Rachel Morin’s household says they’re “grateful” for President-elect Trump’s dedication to creating border safety “a nationwide precedence” after an unlawful immigrant allegedly murdered Morin whereas she was out jogging on a pedestrian path final 12 months.
Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, a 23-year-old unlawful immigrant from El Salvador, is accused of brutally attacking and killing the 37-year-old mom of 5 on the Ma & Pa Path in Bel Air, Maryland — an prosperous Baltimore suburb north of town — in August 2023.
“We’re grateful for the assist from Mr. Trump and to see border safety elevated as a nationwide precedence,” Patty Morin, Rachel’s mom, stated in a Monday assertion. “We imagine Rachel’s story performed a job in highlighting the pressing want for reforms that can make America safer. We’re relieved figuring out that Mr. Trump’s dedication to frequent sense border safety will work to make sure that no different household must endure the identical tragic loss.”
The Morin household spoke alongside Trump at plenty of marketing campaign places forward of the election, together with a cease on the U.S.-Mexico border in Cochise County, Arizona, in August — a couple of 12 months after Morin’s dying.
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“The Morins have all the time believed within the worth of spotlighting the border disaster,” Randolph Rice, the household’s legal professional, stated. “Now, with the election of a frontrunner who shares their perception, they’ll start to heal, figuring out that Rachel’s legacy will contribute to significant change. They stay up for Mr. Trump’s administration taking instant motion to guard our American communities.”
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The household hopes Trump’s border insurance policies will stop future tragedies involving suspects who entered america illegally.
Martinez-Hernandez was apprehended in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and faces fees of first-degree homicide, rape and kidnapping, in reference to Morin’s dying.
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Authorities have labeled him a possible serial killer after his alleged involvement in a slew of crimes towards girls in Central America and america, and prosecutors are searching for a life sentence with out the potential of parole for the suspect.
Investigators tied DNA discovered at the scene of Morin’s homicide to DNA discovered inside a Los Angeles residence after a house invasion in March of final 12 months.
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Regardless of the DNA match linking the 2 circumstances, nonetheless, authorities had been unable to search out an identification match for the DNA samples collected from both crime scene as a result of it was not beforehand logged within the nationwide Mixed DNA Index System (CODIS) system, the place authorities log DNA samples of offenders arrested in america.
“We’re 1,800 miles from the southern border,” Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler stated in June whereas saying the suspect’s arrest. “And Americans aren’t secure due to their failed immigration insurance policies.”
In what many political pundits have described as a disaster, thousands and thousands of migrants flooded into america throughout the Biden administration as numbers skyrocketed in 2021 and remained at report highs by way of 2022 and 2023.
Numbers dropped sharply in June after Biden restricted entries, though migrants have continued to come back into america through a broad use of humanitarian parole.
Whereas numbers are actually down on the border, 2024 has seen a sequence of high-profile crimes by unlawful immigrant suspects, a few of whom had been allowed into the U.S. below the administration.
Fox Information’ Adam Shaw contributed to this report.