A Maryland mother of five whose body was found near a popular trail after disappearing Saturday was the victim of a homicide, authorities said as they asked the public to submit photos or video if they were in the area over the weekend.
Rachel Morin, 37, went missing Saturday evening after her boyfriend said she planned to walk at the Ma & Pa Trail in Bel Air, a town about 30 miles northeast of Baltimore. A body was found near the trail on Sunday, and Robert Royster, Harford County Sheriff’s Office public information officer, confirmed to HuffPost that it was Morin’s.
Richard Tobin, Morin’s boyfriend, reported her missing, telling police that she had left around 6 p.m. and that her car was parked at the trailhead’s parking lot. A massive search was launched early Sunday morning, and a volunteer found Morin’s body just after 1 p.m. “off of the trail,” authorities said.
Harford County Sheriff’s Office
Investigators have not identified a suspect, and Sheriff Jeff Gahler told WBAL on Monday that Morin’s killing could be “a random event.” In a news conference Monday, Gahler told reporters that he couldn’t say whether there was an ongoing threat to the community but that the sheriff’s deputies would provide “increased patrols” on the trail throughout the week.
The sheriff said there are no surveillance cameras in the trail’s parking lot or public areas. “It’s always known to be a pretty safe place,” Gahler said in a news conference Monday but urged people to “keep aware of your surroundings,” avoid “a predictable routine” when exercising, “buddy up” with someone they know, and consider carrying a whistle or other alert device.
“If you were on the Ma & Pa Trail on Saturday, or near the trail or trail heads and took photos or video, we are asking if you would please share them with investigators,” the sheriff’s office said on Facebook. “There could be something helpful in one of your photos that might bring us one more piece of the puzzle.”
As of early Tuesday, authorities said they had received nearly 100 tips.
Morin and Tobin had not been dating very long. He updated his Facebook status to “in a relationship” on Aug. 1, and Morin said that she had “Only started taking pics few weeks ago” in an Aug. 3 Facebook post with two snapshots of the couple. In one picture, she is visibly sunburned, noting that the couple had been “From the beach to the mountains.”
Harford County Sheriff’s Office
Tobin, whose criminal history of misdemeanor assault and drug charges has come under scrutiny from would-be internet sleuths, defended himself on Facebook on Sunday. “I love Rachel, I would never do anything to her, let the family and I grieve,” he said in response to his original relationship update, where hundreds of people had expressed suspicions about his guilt — including links and screenshots of his rap sheet.
“Yes, I have a past but I also have 15 months clean and have changed as a person. Please,” he said.
In a GoFundMe for funeral and memorial expenses, Morin’s sister, Rebekah Morin, said, “It is with devastating sadness and a broken heart that our family has been hit with yet another heartbreak.”
Just over a week earlier, the sisters’ 4-month-old niece, Lily Beth Morin, had died suddenly, Rebekah Morin said in a GoFundMe she had posted then to help with funeral and medical expenses.
Authorities have no immediate plans to release Morin’s cause of death.
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