(NewsNation) — A Maryland mother of five was found dead off a popular hiking trail Sunday. The death of Rachel Morin has been ruled a homicide, and authorities are interviewing those in the 37-year-old’s inner circle again in their investigation.
Morin was last seen alive at around 6 p.m. Saturday when she left to take a walk on a nature trail in Bel Air, Maryland, which is about an hour outside of Baltimore, just south of the Pennsylvania border. She never returned and her boyfriend, Richard Tobin, reported her missing.
The next day, authorities found Morin’s car at the Williams Street entrance to the trail with no sight of her. At around 1 p.m. Sunday, a volunteer searcher discovered Morin’s body off the Ma and Pa Trail.
Since Morin’s death was announced, her boyfriend has faced scrutiny online. Tobin, who has a prior criminal record, has not been implicated in any way by police at this time.
“I love Rachel. I would never do anything to her. Let the family and I grieve. Yes, I have a past, but I also have 15 months clean and have changed as a person. Please,” Tobin posted on Facebook.
In an interview with NewsNation host Dan Abrams, Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler would not directly comment on Tobin, but he believes everyone has been cooperative in the investigation so far.
“Everyone that we have spoken to, to my understanding, we’ve had no difficulty in obtaining people to sit down and have conversations with our investigators,” Gahler said.
Gahler told Abrams his investigators are again speaking with those closest to Morin.
“We’ve started again with the inner circle, those closest to Rachel, those to last see her alive. We’re working our way out through family members and associates all the way out until we perhaps are looking at someone totally random and unknown to us,” Gahler said.
Gahler said he is convinced Morin’s death happened as the result of a violent crime.
“It’s clear from the time our investigators arrived on the scene, we were not dealing with an accidental injury or something self-inflicted. We were dealing with a violent homicide,” he said.
As authorities work different angles of the investigation, the Bel Air community is on edge and the sheriff’s office has stepped up patrols in the area.
“We’ve had hundreds of tips come in because it’s so unusual for this specific community here. We live in a relatively very safe place. On this hiking trail … nothing even close to this has ever happened,” Gahler said.
Gahler’s detectives are asking for the public’s help on the case. Anyone who was near the Ma and Pa Trail on Saturday and took any photos or videos is asked to share them with Harford County Sheriff Sgt. Maddox at maddoxc@harfordsheriff.org.