Investigators announced Thursday that DNA left by the suspected killer of a Maryland mother of five who was attacked on a local trail in August matches that of a man suspected in a home invasion and assault of a young girl in March in South Los Angeles.
Rachel Morin went missing the night of Aug. 5 after telling her boyfriend she was going to walk along the Ma & Pa Trail in Bel Air, a town in Harford County northeast of Baltimore. Her body was found near the 2.8-mile trail, which winds through a wooded area, the following afternoon. Authorities have not released her cause of death but said Thursday that she was “brutally murdered” in a “violent attack.”
Col. William Davis, chief deputy of the Harford County Sheriff’s Office, said in a news conference Thursday evening that DNA collected at the site where Morin was attacked was analyzed by the Maryland State Police and run through CODIS, a national database of DNA profiles maintained by the FBI. It came back as a match to a man suspected in a home invasion and assault of a young girl in Los Angeles in March, Davis said.
The source of the DNA profile remains unknown, however, because there is no evidence in the database of a previous arrest in which DNA was collected from a suspect, Davis said.
The Harford County Sheriff’s Office released security video obtained by the Los Angeles Police Department that they say shows a man leaving the residence where the girl was assaulted on March 26 in the hopes that someone will recognize him. In the video, the bare-chested man is seen backing out of the front door, which is shut by someone inside.
The sheriff’s office described the intruder as being between 20 and 30 years old, approximately 5 feet, 9 inches tall and weighing about 160 pounds with a muscular build. Authorities said he is believed to be of Hispanic descent.
“We want to make it clear that we believe the suspect acted alone,” Davis said, and that it was “potentially a random act of violence.”
“We believe this was a person that Rachel probably didn’t know,” he added.
Morin’s boyfriend, who reported her missing the night she disappeared, had defended himself on Facebook from would-be internet sleuths who accused him of being involved in Morin’s killing. “I love Rachel, I would never do anything to her, let the family and I grieve,” he said.
When asked to comment on the case, the Los Angeles Police Department pointed HuffPost to its official statement posted on Twitter, only clarifying that what the LAPD referred to as a residential burglary was no different than the “home invasion” terminology used by Maryland authorities.
Maryland investigators are working with the FBI to “further analyze the DNA” found in both crime scenes, Davis said. In the meantime, he urged community members to be cautious when walking on the trail and elsewhere.
“Be alert. Walk with a friend. Don’t allow yourself to be distracted by your cellphone or headphones. And finally, if you see something that makes you feel uncomfortable, or you think is suspicious, act on those instincts and call 911.”