SERIALously - 48: Murdered on Hiking Trail | Rachel Morin: Suspect DNA Match & Everything We Know

Episode Date: August 18, 2023

Rachel Morin, a mother with five children, disappeared on a well-known Maryland hiking path on Saturday August 5th, only to be discovered lifeless the following day. Since then, investigators were frantically searching for any evidence that might point them to the individual responsible for her death. At a Thursday evening press conference, Harford County Law Enforcement released more information regarding an update in this case. And video of the person investigators believe to be responsible for her death. Your True Crime BFF, Annie Elise Beam! Subscribe and save 20%. Plus get an additional 20% off and a free frother with my code 10TOLIFE when you click my link. Thats up to 40% off!  http://www.shopbeam.com/annieelise All Social Media Links: https://www.flowcode.com/page/annieelise_  About Me: https://annieelise.com/  SERIALously FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/SERIALouslyAnnieElise/ For Business Inquiries: [e-mail]

Hey true crime besties, welcome back to an all new episode of Serialistly. Hey everybody, welcome back to an all-new bonus episode of Serialistly. It's me, Annie, your true crime bestie, here to talk all things true crime with you. Now, the reason why I had to jump on here and drop this bonus episode outside of the normal release schedule is because I need to talk to you about this case. It is so wild. There is so much to talk about, so we got to get right into it. Before we do, please take a quick second. Just make sure that you are following along on the podcast so that you don't miss any future episodes and bonus episodes like these that drop, and also follow along on the Serialistly Facebook page where we drop all information regarding giveaways, behind-the-scenes information,

guest episodes, Q&As, all sorts of good stuff. All right, now let's get into today's case. 37-year-old Rachel Morin comes from a very tight-knit family. She was one of five children and has five children of her own and many nieces and nephews. Rachel was described as a very tight-knit family. She was one of five children and has five children of her own and many nieces and nephews. Rachel was described as a very devoted mom. She was a single mom, and she worked very hard to provide for her children, whom she shared with three different men. She was a loving mother, a caring mother, and worked very hard to provide for them. Rachel owned her own cleaning company, which was absolutely great because owning her own company offered her the flexibility and the freedom to be able to be at every event for

her kids and be a very present mother. Since the children are all aged between 8 and 18 years old, they all have various needs and varying levels of independence. Rachel had been working for a family by the name of the Woltz for the last eight years. She cleaned their home frequently, and they have described her as easygoing and spoke out about what a great mom she is. They had even gotten to know her children over the years and had become like grandparents to them. Now, from everything that I've read, it seems like Rachel's kids were just completely surrounded by love all the time. But outside of being a mom, Rachel was still a 37-year-old woman. Being a mom wasn't her sole identity. She had other things that she enjoyed doing for herself,

such as working out. Rachel loved working out, and she took a lot of pride in her fitness abilities. Not only that, but she also took a lot of pride in her fitness abilities. Not only that, but she also took a lot of pride in her appearance. She reportedly got daily spray tans at the bronzing studio, which was usually around 2 p.m. when she would go in. Having seen the tanning staff every day, Rachel would tell them things about her life, things that were going on, things she was doing, things she was planning. And most recently, Rachel had told them that she was on multiple dating sites. And on August 1st, Rachel had began dating a new man by the name of Richard Tobin. So the two of them must have quickly hit it off because almost immediately after meeting, they went Facebook official, which basically means you change your

relationship status on Facebook to say you are in a relationship. You're off the market. You're taken. So Rachel seemed to be super happy with her new relationship based on the photos that were being posted. However, the Woltz family, who she worked for, said that she seemed distracted that week, which would make sense with the excitement of a new relationship and being engulfed in that and wanting to text and talk all the time, that makes sense. Now, allegedly, her boyfriend Richard later claimed that they did go to the gym together before he dropped her off around 4.50 p.m. After that, Rachel had seemingly decided to go for a hike at the Ma and Pa Trail around 6.30 p.m. The Ma and Pa Trail is a

trail that Rachel had gone to many times before. She had frequented it, and according to her brother, she had previously ran that trail in 42 minutes. But after going there, Rachel never came home. At 11.23 p.m., Richard called 911 to report Rachel is missing after not being able to get a hold of her. He told officers that he had found her car right by the entrance of the trail, so the investigation started immediately. Rachel's car was towed by police to be processed for potential evidence, and the investigation was fully underway. Now, with the population of Bel Air only being just a little over 10,000 people, it is definitely a small town, and people have reported it to be a

very tight-knit community in this small town. So as you can imagine, a woman going missing on a trail that was always deemed as a safe trail and one that she was familiar with was kind of shaking the sense of security for people who live in that town. Many of them came together to help search for Rachel. And around 1 p.m. the next day, August 6th, a 911 call was made by one of those people searching. The caller let law enforcement know that Rachel had been found and that she was deceased. Now, based on the call and the details of the discovery, it was apparently very clear that this was now a homicide case. So law enforcement held a press conference just a

few hours later to let people know that they had in fact found Rachel's body, but they were seemingly being very careful about what information to share, as it was and is an open investigation. However, Michael Gabrinsky, the man who claimed to be the one to find Rachel and the man who called 911, quickly began talking to news outlets about the discovery of Rachel's body. This local man by the name of Michael Grinsky had reportedly joined the search along with his stepdaughter Cecilia, who was reportedly friends with Rachel, and also her friend Evan. So Michael had said that they had decided to check two drainage tunnels on the trail in

Hartford County after they had noticed disturbances on the ground close to the track where Rachel had taken a walk that night. And when they approached the tunnel, they made that horrifying discovery. According to Michael, Rachel was laying on her back, fully naked, and she had brutal head trauma. And he said as though it looked like her head had been smashed in with a rock. He went on to say that there was a 15 to 20 foot blood trail and it looked like she had been beaten and dragged into that position she was found in. Michael suggested that due to the facial injuries, it appeared as if whoever killed Rachel was trying to erase her identity, saying that the entire right side of her face was gone. But Michael's claims seem to be a little controversial with the Hartford

County Sheriff's Department, saying things in the comments on Facebook such as, the individual you are speaking of did not find Rachel or witness her body. He has no firsthand knowledge of the crime scene. So unclear if what Michael reported carries any truth or not, a source close to the family has said that due to the level of injuries and due to them being so horrific, there won't be an open casket at Rachel's funeral. So of course, when somebody goes missing or somebody is found deceased, first person people look at is the spouse or the boyfriend or girlfriend typically. So there is of course a lot of speculation on

whether or not her boyfriend could have been involved in what happened to Rachel, especially given his history and checkered past and slew of charges. However, one of his Facebook comments reads, I love Rachel. I would never do anything to her. Let the family and I grieve. Yes, I have a past, but I also have 15 months clean and have changed as a person. Please. We, of course, know that just because somebody has a checkered past isn't indicative of who they are at the present moment and what they are capable of, but we also know it is very easy in the true crime community to jump straight to accusing the spouse, the boyfriend, the girlfriend, the wife, the husband, anyone close to the victim. However,

in my opinion, this comment that he made did seem genuine, and it didn't seem as though it came from a place of malice or that he was trying to cover up something. It just appeared very genuine to me when I first read it. Up until now, police have not said whether Rachel was targeted or the crime was random, and there have been no arrests. The sheriff said that detectives had interviewed a number of people in Rachel's circle, including her 27-year-old new boyfriend, Richard Tobin. So with what seemed like no movement and just theories and speculation, early Thursday morning, a press conference was announced. And in this announcement, they said that this press conference would be held that afternoon and that they would be presenting important potential suspect information. So the press conference was initially scheduled to take place on Thursday at 1 p.m. Pacific time. However,

then it was pushed out to 4 30 p.m, and it was pushed out last minute because apparently law enforcement had received a tip and a lead, but unfortunately it didn't generate and materialize into anything. So the press conference did happen at 4.30pm Pacific time on Thursday, and here is what happened in that press conference. press conference. All right, guys, you know that I've been pretty open with you guys about my sleeping patterns or lack thereof because I've never been a solid sleeper and I've tried everything from Ambien to Valerian Root to Melatonin. Nothing works for me. And even when I'm able to fall asleep, I can never seem to stay asleep because if I toss once, I'm up, my mind is racing, I'm not going back to sleep. But that all changed for me about seven months ago, thanks to my husband, and thanks to my husband for introducing me to Beam's Dream Powder. I was a personal consumer already for the last seven months, so you know that when they asked me if I was interested in partnering with them, it was a no-brainer because I can't say enough good things about it.

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never tasted better, and I'm'm telling you nothing else has worked for me and this stuff does. I've been sharing it now with you guys for about a month because I don't gatekeep my secrets and I feel like everybody should have good sleep and know about this and literally over 150 of you have already emailed or DM'd me telling me you tried it and how much you love it. Also I wear an aura ring that tracks my sleep and on the nights that I don't drink the tea my sleep scores are in like the 30s and 40s versus the nights when I do drink it and they're in the high 90s. So it's totally proven. Just drink it 30 minutes before you want to be asleep and it lights out, and you don't wake up feeling foggy or groggy or with a headache. It is the best. Find

out why Forbes and New York Times are all talking about Beam and why it's trusted by the world's top athletes and business professionals. If you want to try Beam's best-selling dream powder, subscribe and save 20% plus get an additional 20% off and a free frother with my code 10 to life when you go to shopbeam.com slash Annie Elise. That's shopbeam.-a-m dot com slash annie elise and use my code 10 to life for up to 40 off guys go snag this deal while you can and email me with how it changed your sleep i will also include the direct link in the show notes below but trust me go try it you are going to be obsessed with it i have been drinking it religiously for like seven months and you will be obsessed i guarantee it you're live shelby religiously for like seven months, and you will be obsessed. I guarantee it.

You're live, Shelby. All right, everyone. Good evening. I just want to apologize for the rescheduling. We had a lead come in at three o'clock that we needed to run down before we did this press conference. As of right now, that lead hasn't panned out for us, but we're still out there investigating it. So that's why we had to postpone this press conference. So first off, I just want to start off by saying thank you for coming out tonight. I'm Colonel William Davis, chief deputy of the Harford County Sheriff's Office. I know this briefing comes in late in the day, but last night we received critical pieces of information and our detectives have been working throughout the night and today running down our new leads.

Once the new evidence came to light, Sheriff Gaylor was adamant that we needed to inform our community as soon as possible, and that's why we're here tonight. As you know, since Saturday, August 5th, 12 days ago, the Hartford County Sheriff's Office has been working around the clock to get justice for Rachel Morin and hopefully bring peace to her family. Since that first day, over 300 community tips have flooded our inboxes and emails. Her death has grabbed local, state, national, and international headlines. Everyone with the same goal, find the killer and bring justice to Rachel. Everyone with the same goal, find the killer and bring justice to Rachel.

DNA evidence is part of nearly every modern day investigation, and in Rachel's case, 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. 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. Based on the DNA evidence, we consider the individual in the video we obtained from the Los Angeles Police Department and that we are about to show you on our TV screens to be the person that murdered Rachel Morin on August 5th. So we're now going to show the video.

And just so everyone's aware, this video after this press conference, this video will be posted on our social media. All right. You want to play it one more time? Okay. When you're ready, we're going to post it on our social media. Based on our analysis of this video and witness observations, we believe the suspect to be approximately 5 foot 9, 160 pounds, and of Hispanic descent. If you have any information about this suspect, we are asking you to please call our detectives

at our tip line. And the tip line number is 410-836-7788. And we've also established a dedicated tip email address, and that email address is rmtips at harfordshariff.org. Again, that's rm, as in Rachel Morin, tips at harfordshariff.org. We want to make it clear that we believe the suspect acted alone, and he doesn't represent the entire Hispanic community of Hartford County, who we are now partnering with to identify this suspect. I know I can speak for the sheriff when I say we are immensely proud of this community.

Our community will not be defined by this tragedy. Our community is one that will work together to get the job done and bring this suspect to justice. In the meantime, in the light of this new evidence, I urge our citizens to use caution while walking on our trails and throughout our community. Be alert, walk with a friend, don't allow yourself to be distracted by your cell phone or headphones, and finally, if you see something that makes you feel uncomfortable or that you think is suspicious, act on those instincts and call 911. And lastly, we will continue our increased presence on the Ma and Pa Trail. And now I'll open it up to questions.

Colonel, do you have any other details on what happened in Los Angeles, exactly where, or anything about what this person did there? So when it comes to the details about Los Angeles, that's the information that the Los Angeles Police Department has, and we were just going to refer people to the Los Angeles Police Department to get those details. The only thing I can tell you is an attack on a young girl. Have you heard about a possible motive? Was Rachel missing any money or anything like that? So we are not going to talk about the crime scene at this time, because as I've said in previous interviews, we don't want to talk about the crime scene or what happened at the crime scene, because once we catch this person, we want to make sure we got the right person. And the only people that know what happened on that at that crime scene when we catch the person is us and that suspect.

So we're not given any details about that. Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, you're fine. Again, how did you come across, what led you to this particular suspect, this person? So we collected DNA from our crime scene. The Maryland State Police analyzed that DNA for us, ran it through the National CODIS system, and that came back as a match to the crime that occurred in Los Angeles where they had recovered DNA from this

person that you saw in the video that is at a home and that is the suspect leaving the home the scene of the crime there correct a young a home invasion and assault. Correct. A little girl? A young girl. So I'm going to leave it at a young girl. I don't want to talk about the family there, but it was a young girl in the house that got assaulted.

What does this do to the case, Colonel? You have an image now of the person you think is believed to be responsible for this. What does that do for the case? Well, I think now it kind of leads us down the path that we believe this was a person that Rachel probably didn't know. Maybe you could say potentially a random act of violence. And we're hoping that the community now can watch that video. And we also got still pictures that we're going to be putting out and that somebody can identify him. Do you think this was totally to a certain area?

Do you think he could still be somewhere on the Monopolis Trail? 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 in August he was here in Maryland. So we don't know if he's still here or not. Do you have any evidence that he was targeting people along that trail, or do you believe this was completely random? I don't think he's speculating.

We do not know. Do you think he may be armed? Do you think he's weapons? Again, speculation. You described him, Connor, as 5'9", 160, Hispanic male. Do we have an approximate age? Oh, yeah. We believe he's in his low to mid-20s.

Do you have a date for when the Los Angeles investigation happened? I'm just going to put out that it was in March. The Los Angeles Police Department knows that we're doing this press conference, so if you called them, they would probably be able to give you that information. How rare is this to have a DNA hit from the other side of the country? Can you talk about that process and how that worked? And, you know, talk about that process and how that worked. I mean, this is the first time I've seen a hit in a case that I've been involved in that was that far away for a DNA hit. So I wouldn't say that it's unheard of, but certainly unusual. No, that's what we're looking for.

We don't know. for her. We don't know. We know nothing more about him other than he was in L. A. Committed that crime in March and he was here in August and is the murderer. We believe to be the murderer of Rachel Moran. So follow up on that question. You identified him through DNA evidence through this database. So there's no name associated with that? No, no. There's no name associated because it's just evidence from a crime that was submitted, and his DNA, like being arrested and getting DNA, none of that is in the system. However, we are working with, we have called the FBI,

and we are working with some of their DNA experts in their crime lab that try to help us further analyze this DNA. Without compromising the investigation, can you tell us, Rachel was found. Correct. And it was determined that it was a homicide. Correct. Was there trauma? Was she beaten? What was the nature? All we've said so far, and I think we're going to leave it at that, is that it was a violent attack. What's your message to the relationship at all between Rachel and the suspect?

Well, again, we just got this information last night. Not that we have been able to determine yet. We don't know of any relationship or that they were known to each other before this incident. So I can't really say, but right now, no. Obviously, you know, this is, it already has the community in the measure. Absolutely.

If you get somebody out here and you just murdered someone, what want our community to be vigilant. Obviously, the Maunpa Trail has been opened since the day after Rachel was discovered. We have a very large amount of deployment on the Maunpa Trail. We are going to continue that deployment until either this person is caught or we believe he's not in the area anymore. But our plan is to be vigilant for our community. Our community has been just tremendous with the support they give us and trying to figure out what's going on and calling in tips. And we're hoping that maybe even people from L.A. will see this interview

and see that this person committed that crime there and maybe somebody knows him. We believe and we hope that somebody who actually knows this suspect is in the video will be able to identify him for us. Forgive me if you said this, are you revealing where the DNA was found? No, we're not going to reveal that. That video is from the assault? Yep, that is the suspect leaving the assault that occurred in March in Los Angeles. I mean, yes.

All right, any other questions? All right, well, thank you very much. Thank you. So as you heard, they did collect DNA on Rachel, which got a match in the system. The match was from a home invasion and a sexual attack that happened in LA, in Los Angeles, California, in March of 2023. They do have video of this suspect from that home invasion, which they played, and I will play again for you here in a moment however they still don't know who he is he is a random he does not have a name so right now they're hoping that by sharing this surveillance footage somebody will recognize him somebody will be able to identify him and right now it's tough to say if he's even still

on the east coast or not. Although it's been several months since March, he went from being in Los Angeles in March to now killing Rachel in Maryland in August. Now, while some may think that that is a pattern of escalation, that is very possible, it also is possible that Rachel fought back given her passion and enthusiasm of fitness and how she was probably very strong given that she went to the gym all the time. So perhaps she fought back and that's why the rock was used. And again, I'm just speculating here with this, but that that's why it resulted in murder this time. Or he very well may be escalating. There are still a lot of unanswered

questions in the murder of Rachel Morin. However, there now is a little bit more information regarding the suspect, which is great because hopefully that will generate new leads, new tips, new credible information so that whoever is responsible for Rachel's horrific murder will be held accountable and so that her children can receive some sort of justice and accountability can be had. Rachel's family has set up a GoFundMe to help with expenses because with five kids and no life insurance, the costs are going to add up. In the GoFundMe, Rachel's sister wrote, this was not an accidental death and she did not go willingly and she deserves a funeral worthy of her and her beauty. I also want to note that unfortunately right before Rachel's death, her family suffered a very big loss with Rachel's infant niece dying of SIDS on July 28th. So her family was already grieving extremely hard and Rachel's death has now only multiplied their grief. Because there are still unanswered questions out there, please share this link to this video

everywhere you can in your Facebook groups your group chats because anyone who may have been on that trail who may have seen something heard something know something the more credible tips and the more awareness that is generated about this case the better so that again we can reach that level of finally having justice and accountability and answers for Rachel and her family it It will be interesting to know as they continue to release more information if the victim from the LA assault shared any other information such as his MO, any sort of descriptors, anything else to where maybe they could start to develop some sort of profile on this guy. So I will make sure to keep you updated on that as more details

get released in that regard. He's now spanned all over the West Coast all the way to the East Coast, so where he is now could be anyone's guess, which is all the more reason why it is so important to share this video everywhere you possibly can because someone has definitely crossed paths with this guy before. Somebody may recognize him. Somebody may recognize the build, the body type, I don't know, but just please share this anywhere you can so that they can get closer to finding who did this to Rachel. As soon as there are more updates, incredible updates in this case, I will jump back on here with a video providing all of that

information, so if you don't want to miss any of that, please make sure to take a quick second, hit the subscribe button below. And that way when you open up, you know, your YouTube on your phone or on your computer, if I post a video with updates on this case, you will see it on your home screen. It's totally free to do. You just have to hit the subscribe button. All right, guys, thanks so much for tuning in with me today. Please keep Rachel's family in your thoughts and prayers. And let's hope for answers and justice soon. All right guys, thank you so much for tuning in to another bonus episode with me. Like I said at the top of this episode, make sure you're following the podcast so that you don't miss any more bonus episodes in the future and if you would be so kind as to just quickly rate this

podcast, review it. It takes 30 seconds max to leave a review and it really does help the algorithm and help push this podcast out to more people so that these victims stories get heard which we know is the goal so thank you guys so much for tuning in to another bonus episode and I will be talking to you again very very soon all right it's me Annie signing off off. Thank you.