Her mother had stopped responding to text messages, and Violet Custer was growing worried.

On Aug. 5, 2023, Custer’s mother, Rachel Morin, ran errands, came home and then left again to go for a run on the Ma & Pa Heritage Trail in Bel Air.

That’s something that she’d try to do almost every night. She was a fitness enthusiast. But it was uncommon for her to not respond to messages, Custer said.

Eventually, Morin’s boyfriend, Richard Tobin, arrived at the house and called 911. They later decided to search themselves for Morin at about 3 a.m.

“I went onto the trail,” Custer, 14, testified on Friday in Harford County Circuit Court, “to try to find my mom.”

Her body was discovered later that day. The Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined that her cause of death was strangulation and blunt force trauma.

Custer was one of five people who took the witness stand as testimony began in the trial of Victor Martinez-Hernandez, 24, who’s charged with first- and second-degree murder, first- and second-degree rape, third-degree sex offense and kidnapping in the killing.

The case has received national attention and became part of the debate about U.S immigration policy during the 2024 presidential election.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported that Martinez-Hernandez in 2023 unlawfully entered the United States near El Paso, Texas. He’s from El Salvador.

The Harford County State’s Attorney’s Office is seeking life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Circuit Judge Yolanda L. Curtin is presiding over the trial, which will resume on Monday.

In her opening statement, Harford County State’s Attorney Alison Healey described what happened to Morin as “a mother’s worst nightmare.”

Morin, she said, went out to one of her most beloved places — and never saw her children again.

“This is Rachel Hannah Morin. On that tragic day in 2023, she was 37 years old,” Healey said. “A mother of five children: Faye, Violet, Octavia, Deklan and Lilah.”

“That place that she loved some much ended up being the place she lost her life at the hands of this defendant.”

The Harford County Sheriff’s Office took a missing person’s report, broadcast a Be On The Lookout (BOLO) alert and entered information into the National Crime Information Center, or NCIC, Healey said. Law enforcement searched the trail — and even deployed drones — with no luck.

Sheriff’s deputies and community members searched again the next day, she said, and a man spotted some rocks covered in blood.

Healey said there was a 150-foot-long blood trail that led to a drainage tunnel under Maryland Route 24.

“Rachel was located inside of that tunnel, laying in a stream of water,” Healey said. “Naked. Brutally beaten with many head wounds.”

Her body, she said, was also covered in bruises.

Meanwhile, Morin’s cellphone had been smashed. Her Apple Watch had also been destroyed, Healey said.

Law enforcement received more than 1,000 tips, she said, and eventually ended up at an apartment in Temple Hills.

Martinez-Hernandez’s family members provided detectives a photo of him, a Facebook profile and a phone number that he’d used to contact them, Healey said. They reported that he’d suddenly taken off and left behind some of his belongings.

DNA recovered off his socks was consistent with genetic material found on Morin’s body, Healey said.

Tulsa Police arrested Martinez-Hernandez at a sports bar on June 14, 2024, after investigators pinged his phone to find its location.

At first, Martinez-Hernandez gave officers a false name: Juan Carlos. He later admitted to his identity but denied that he’d ever been in Maryland, Healey said.

A digital forensic examiner downloaded the contents of his phone, she said, which showed that Martinez-Hernandez conducted internet searches related to Morin. He also had photos of her on the device along with a screenshot of a news report about the investigation.

Investigators swabbed the inside of his cheek for DNA. It matched genetic material recovered off Morin’s body, Healey said.

“I will ask you to find the defendant guilty on all counts,” Healey said, “and I am certain that you will.”

But Assistant Public Defender Sawyer Hicks, one of Martinez-Hernandez’s attorneys, said he’s confident that the jury will find his client not guilty because there are unanswered questions and gaps in the case.

“Rachel Morin was brutally murdered. This was a horrible tragedy. There’s not a person in this courtroom, there’s not a person in this county, that disagrees,” Hicks said in his opening statement. “But Mr. Martinez-Hernandez is not the man that committed this offense.”

Hicks listed three examples of what he characterized as those unanswered questions including the motive for the killing.

“This was not a crime committed by a complete stranger,” he said. “This is someone who had a grievance. Someone who wanted to humiliate Rachel Morin to the greatest extent possible.”

Later, in the afternoon, Faye McMahon, Morin’s oldest daughter, testified that she worked with her mother several days per week at her house cleaning business.

They went back and forth over text about getting dinner on the night that she was killed. But McMahon, 19, said she was too tired.

Morin replied at 7:04 p.m. that was all right because she was also tired.

“Did you ever hear from your mom again after that message?” Healey asked.

“No,” McMahon replied.