Photo: Harford County Sheriff's Office
Rachel Morin's mother made a plea for the public to have "compassion" amid new details in the ongoing murder investigation centered around her daughter's death.
“It has only been 4 days since we received the horrific news. I ask that as mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters, that you would please have compassion on us and allow us this,” Patty Morin wrote in an open letter shared on her daughter Rebekah's Facebook account Thursday (August 10). “If you have experienced the loss of a dear loved one, then you know how hard it can be to express the pain that you feel in your heart. When it’s sudden and tragic, your mind looks for ways to cope,” she added.
“As a mom, I appreciate the outpouring of love and support from family, friends, and the worldwide community that grieves with me for my young daughter.”
Patty's plea came prior to the Harford County Sheriff's Office issuing an appeal for a group of witnesses who reported to have seen Morin at Ma & Pa Heritage Trail -- where she was found dead the following day -- last Saturday (August 5).
“These witnesses were described as either being 3 men, 2 women and 2 dogs OR 2 men, 3 women and 2 dogs,” the statement said of the individuals, who are believed to have been at the trailhead between 6 and 7:30 p.m."
Morin, 37, a mother of five, 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 Sunday (August 6), told DailyMail.com on Thursday (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 was last seen heading to the Ma and Pa Trail on Saturday at around 6:00 p.m. and her body was located by authorities after "a citizen called 9-1-1 to report a female's body" found off the trail Sunday (August 6). Harford County Sheriff's Office investigators said they haven't determined a motive or "a solid suspect" in the ongoing investigation.
"We do not have a solid suspect. Not knowing whether this was a targeted event specific to Rachel, we are going to say, yes, be aware, be thinking there could be somebody out here and this is a random event," Harford County Sheriff Jeffery Gahler said.
Rachel Morin's boyfriend, Richard Tobin, 27, denied his involvement in her death in the comment section under a Facebook post in which they announced their relationship status on August 1. Tobin acknowledged his lengthy criminal history, which included multiple arrests for second-degree assault, malicious destruction of property, drug possession and violating restraining orders, but claims he has "changed as a person."
Tobin was confirmed to have been the person who reported Morin missing after she failed to return home and provided details about where her vehicle was located, which was confirmed to be correct by police during their search. Gahler said "the investigation went from a missing persons investigation to a homicide investigation" when officers located Morin's body.
“I’m not going to go into what, physically, they observed at the scene. But investigators believe sadly that it’s a homicide case,” Gahler said during Sunday's press conference.
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.