-citizen migrant running from a murder charge in El Salvador. How the hay did he get here? And why is he here? He has gone unapprehended after attacking a nine-year-old girl and her mother in LA. But guess what? He left a hat behind. And in that hat was a hair. That hair's mitochondrial DNA matches up to DNA taken from the Rachel Moran rape and murder scene. In the last hours, a huge breakthrough, huge breakthrough in the murder of a Maryland mom, Rachel Moran, as cops finally arrest an illegal migrant seen in eerie doorbell camera footage 10 months after Rachel's body was found naked and beaten on remote hiking trail. At the time, we analyzed the evidence and we believed he had

attacked and even killed before. We were right. Listen. We all suspected that perhaps Rachel was not his first victim. And it's my understanding that this suspect, this monster, fled to the United States illegally after committing the brutal murder of a young woman in El Salvador a month early in January of 2023. Once in our country and likely emboldened by his anonymity, he brutally attacked a nine-year-old girl and her mother during a home invasion in March of 2023 in Los Angeles. Victor Hernandez did not come here to make a better life for himself or for his family. He came here to escape the crime he committed in El Salvador. He came here and murdered Rachel and, God willing, no one else. But that should have never been allowed to happen. Everybody just joining us in the last hours, a huge breakthrough in the search for the killer of a Maryland mom dubbed Trail Mom, Rachel Morin. The mother of five, holding it together, working, making her way through life.

Just an awesome human being. She finally found love again. Her boyfriend, fiance, devastated. And of course, as usual, all eyes were on the boyfriend at first. Statistically, they did it. After hearing him speak and watching his mannerisms, I fully believed he was not involved. And guess what? He's not. A non-citizen migrant is now under arrest. And when you hear how this guy was tracked down all over the world, it's amazing.

As you just heard LA law enforcement speaking, he did not come here for a better life. He came here to escape a murder charge in El Salvador. What happened that day? Listen. There was a bend in the trail that most likely was used by the individual who attacked Rachel on the trail, pulled her through the wooded area into this drainage culvert where she ultimately lost her life. DNA evidence was collected by our forensic services unit. That DNA was analyzed by the

Maryland State Police and it was ran through the National CODIS system. DNA evidence is, I mean, this DNA evidence has come back as a match tied to a home invasion and an assault of a young girl in Los Angeles this past March. Unfortunately, that suspect has not been positively identified, but he did leave behind his DNA. Okay, well, that was then, but this is now. Listen. Our investigative genetic genealogy team in Baltimore worked countless hours to identify the suspect by using crime scene DNA and tracing that DNA to potential family members. Investigators even traveled to El Salvador as part of their efforts to identify this killer. To find the suspect, we've provided technical assistance, helping to pinpoint his location. And that brings us to last night, where Tulsa police and FBI agents were able to successfully apprehend and arrest the suspect in Oklahoma. Joining right now, high profile defense attorney Matthew Mangino, former prosecutor and author of The Executioner's Toll.

Crimes, arrests, trials, appeals, last meals, final words of executed people, 46 of them in the U.S. Matthew Mangino, why is it that all I hear all day long is whine, whine, whine about police? They didn't do this. They didn't do that. They screwed this up. They screwed that up. It's constant. But here you have LA law enforcement literally tracking this guy all the way to El Salvador and then to LA and finally nailing him in Tulsa. Can they get just a little bit of credit for once? Well, no, this is truly great police work to be able to connect these dots and make an arrest in this case and be able to match. Did you just say connect the dots like one of those children's games? You know, you give them that sheet to play with at the restaurant with a pack of crayons and you connect the dots.

Connect the dots. My rear end. This is back-breaking work between Maryland, Bel Air, Maryland, L.A., Tulsa, El Salvador. I mean, there's a red notice on this guy. ICE had to be involved. This was a huge, huge and complex undertaking. Right. And I'm sure they had somewhere on a wall these little pins connecting the dots as they went along putting this case together. And unfortunately, I don't think this is the end of this case. So you have a guy who's been here since February of 2023.

He's crossed the country from Los Angeles to Maryland. Now, you know, found in Tulsa, he's covered a lot of ground. And unfortunately, I think we're going to find that he has, you know, created havoc and probably is the murdered others or raped others. I mean, this is a very dangerous person that is on the move. And when you're on the move like that, the reason you do it is because you're looking for other victims. And unfortunately, I think we're going to find that that's the case here. You know, it was amazing to me, to Alexis Tereschuk, what cops were doing in the background. All we could see was we were looking through a glass darkly. And I remember specifically what Rachel's mom told me. Listen. At one point, when things seemed like really bleak and hopeless, the lead detective said to me, he said, patience will win in the end. And that's what they've been doing.

They've been diligently working very hard and they've been patiently working through all the leads. And it's because of that that we have an arrest today. So I'm very thankful and just very grateful. That's Rachel's mom speaking. Alexis, remember when we talked to her and she was just so distraught, but she never lost faith in law enforcement. So they must have been telling her along what was happening.

And they go to her five hours before the takedown and say, we're telling you we're going to try to do this thing. We think we know where he is. Just hold tight. That mother has been through hell, Alexis. And you know, the thing was, all we had was the video. So there was the connection to Los Angeles, right? We had a video of a man coming shirtless out of a home and casually walking away with carrying his shirt, carrying the clothes that he'd clearly taken off when he attacked a nine-year-old. So that's all we had. But the police used, he left so much DNA with Rachel, which is terrible, but is a blessing because she helped solve her own crime. But they knew there must be a family connection. And I'm wondering if that's what happened in Tulsa as well, because he was caught in a bar. The police found him literally sitting in a bar, kind of, I guess, went up right next to him, maybe like, hey, can we buy you a drink?

And then arrested him in a bar in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In a bar, probably looking for his next victim. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. And very quickly, I want to go back to Chris McDonough, director of Cold Case Foundation, former homicide detective. This is how it goes down, okay? Chris McDonough, first of all, you look at the victim's family and loved ones because that's typically, statistically, where you're going to find your killer. Husband, boyfriend, ex, lover. Then you move out. Grocery delivery guy, pizza delivery guy,

next door neighbor, creepy high school teacher. You keep going and going and going. You expand that circle. When you exhaust the circle of family, lovers, boyfriends, freaky connections, then you go to DNA. Now this guy's DNA pops up in a rape and an attack in LA. So they know they've got that guy, but he doesn't match anybody in CODIS, the DNA data bank. So we know his DNA has never been handed over as it relates to a felony in this country. And that is when you have to bring in the FBI. OK, we had his sketch. There was a possibility he was in this country illegally. Then they go to genealogical DNA. The FBI International Office in El Salvador was used to, quote,

bridge the gap with U.S. law enforcement. Now, that's what we're learning today. What exactly does that mean? FBI in El Salvador, quote, bridged the gap. Yeah, absolutely, Nancy. What it means is, so the FBI makes contact probably with a direct family member in El Salvador. They do a buckle swab and immediately they can put that into the system. They get that CODIS hit again. There's a system called ANDI, A-N-D-I, and that's called, it's a rapid DNA process. Once they get that profile, what was interesting to hear the FBI agent say, there was also technical assistance. What I took away from that, hearing that, was they probably may have gotten a phone

number or something to that effect, And immediately the cast team gets involved. And for all we know at this point, they may have even trapped his phone. And that's where the other units got involved. But one of the other things I think we're going to hear here, Nancy, and the sheriff had mentioned it, not to get ahead of you here for a moment, but just in case, is to hide a team. That's high- high impact drug trafficking. That means this guy was on the radar of Haida.

And was he a mule for the cartels? And this is why he's traveling through the country? Haida is very important to pay attention to in this investigation. Explain. Well, because if he's come onto the radar through Haida, that means they may have already had pre-incident contact with this guy on other types of crimes, i.e. narcotics investigations or something to that effect. The fact that the sheriff mentioned them the other day as a partner who assisted in this case, that threw me a red flag

that, OK, this guy had been in this country. And now that big question is, what was he doing? Was he running dope? You know, was he working for somebody? And maybe this is what gave him the availability to travel around the United States and how he ended up in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Outrage. This guy is in the country having murdered, allegedly, one person in El Salvador, then sex assaulted a nine-year-old little girl attacking the rest of her family in L.A. before he murders Rachel Morin. I want to go out to a special guest joining us now, Dr. Kendall Crowns, Chief Medical Examiner, Tarrant County, Fort Worth, Lecturer at the Burnett School of Medicine at TCU, Texas Christian University. Dr. Crowns, thank you for being with us. We've talked a lot about DNA and we're throwing around

the term deoxyribonucleic acid, mitochondrial DNA. But for people that are not in law enforcement, I want to explain, and you're the best in the world to give this tutorial in regular people talk, please. As if you're speaking to a trial lawyer like myself that does not have a medical degree like you do. How was Rachel Morin's body found? And why did her body reveal DNA? And what is mitochondrial DNA, which is what I believe they got on the scene in L.A. from a cap? So Rachel Morin's body was found nude with her face caved in from a blunt object.

So more than likely she was strangled. Then while she was unconscious, she was raped. And then when she regained conscious because he didn't finish out the strangulation, he beat her to death with a rock or a stick or whatever was nearby. That being said, the strangulation. He beat her to death with a rock or a stick or whatever was nearby. That being said, the DNA that would be on her body could be from his saliva,

could be from his skin cells, could be from his hair follicles, as well as semen. So at autopsy, they can collect all these by doing a sexual assault kit, by using swabs to swab the orifices, to swab potential areas on the skin that may have DNA. The investigators fear that we're going to stumble across another crime that just hasn't been tied back through DNA or some other science or electronic tie that the evidence just hasn't reached the point where we get a hit. But right now, what we're familiar with is the crime in Los Angeles,

the home invasion in March of 2023, the homicide here of Rachel in August of 2023. And I believe in Tulsa, he's facing some local charges as well for last night, I think trespassing or disorderly or something, something to that effect. Okay, let's break it down. How did they find this guy? How did they find this non-citizen migrant? I was listening very carefully and taking notes to a news conference where an FBI special agent in charge of the FBI Baltimore's field office, Bill DeBagno, he was speaking, and I'm going to quote his words that I wrote down. He said, a quote, investigative genetic genealogy team. Genetic genealogy is one of the most advanced types of DNA discovery that is being used. Now

this is what you may recall. Do you remember Joseph D'Angelo aka the Golden State Killer? Big huge breakthrough in the use of genetic genealogy. D'Angelo former cop I might add before he got fired, that was wise, had been raping and murdering women all across California and beyond, I'd like to add, I believe. He was finally tracked through genetic genealogy. What is it? You get DNA like you have at the scene of Rachel Morin's rape and murder. It doesn't match anybody in CODIS. What do you do? Nobody has been arrested. Nobody has given their DNA that matches. You put it in genetic genealogy. That means you go to a public genealogy site, not Ancestry. What is it? Ancestry.com or 23andMe. Yeah, that's a good one. Those are private, so you can't bust into those.

Cops can't do that. But there's a lot of public websites, public genealogical DNA websites like GEDmatch, G-E-D match. You put it in there. You don't get a direct hit like they don't say, oh, this is Alexis Therese Chutt. Busted. No, you get kind of a hit and you think, aha, this is the great, great, great, great grandpa of my killer. So you start coming down the family tree. You got to go, okay, they had this many children. Let's follow them down. They had that many children. Let's follow it down, follow it down, follow it down until you get to a living relative of great, great, great grandpa in the area, you hone in on, for instance, the Golden State Killer. They busted him and he said, oh, I've got a roast in the oven. Give me a minute.

They're like, oh, hell no. You're going now. So that's how they find him. Same thing with Brian Koberger. That's a great example. They find the DNA on the knife sheath hey this is this is your case Chris McDonough and you were there on the ground at the get-go in that one they find the DNA on the knife sheath under one of the victims four victims bodies

they don't know matching codas so they do genetic genealogy. They find Koberger's father and then they wait for him to leave behind, discard something with his DNA on it. They get that. They do the same thing with Koberger himself. You know, I'm making a very short story out of a very long story. And that's how they bust him. And that's what happened here. You heard what the FBI special agent Bill DeBagno said. An investigative genetic genealogy team worked to ID the suspect and investigators went to El Salvador.

What does that tell me? One of his family's members had a record and a given DNA. Yeah, no. And you're a thousand percent right, as always, Nancy, where I, you know, in the Cobra thing, obviously they grabbed some trash. In this case, they were onto this guy. They could smell it. They went and spent the money to send the FBI team down there. And not only was it the field office probably down there, but they probably sent the agents directly from DC, from the lab to pull this CNA. So they knew that they were crossing all the T's and dotting the

I's. Because, you know, obviously, when you're dealing with an international case like this, you certainly do not want to run up against it in court. And so once they got that, I think it turned into a technical case at that point, because we also hear that FBI agent say, you know, with some technical assistance. And that tells me, you know, they're out there now that they've got this potential name to the CNA, let's find this guy's phone. So they went back to LA, I suspect, and they did a grid, a geographic grid in relationship to the phones that pinged that night. And then they went on the hunt for that technical piece and that device that I suspect he probably still had on him in Oklahoma. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.

Hey, Matthew Mangino, high profile lawyer joining us out of the Lawrence County jurisdiction. You've handled a lot of cases like this. We keep seeing sketches of him in that hat. What do you want to bet? He still had a hat like that in his possession? Well, I'm sure that he did. That's kind of his shtick. I mean, he's going to have that. He's going to have that hat. If he loses his hat, he's going out and get another one that looks like that. That's all part of, you know, his appearance and, you know, the way he likes to present himself. You know, the thing that's alarming here, Nancy, about this case is, you know, was he in some way sort of on the radar of the FBI or anybody else because of his involvement with gangs or drug distribution and things like that. And so you wonder, you know, was he was he part of another investigation

that was going on unrelated to these crimes that we've been talking about this morning? And, you know, it's always a woulda, coulda, shoulda. Was it possible because he was here illegally to have been taken off the streets earlier? So those are always concerns that you have when you're involved in other sort of high profile investigations of international drug trade and things like that. I noticed that Sheriff Galler does not mind calling out the White House and to every member in both chambers of Congress. He's not picking Republicans or Democrats.

He's calling everybody out. He says we are 1,800 miles away here in Hartford County. We are 1,800 miles away from the southern border. And American citizens are not safe because of failed immigration policies. This guy is a gang member. There, I said it. He's involved in a gang that is involved in drugs, bringing drugs illegally into our country. Now he's got two murder charges and rape charges and assault charges in L.A. What more has he done and why is he here? In El Salvador, there is a, what's it called, a red notice.

A red notice, which is basically an Interpol warrant for his arrest to bring him back there to stand for the homicide of the woman in that case down there. So it was midnight our time and he was hanging out at a business park or a storefront and the police encountered him. And apparently there's a charge of trespassing, trespassing. And he was identified during that arrest and processing. OK, they're going to make a lot of hay at that when this thing finally goes to trial to Matthew Mangino, high profile lawyer. He was arrested for trespassing. What? Okay,

some of the reports are that he's hanging out outside of a bar. Some are that he was sitting in a bar. But the reality is they're going to be able to make out a trespassing case and his arrest is going to be 100% by the book. They didn't get this far to screw up now, Mangino. Well, you're right, Nancy. And, you know, what you can call this or compare it to is kind of a pretextual stop. So you might have something on somebody that you want to make an arrest. So you follow that person until they make a turn without their turn signal. And that's probable cause to stop that vehicle and to move forward. And this is something similar. You know, it's not the most important part of this case by any means, but it is an opportunity to take this person into custody

so that you can move forward with the other aspects of the investigation or the ultimate indictment and arrest. Right. But, you know, Nancy, one thing that I want to say about about immigration, which I certainly think is is, you know, sort of the centerpiece here. But, you know, there's enough blame to go around. I mean, ultimately, there was an opportunity to make the border more secure earlier this year, and Congress failed to do that. Okay, Mangino, that's a lot bigger problem. I agree. It's something that me, a trial lawyer, cannot fix. I've got definite opinions about it, but I want to focus on this guy that I believe murdered a mother of five and attacked a nine-year-old American girl in her home. I mean, Karen Stark, can you just break it down? I don't want to hear a lot of psychobabble,

no offense, of course, but this nine-year-old girl will never be the same. Rachel's more, Rachel Morton's children will never be the same because this piece of crap was in our country illegally and he murdered Rachel according to the DNA. You're right, Nancy, and they will never recover from this because this is trauma. So she didn't die of natural causes, which would have been difficult enough. How do we get through something like that? But they know absolutely that she was murdered. They know details.

Her face was smashed in. The person planned it very carefully, and they are traumatized for the rest of their life. So this is a horrendous situation. And believe me, I will be shocked if they don't find more instances where this has occurred. Exactly. And I want to talk about the brutality inflicted on Rachel. Dr. Kendall Crowns joining me, Chief Medical Examiner, Fort Worth. Never like a business there. Dr. Kendall Crowns, I'm thinking about her face, her beautiful and very delicate face being bashed in so badly that half of her face was practically gone. Can you tell in an autopsy if she was beaten, bludgeoned that way in life or post-mortem? Yes, you can tell. Usually when you're still alive and being beaten, you will get hemorrhage or bruising or redness of the skin associated with the injuries because it's a

reaction of the tissues to the damage. In post-mortem case, when they continue to beat you or the injuries happen after death, there's no beating heart, so you don't get the hemorrhage that you see with living wounds. So in other words, if you're already dead, you don't bruise and bleed because your heart's not bumping anymore. Correct. If you're already dead, you won't see the bleeding and the bruising. That tells me something horrible, Chris McDonough.

You know, you and I have tried a lot of homicide cases. You investigating, me prosecuting. This tells me he brutalized this woman and gave her that horrible bludgeoning, stripped her and raped her while she was alive. She felt that a lot of people have hypothesized that she was her face beaten in with a rock after death, postmortem. Rachel felt every blow. Was her face beaten in with a rock after death, post-mortem? Uh-uh. Rachel felt every blow.

She felt the rape. We won't really know what was done to Rachel Morin until we see the indictment and the autopsy report. But this woman, a mother of five, was dragged off the trail, dragged, beaten, bludgeoned, raped, stripped, and left there by this guy, according to DNA. Yes. And in fact, Nancy, I mean, think of the horror of of her mindset when she's being pulled off of that trailer in that trail into a dark tunnel. This savage had already murdered another woman in another country. And he had learned from that incident into the brutal attack of this mom of five. We do not know exactly what the extent of her horror was. But I can tell you from my experience, and of course, you know, from yours, you know,

God bless your family. And this was just horrific in nature. We don't have any clue where he could be. We don't even know if he's still in Hartford County or in the state of Maryland, because obviously in March he was in California and then here August, he was here in Maryland. So we don't know if he's still here or not. That was then. This is now. Busted. Victor Antonio Martinez Hernandez in custody. At that time, Colonel Davis saying he could be anywhere, like a needle in a haystack.

That's over. He is in custody. And if police law enforcement have their way, he will die in a Maryland prison. They don't have the death penalty, but they do have life without parole. And this is what I'm understanding, Alexis Tereshuk. He has also been traced to Virginia. Virginia. I wonder if there are any unsolved rapes and female homicides. If you notice, all of his victims are people that are less powerful than he is, less cunning. So I would be looking at murdered and assaulted females in the Virginia area. I think this is the tip of the iceberg, Alexis. Absolutely, because there are lots of unsolved crimes around all of these areas of

Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, Washington, D.C., all right there. And that's what there's perhaps a connection there. And then in Oklahoma, he's been in Oklahoma for any amount of time. He is for sure to have probably committed a crime there. And then how did he get from Los Angeles to Maryland and then to Oklahoma? Did he take a plane or was he driving across country and stopping and committing crimes all the way along the way? And somebody was harboring him. Somebody was keeping him safe. He was living somewhere.

I don't believe anyone has ever said that he was homeless, not living on the street or anything. So I think that there are other people that could be prosecuted for this as well, for helping him. Yeah, a gang. That's who's protecting him. A lot of people have said, what's the motive? Listen. We may learn more about was it just an opportunity because he was on the trail when, you know, unfortunately she decided to go out exercising that day? Or was it something more specific as to the motive? You know, we've been tight-lipped, I guess, about it. The charges in the case are first-degree murder and first-degree rape. Why ask why? It took me about five years prosecuting violent felonies. And I remember the moment looking over at a defendant in the courtroom thinking, why?

Why would you do this and leave this huge trail of pain behind you? And then it hit me in the head. Why? Ask why? Why does a wolf rip out the throat of a rabbit because he's a predator and doesn't think twice about the pain and suffering he causes other people, including not only Rachel Morin, but her mother, her family, her five children, a nine-year-old girl in LA, her family, none of these crime victims' families will ever be the same. You're going down, man, and you're staying down. Let's stop and remember an American hero, police officer Ariana Preston, Chicago, Illinois. Just 24 Preston shot and killed in the line of duty. Officer Preston died only a week before getting her master's in law from Loyola.

Survived by grieving mother Dionne. American hero, officer, Ariana Preston. I want to thank all of our guests for being with us. Our thoughts and prayers with Rachel Morin's mother, family, and her five beautiful children, that nine-year-old little girl and her family. We can't fix what happened to them, but we can seek justice. Nancy Grace signing off. Goodbye, friend. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.