Mother a a woman from Maryland killed in a brutal jogging attack — reportedly by an illegal immigrant whose other suspected crimes took place on multiple continents and in multiple countries — will attend President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday after she said the tragedy led to an unlikely friendship with the returning supreme commander.
“It has been a surreal experience over the past year and a half. Losing my daughter in such a gruesome and unexpected way, waiting and fearing ‘if’ the suspect would ever be caught, the international attention that Rachel’s case has garnered, culminating in congressional hearings, and the friendship with President Trump,” Patty Morin told Fox News Digital.
Her 37-year-old daughter, Rachel Morin, was reported missing in August 2023 after she failed to return from her daily run. Rachel, herself a mother of five, was later found with horrific injuries, stuffed into a canal near the track.
U.S. Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump comforts Patty Morin, the mother of Rachel Morin, who was killed by an illegal immigrant, at the U.S.-Mexico border on August 22, 2024, south of Sierra Vista, Arizona. (Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)
It took an interstate effort to identify and capture the suspect, Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, 23, border “escape” accused in a series of violent crimes against women.
He is wanted for the murder of another woman in his native El Salvador and is charged with burglary A house in California and raped a woman and her nine-year-old daughter there.
“I never would have imagined that life would take such a turn. And now with a new Trump administration on the horizon with renewed hope for safety and security for our families and our nation…who would have thought that Rachel’s story, her life, would help change our country, return us to fundamental truths and common sense, looking forward to what the next four years will bring,” Morin said.
Rachel Morin was dragged off a footpath on August 5, 2023 and brutally murdered. (Family material)
She has been to the Capitol several times over the past year, testifying before Congress and advocating for a crackdown on migrant crime.
Earlier this month, some of those efforts paid off with the passage of the Laken Riley Act, named after another young woman whose suspected killer was an illegal immigrant. As Rachel Morin, Riley, a nursing student from Georgia attacked by a stranger while running.
Victor Martinez Hernandez after his arrest in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He has since been extradited to Maryland to face justice in the murder of Rachel Morin. (PU Tusla)
“Amends federal law as outlined in the Laken Riley Act, providing tougher provisions for catching criminals illegal immigrants and provides redress for states and citizens who have suffered from the Biden-Harris open border disaster,” Morin said. “I am very encouraged that Congress is finally taking action to protect American families and ensure safer communities.”
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“It was a slap in the face to American citizens who lost loved ones when 159 Democrats chose to protect criminal illegal immigrants instead of the American citizens they were elected to protect. Shameful!” she added.
