Photo: Harford County Sheriff's Office
Rachel Morin, the mother of five who was found brutally beaten to death on a popular Maryland trail last weekend, was using multiple dating apps prior to her death, a source with knowledge of the situation told the New York Post on Friday (August 11).
Morin, 37, went to Glow- The Bronzing Studio in Bel Air for daily spray tans, which included the afternoon of her death. The source said Morin had previously told staff members at the tanning salon that she was on "multiple dating sites" prior to being found dead, the same week that she had gone public with her relationship with Richard Tobin, 27, who was the last person to see her alive before her disappearance.
Tobin, who has not been named as a suspect but posted in defense of himself amid potential blame on social media, met up with Morin during the afternoon of her disappearance and, in a since-deleted Facebook comment, claimed they went to the gym together before dropping her off at her home just before 5:00 p.m. Morin was reported to be hiking the Ma and Pa Trail between the hours of 6:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
The Harford County Sheriff's Office issued 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 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's body was located by authorities after "a citizen called 9-1-1 to report a female's body" found off the trail last 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.
Tobin 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.