Rachel Morin: Maryland police release new sketches of suspected killer

Police have released new sketches of the suspect believed to have murdered Rachel Morin, the Maryland mother of five who was found dead on a hiking trail.

Ms Morin, 37, was reported missing on 5 August by her boyfriend, who said she had gone for a run at Ma & Pa Trail in Bel Air, Maryland and never came home. Her car was found near the trail hours later, and the next day, she was found dead.

In the six months since her death, investigators have looked into more than 1,000 tips and conducted more than 100 interviews, the Harford County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release on Monday.

They have now released sketches of the suspect, and are continuing to ask the public for their help in identifying the man. A $35,000 reward is being offered for information that leads to an arrest and conviction.

In a podcast about the case released by the sheriff’s office, Captain Andy Lane said they believe the victim was “attacked on the trail” and dragged into a drainage pipe, where she died.

Police have not determined whether the suspect had stalked Ms Morin and targeted her specifically, or if it was a “crime of opportunity,” with the suspect waiting for a random victim to come down the trail when no witnesses were around.

DNA found at the scene of Ms Morin’s death was entered into a national database, which revealed that the suspect may have also been behind a violent home invasion in Los Angeles in March, which remains unsolved.

Surveillance footage of the home invasion showed images of the suspect, which were used to draw up the sketches released this week.

Months after Ms Morin’s murder, Mr Lane said police remain “motivated” to solve the case.

“They want to find this person and they want to take them off the streets so that no one else is injured, and they want to bring justice to Rachel and to her family,” he said.