DHS pays tribute to mothers of murdered Maryland women Rachel Morin and Kayla Hamilton
On Mother's Day, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recognized two Maryland mothers whose daughters' convicted killers were undocumented immigrants.
DHS paid tribute in a social media post to all the "Angel Moms who have lost a child to illegal alien crime."
Among them were Patty Morin and Tammy Nobles.
Rachel Morin and Kayla Hamilton cases
Patty Morin's daughter, 37-year-old Rachel Morin, was found dead off the Ma and Pa Trail in Harford County on August 6, 2023, after she left for a run. Rachel Morin was a mother of five.
The case garnered national headlines. After a 10-month nationwide manhunt, El Salvador-native Victor Martinez-Hernandez was arrested in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Martinez-Hernandez was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for first-degree murder and life for first-degree rape.
"Even though (Rachel) was tiny, she had a big influence," Patty Morin said in a post shared by DHS. "She was such a happy, joyous person. There has been such a loud silence because of her absence."
Tammy Nobles' daughter, Kayla Hamilton, was found dead near her home in Aberdeen, Maryland, on July 27, 2022. Walter Javier Martinez, an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador, was sentenced to 70 years in prison.
Martinez, who prosecutors said had ties to the MS-13 gang, was 17 years old at the time of the murder. Hamilton, a 20-year-old, had been diagnosed with "high-functioning autism," according to the Harford County State's Attorney's Office.
Hamilton was found on the floor of her bedroom unconscious, bound at the wrists with a phone charging cord wrapped tightly around her neck and mouth, which prompted a homicide investigation.
"The pain of losing Kayla hits your soul," her mother Tammy Nobles said. "It changes you as a person and as you see the world. Our grief is forever. We have to live with the void of not having her here. Her murderer got 70 leads and I got life."
