Evan Knapp awoke on Aug. 6 to a message from a friend asking him to join her in a search party for Rachel Morin, the 37-year-old Bel Air mother of five who went missing the day prior after she went for a run on the Ma & Pa Heritage Trail in Bel Air.

Knapp was the fifth person to testify Friday after opening statements in the trial for the man suspected of raping and killing Morin, Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, a Salvadoran national.

Knapp testified that after receiving the message, he and his friend headed to the Ma & Pa Trail to join the search for Morin. The two tried parking at the Williams Street trailhead entrance, but found it to be full of police vehicles, tents and officers, so they parked at a local business about a block away and walked over.

Knapp said he had hiked a portion of the trail years prior, but had never entered from Williams Street. Knapp, his friend and her stepfather joined the search party and searched “everywhere and everything,” Knapp said.

While on the trail, Knapp noticed what he called a “deer trail” stemming off of the main trail. He said the trail was “congested” with thorn bushes and overgrown trees.

“It was pretty tight but you could totally get through,” Knapp said.

Knapp began traversing the deer trail until he was stopped in his tracks by a rock covered in blood. The comment sent shock among jurors, friends and family of Morin in the courtroom with many lifting eyebrows and dropping their jaws.

He told his friend to stay put as he pushed forward toward an opening of two tunnels. An image presented to the court by Harford County State’s Attorney Alison Healey showed that the two tunnels were at the head of a small, shallow waterway surrounded by thick brush near the dirt path. Thorn bushes blocked Knapp from approaching the tunnels, so he snapped branches and made his way through the vegetation.

Halfway through, he said he noticed blood covering the branches and thorns. He eventually got through the brush and peeked into the left tunnel, noticing what he initially thought was a dead deer. As he inched closer, he discovered an “unclothed person laying on her back.”

“Things froze from there,” Knapp said. “I was stuck in shock. I couldn’t tell what I was feeling.”

Knapp’s friend called out to him numerous times as he stood there in shock, he said. She asked if he was OK and if he found anything. Seconds after he had informed her of his discovery, Knapp said his friend was on the phone with the police.

In his testimony, he said that he could not make out Morin’s face, adding “it was bad.” He recalled describing what he had seen to his friend on the trail as “brutal” and “not cool.”

The two went back to the main trail to wait for police. Knapp looked down and saw blood spattered on the white gravel rocks he was standing on as if “someone had put paint on a toothbrush and flicked the bristles.” He said he looked up and noticed that the blood was also on leaves, the trail and nearby branches.

Police took control of the scene and Knapp was taken to the police station for questioning before he was allowed to go home.

Martinez-Hernandez’s defense team cross-examined Knapp and asked if he had ever returned to the crime scene. Knapp said yes, explaining that after locating Morin’s body, he was quite disturbed. Knapp said that a week to one month after finding her body, he and his friend went back to the scene since Knapp was “feeling better” and in need of “clarity” and “closure.”

When they arrived at the scene, Knapp said he ran into an FBI agent which he said startled him because he didn’t want to get in trouble.

Police used DNA recovered from Morin’s body to identify Martinez-Hernandez as the suspect. Martinez-Hernandez entered the United States illegally in early 2023. Police arrested him in June at a bar in Tulsa, Oklahoma after prosecutors say they tracked his phone using a phone number provided by his family members in Prince George’s County, where he had been living months after Morin’s killing.

He is charged with first-degree rape and first-degree murder in Morin’s death.

His trial is expected to continue Monday at 9:30 a.m. in Harford Circuit Court. The last day of trial is expected to be April 16.

Have a news tip? Contact Matt Hubbard at mhubbard@baltsun.com, 443-651-0101 or @mthubb on X.