Police in Maryland released a new sketch of the suspect linked to the murder of Rachel Morin, a mother of five who was found dead on a hiking trail last year.
The Harford County Sheriff's Office released two sketches on its Facebook account Monday (February 12) following "more than 100 interviews" and following up "on more than 1,000 tips" during "the last six months."
“We believe there are still people who can provide information,” the department wrote. “While he was here, where did he stay? Who did he speak to? Where did he work?
The department had previously released a video showing an unidentified man suspected of killing Morin and said DNA found at the scene of a home invasion and assault of a young girl in Los Angeles that took place in March matched the scene where Morin was found brutally beaten to death on August 6.
“Unfortunately that suspect has not been identified, but he did leave behind his DNA,” said Col. William Davis of the Harford County Sheriff's Office. “Based on the DNA evidence, we consider the individual in the video we obtained from the Los Angeles Police Department … to be the person that murdered Rachel Morin.”
Davis said the man isn't believed to have known Morin prior to what is being described as "a random act of violence" and that the department doesn't "have any clue" of his whereabouts during an update in August. The Harford County Sheriff's Office described the suspect as a 5-foot-9, 160 lb Hispanic man who was seen in the video closing the front door and walking down the steps of a Los Angeles home during a suspected robbery.
"This is not a current photo (within the last six months), and the subject’s hairstyle may have changed," the department wrote. "This individual is believed to have ties to the Los Angeles area and may have been involved in violent crimes in other states."
Morin was reported to have been found naked and beaten so brutally that the right side of her face "was gone," Michael Gabriszeski, the stepfather of a friend, Cecilia, who discovered her remains in a drain tunnel on the Ma & Pa Hermitage Trail in Bel Air, Maryland, on August 6, told DailyMail.com on August 10.
“She was laying on her back, fully naked, and she had brutal head trauma…it looked like her head had been smashed in with a rock."
“There was a 15 to 20-foot blood trail. So, it looked like she had been beaten and dragged into that position,” he added. "It looked like [the killer] was trying to erase her identity…the right side of her face was gone.”
Gabriszeski's description corroborated with information provided by a previous source close to the Morin family, who also said the 37-year-old suffered disfiguring injuries.
“The injuries were so horrific that there won’t be an open casket [at her funeral],” the source said via DailyMail.com.
Morin didn't have life insurance, according to her sister, Rebekah, who claimed she "did not go willingly" in the initial GoFundMe page launched to help her family pay for funeral expenses.