The new boyfriend of Maryland mother of five Rachel Morin, who was found dead on a hiking trail Sunday, insisted he played no role in her demise after police announced a homicide probe.
Richard Tobin, 27, who has a lengthy criminal record, took to Facebook on Sunday to shoot down rampant online speculation that he may have been behind her killing.
“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 wrote under his relationship status, which was updated Aug. 1 to reflect that Morin is his girlfriend.
Tobin has prior arrests for malicious destruction of property, criminal second-degree assault, resisting arrest, drug possession, disorderly intoxication and violating restraining orders, according to Maryland court records.
He has not been named as a suspect in his girlfriend’s death or been accused of any wrongdoing.
He reported her missing Saturday at 11:30 p.m. after she didn’t return home from a hike on the Ma and Pa Heritage Trail in Bel Air, Maryland – about 30 miles north of Baltimore.
She was last seen at home wearing a dark tank top, black spandex shorts and gray sneakers before heading out around 6 p.m.
Her car was located at the trailhead’s Williams Street entrance and taken to the criminal investigations division for processing, police said.
The next day, a person called 911 to report finding a woman’s body near the trail, which authorities believe is Morin, Harford County Sheriff Jeff Gahler said at a press conference.
