It was a Sunday night and a young couple were sitting together in a car at a park near Los Angeles. What happened next was something straight out of a horror movie – except this was real life. A gunman suddenly opened fire on the couple before pulling 19-year-old Andrea Vazquez from the car. Vazquez’s boyfriend escaped the gunfire but returned to the vehicle to find she had been kidnapped. After an intensive one-day search, the harrowing incident culminated in despair as Vazquez’s body was found in a field and a suspect – who has no known connection to the couple – was arrested for her murder. Heartbroken relatives described Vazquez as a “beautiful person” as they have been left struggling to understand what happened and why. Here’s everything we know so far about her abduction and death: A chilling abduction The horror unfolded just after midnight on Sunday 20 August when Vazquez and her boyfriend were sitting in a car at Penn Park in Whittier, police said. Her boyfriend told police that an armed suspect then approached their vehicle and “fired a weapon in their direction,” police said. Vazquez’s boyfriend fled the scene and when he returned he discovered blood near his car and his girlfriend missing. Vazquez has been kidnapped from the scene. Officers were alerted to a shooting and kidnapping incident located at the “parking stalls area” at 13950 Penn Street in Whittier. In a statement following her kidnapping, police said that Vazquez was last seen wearing a black long-sleeve crop top, khaki pants, and black low-top Converse shoes. “She has a tattoo of ‘Edlyn’ on the back of the neck, Aries constellation on the top of her right hand and a belly button piercing,” the statement read. Vasquez’s sister, Edlyn, with whom she lives in Los Angeles, put out a plea on Facebook for the public’s help in finding her. “My sister was shot and kidnapped at Penn Park,” she wrote. “Her last location shows Moreno Valley. We don’t know her condition. Please I am begging, if anyone has information, or the heart to share this, please please contact me and repost.” Another relative Emily Martinez told Fox News Digital that Vasquez’s phone last pinged in the Moreno Valley area. “We’re scared for her, but I’m hopeful, very hopeful that we’ll find her,” she said. “We just want to know she’s OK.” Tragic discovery Following the horror kidnapping, a huge search was launched to try to find the missing 19-year-old. That search ended in tragedy on Monday 21 August when, at around 11.50pm local time, authorities combing the area of Moreno Valley made a gruesome discovery. Police said that the teen’s body had been found in a vegetation field off Alessandro Boulevard and Merwin Street in Moreno Valley. It is currently unclear how she died or the nature of the scene where her body was found. The investigation remains ongoing but police said that it appears that the attack on Vazquez and her boyfriend was “randomly targeted”. The ‘random’ suspect On Tuesday 22 August, police announced an update on the case as a suspect was taken into custody. Detectives from the Whittier Police Department and the LADA Community Violence Reduction Team arrested Gabriel Esparza, a 20-year-old man and Whittier resident, in connection with the kidnapping and shooting of Vazquez. Mr Esparza was taken into custody at his workplace in the city of Lakewood and booked into the Whittier Police Department jail on charges of murder and kidnapping. He is being held without bail. During his arrest, officers recovered a weapon and Esparza’s White Toyota Tacoma truck – which are believed to have been used at the time of the shooting. “This relentless investigation and yesterday’s arrest were made possible by the dedication and commitment of our investigations division, with the assistance of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Downey Police Department, La Habra Police Department and the LADA Investigations Bureau Community Violence Reduction Team,” police said in a statement. The case will be presented to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office on Wednesday 23 August. Suspect pleads not guilty in first court appearance Gabriel Sean Esparza, the 20-year-old son of a Los Angeles County fire captain, has been charged with multiple felonies including murder, kidnapping and attempted rape of 19-year-old Andrea Vazquez. Mr Esparza entered a not-guilty plea when he made his first court appearance for the brutal slaying on Wednesday afternoon. Prosecutors have formally filed seven charges against the suspect, according to a criminal complaint submitted in Los Angeles Superior Court. These also include attempted murder, kidnapping to commit another crime, assault with intent to commit a felony, and two counts of attempted forcible rape. Tributes pour in Vasquez attended Fullerton College and was a fashion design student as well as an employee at a shopping mall in Cerritos. Ms Martinez told Fox News Digital before her body was found that the 19-year-old had also been working with her sister Edlyn, who is a lash artist. She described Vazquez as the “funniest person ever” and a “beautiful person” who was liked by everyone who met her. Read More Andrea Vazquez – latest: Gabriel Esparza arrested for murder after kidnapping teen on date with boyfriend Andrea Vazquez: California woman shot and kidnapped from boyfriend’s car found dead

A missing California teen has been found dead following a violent kidnapping, officials in the Whittier Police Department said. The remains of 19-year-old Andrea Vazquez were found in a vegetation field in Moreno Valley. Vazquez was randomly kidnapped over the weekend while she was in a car with her boyfriend in a Los Angeles park. While Vazquez and her boyfriend were sitting in the parked car at Penn Park, an armed man approached them and began shooting. Vazquez’s boyfriend fled the scene and when he returned, he “discovered blood” near it and Vazquez was gone. “At this time, it appears that Andrea Vazquez and male companion were randomly targeted by the suspect at Penn Park,” police said in a statement. Detectives combed the area of Moreno Valley and made the gruesome discovery on Monday evening. Gabriel Sean Esparza, 20, has been arrested in connection with the crime. Mr Esparza is facing charges of murder and kidnapping and is currently being held without bail. Read More Andrea Vasquez: California woman shot and kidnapped from boyfriend’s car found dead

A woman who fatally shoved an 87-year-old Broadway singing coach onto a Manhattan sidewalk avoided a long prison sentence by pleading guilty to manslaughter on Wednesday. Lauren Pazienza, 28, cried in court as she admitted randomly attacking Barbara Maier Gustern on March 10, 2022. The singing coach died five days later.

It is a terminally violent twist – perhaps to have been expected, but staggering nevertheless – to one of the most astonishing episodes in recent history. Yevgeny Prigozhin, who attempted a coup against Vladimir Putin, is reported to have been killed in a plane crash in Russia. If the chief of the mercenary group, Wagner, was indeed among the ten passengers said to have died when the private jet went down in the Tver oblast near Moscow, then the immediate suspicion would be that this was assassination by the Kremlin. In the course of 24 hours of armed mutiny, two months to the day ago, Putin had accused Prigozhin of treachery and then pardoned him. The two men even had tea together soon afterwards. Now, it seems, retribution may have come in the form of a dish served cold. According to Rosavista, the Russian aviation authority, Prigozhin was one of the names on passenger manifest of the Embraer jet RA-02795. According to some reports, Dmitry Utkin, one of the founder members of the group whose call sign, Wagner, became its name, is also among the dead. Officials in Moscow say that all the passengers, as well as the crew of three, have perished. A number of Wagner-linked social media channels claimed the jet had been shot down by the national air defence system. Others claimed there was a bomb on board. The destruction of the plane took place 24 hours after the news came that General Sergei Surovoki, who had previously been in charge of the Ukraine mission, had been fired from his post as the head of country’s aerospace forces. Surovokin, who earned the sobriquet "General Armageddon" for his brutal methods in the Syria conflict, was known to have good relations with Prigozhin and shared his antipathy towards some senior figures in the security hierarchy, including defence minister Sergei Shoigu, over the conduct of the Ukraine war. There were claims following the Wagner mutiny that Surovikin had been detained for questioning about his possible complicity. The Kremlin denied this, maintaining the general was merely “ resting”. A video had been posted of Prigozhin earlier in the week purporting to be of him in Africa declaring that Wagner was hard at work there and that made “Russia even greater on all continents, and Africa more free.” Africa, where Wagner has long acted as the Kremlin’s private army and established extensive lucrative networks, seemed to have been one place where the group and the Russian government could work together. Prigozhin had also appeared on the sidelines of a summit hosted for African leaders by Putin in St Petersburg. It was the first sighting of the Wagner boss since the mutiny. It had been assumed that Prigozhin would be exiled to Belarus in the deal brokered by the country’s president, Alexander Lukashenko, to end Wagner’s march on Moscow, and his presence at the meeting was seen by some Kremlin watchers to indicate that he was too powerful to be sidelined. If Prigozhin has been killed, then it would appear that was an image his enemies were prepared to publicise while plotting to remove him from the scene permanently. Wagner had been heavily engaged in Ukraine, capturing the city of Bakhmut, more a symbolic than a strategic prize, after bloody siege and assaults lasting months, Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior advisor Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted regarding Prigozhin’s possible demise “…we have to wait for the fog of war to clear. However, it is clear that Putin does not forgive anyone for his own beastly fear - the very one that nullified him in June 2023 – and was waiting for the moment.” Ukrainian forces are taking part in a prolonged counteroffensive to reclaim territory, including Bakhmut, in the Donbas. An infantry captain – talking about Prigozhin’s fate and a spate of recent Ukrainian drone attacks inside Russia – during a break in the town of Druzhkivka, mused: “Perhaps Russian air defence mistook his private plane for a large enemy drone. That would be a wonderful end for such a man, wouldn’t it?” Read More The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary Wigs, gold bars and pictures of severed heads: Inside Wagner boss’s lavish mansion UK Government closely monitoring reports of Wagner chief’s death in plane crash Joe Biden reacts to Wagner boss Prigozhin’s reported death in plane crash

The first video message Yevgeny Prigozhin shared since the end of his failed mutiny against Vladimir Putin, may have ended up being his last – with reports that he was on the passenger list of a jet that crashed about 60 miles from Moscow, apparently killing all on board. In the video, Mr Prigozhin was seen toting an assault rifle and wearing military fatigues, with his comments suggesting the clip was shot in an unnamed African country. The Wagner boss said during the clip that he is recruiting “strongmen” and said the group will “fulfil the tasks that were set” by the Russian government. The video was shared on Telegram channels affiliated with the Wagner group, as Mr Prigozhin said the mercenary group was “making Russia even greater on all continents, and Africa even more free”. “The temperature is +50 (122 degrees Fahrenheit) – everything as we like. The Wagner PMC [private military company] makes Russia even greater on all continents, and Africa – more free. Justice and happiness – for the African people, we’re making life a nightmare for Isis and al-Qaeda and other bandits,” he said in the video. In the background of the video, pickup trucks and other people dressed in fatigues could be seen. A telephone number was displayed as well for those who wanted to join the group. The Independent could not verify the date and exact location of the video. According to the Russian social media channels affiliated with the mercenary leader, the Wagner leader is recruiting fighters to work in the continent. He is inviting investors from Russia to put money in the Central African Republic through Russian House, a cultural centre in the African nation’s capital, they suggested. Mr Prigozhin was last seen in a video in July shot in Belarus shortly after his attempt to stir mutiny against the Kremlin failed, sparking speculation that he was taking refuge in the Russian ally nation as part of a deal to broker peace. He was later photographed on the sidelines of a Russia-Africa summit in the Russian city of St Petersburg. There is no official announcement of his current whereabouts. But one of the most prominent sites is the Central African Republic, where Wagner’s troops for hire have been active and accused of committing gross human rights abuses. Until June this year, the Wagner leader and his mercenary fighters, comprising mostly prison convicts, spent months fiercely fighting Ukrainian soldiers in the eastern region, mostly Bakhmut. Mr Prigozhin staunchly criticised Russia’s military performance and the top brass of the Russian defence ministry before he called for an armed uprising on 23 June to oust the defence minister and marched from Ukraine toward Moscow with his mercenaries. The hours-long mutiny ended after a deal was brokered by Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko, following which Mr Prigozhin agreed to end his rebellion in exchange for amnesty for him and his fighters and permission to relocate to Belarus. Before moving to Belarus, Wagner handed over its weapons to the Russian military, part of efforts by Russian authorities to defuse the threat posed by the mercenaries. Read More ‘Wagner is victim of its own brand name’: How much of a threat does mercenary group pose in Belarus? Wagner mercenaries issue a chilling message on Poland’s doorstep: ‘We are here’ Belarus begins military drills near its border with Poland and Lithuania as tensions heighten Wagner tracker: Charting Yevgeny Prigozhin’s mercenary group through the Ukraine war Drones, military confusion and cracks in Putin’s authority: Ukraine’s push to sow discord in Russia’s ranks

Authorities in Kansas say they have found “items of interest” in several cold case investigations during a search of “BTK killer” Dennis Rader’s former home. Osage County Sheriff Eddie Virden told Fox News that investigators had dug up Rader’s former property in Park City over two days this week after linking him to unsolved missing person cases. “Through the investigation, we developed information of some possible trophies of Dennis Rader’s, and we followed up on those leads and worked with Park City,” Mr Virden told the news site. He said officers “did a dig in the area, and we did recover some items of interest”. Rader is serving 10 consecutive life terms after his 2005 confession to the brutal murders of 10 women in the Wichita area between 1974 and 1991. Investigators have reportedly linked Rader to the unsolved disappearance of Cythia “Cyndi” Dawn Kinney, a 16-year-old cheerleader who disappeared from a laundromat in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, in 1976. Rader’s daughter Kerri Rawson said in a press release that she had been assisting law enforcement with an investigation into Kinney’s disappearance and several other unsolved murders. Ms Rawson said she had recently learned of Kinney’s cold case, and the separate unsolved murder of Shawna Garber, whose remains were found near Pineville, Missouri, in 1990. She said she contacted the law enforcement in Missouri and after being put in touch with the Osage County Sheriff’s Office she was flown to Kansas to work as a volunteer in both cases. As part of that work, she said she visited her father twice at the El Dorado Correctional Facility where he is incarcerated. “Beyond these two cases that have been released publicly, I’m not at liberty to discuss other possible missing persons and unsolved murder cases that are being actively investigated as possibly committed by my father, nor can I comment on my direct assistance in the investigations,” Ms Rawson said. “Multiple law enforcement agencies are seeking long-sought answers in decades-old missing persons and unsolved murder cases in the tri-state area of Kansa, Missouri and Oklahoma. And possibly locations that extend beyond the tri-state area,” she added. Ms Rawson also revealed that Rader had this year been offered immunity to confess to any violent crimes he may have committed between the early 1960s and his arrest in 2005. She called on local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to form a BTK killer special task force “to fund and power these vital ongoing tasks”. Read More BTK killer makes chilling comparisons between himself and Gilgo Beach murders suspect Rex Heuermann Bryan Kohberger defence hints at alibi in Idaho murders - but won’t reveal what it is as deadline passes Four students stabbed to death, a weeks-long manhunt but no motive: What we know about the Idaho murders

Four people have been arrested in connection to the shocking kidnapping of twin babies from a Michigan motel which set off a statewide Amber Alert – but luckily ended in their safe return. The 14-day-old twins, Montana and Matthew Bridges, were reported missing by their mother on Sunday. The mother, whose name has not been released, told police she had left the babies with “friendly acquaintances” at the motel in Livonia and left for a period of time. But when she returned, she said the babies – and her friends – were gone. An Amber Alert was immediately issued with police stating they believed the babies, who were only wearing diapers, to be in danger and that they had been taken by two unidentified women. Police released images from surveillance footage of the suspected kidnappers wearing jackets with the hoods pulled over their heads. The mother told police she had met the acquaintances on Facebook and that they told her they would give her clothes and diapers for the babies. The babies were safely returned at about 9.30am Monday morning at the Detroit Police Department’s Ninth Precinct. They were unharmed. Detroit Police Chief James White said: “We have the best outcome possible. The two kids have been recovered.” On Tuesday, Livonia police announced the arrests of four people related to the kidnapping. Their identities have not been released. “The Livonia Police Department has made four arrests related to the kidnapping of Montana and Matthew Bridges, who were the subject of an Amber Alert on August 21, 2023,” the statement said. “This case will be submitted to the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office for review.” The investigation into the kidnapping is still ongoing with Livonia Police Captain Gregory Yon saying that a motive is not yet clear. Read More Michigan newborn twins found safe hours after hospital kidnapping by hooded women North Carolina woman arrested for faking her own murder

Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin is on the passenger list for a flight that has crashed near Moscow, killing 10 people. Ten people died after a private jet crashed in Russia’s Tver region north of Moscow, TASS news agency reported on Wednesday, citing the emergencies ministry. The Embraer aircraft, en route from Moscow to St Petersburg, was carrying seven passengers and three crew, TASS said. More follows on this breaking news story.... Read More Russia’s ‘General Armageddon’ fired – having not been seen since Wagner mutiny Russia's 'General Armageddon' reportedly dismissed after vanishing in wake of Wagner uprising Wagner chief Prigozhin reappears in first video after mutiny - and he’s recruiting

A military commander dubbed “General Armageddon” for his brutality during Syria’s civil war has been removed as the head of Russia’s air force, having not been seen in public since the mutiny by Wagner mercenaries against Moscow at the end of June. Sergei Surovikin, a former commander of Russia’s troops in Ukraine who was previously awarded his nation’s top military honour, has not been publicly sacked – but state media has published sources confirming the move. He was given his moniker in recognition of the brutal tactics he deployed in Syria’s civil war, and was regarded as one of Russia’s most effective commanders. General Surovikin – who is believed to have close ties to Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin – was the most senior military figure to lose his position over the attempted uprising, which took place over a 24-hour period from 23 to 24 June. Russian president Vladimir Putin reacted with fury to the mutiny, which saw Mr Prigrozhin’s forces attempt to march on Moscow in protest at the way in which Moscow’s military top brass were handling the invasion of Ukraine. President Putin said that the revolt – the most significant threat to his leadership in years – could have tipped Russia into civil war. The march on Moscow was eventually halted about 125 miles outside the capital after a deal was brokered between Mr Prigozhin and the Kremlin via Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko. The terms of the arrangement allowed for the Wagner founder and some of his troops to decamp to Belarus and leave combat operations in Ukraine, where they had been involved in some of the fiercest fighting seen in the war so far. Mr Prigozhin has been photographed in St Petersburg and Belarus in recent weeks, and posted a video on Monday that he suggested had been shot in Africa, one of Wagner’s other theatres of combat. The two men Mr Prigozhin had wanted to topple – defence minister Sergei Shoigu and Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the general staff – remain in their posts. General Surovikin’s last public appearance was on 24 June, when he appeared in what looked like a carefully stage-managed video. Visibly strained and without insignia, he urged Mr Prigozhin to abandon his march on Moscow. Since that day, speculation has been rampant about General Surovikin’s fate. Some Russian news outlets and sources have said that the general, who was often publicly praised by Mr Prigozhin in the run-up to the revolt, was being questioned over possible complicity, and that he was potentially being held under house arrest. General Surovikin’s daughter told the Russian social media channel Baza in late June that her father had not been arrested. US officials have previously told American media that General Surovikin was supportive of Mr Prigozhin, but that Western intelligence did not know with certainty whether he had helped the rebellion in any way. Of the latest move, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti, citing an anonymous source, reported that General Surovikin had been replaced as commander of the Russian Aerospace Forces by Colonel General Viktor Afzalov, who heads the main staff of the air force. The agency frequently represents the official position of the Kremlin, through reports citing anonymous officials in Russia’s defence and security establishment. The RBC newspaper reported a defence personnel source saying: “Army General Sergei Surovikin has been relieved of his position in connection with his transfer to a different role ... He is currently on a short holiday.” The television personality Ksenia Sobchak, who is the daughter of a politician with links to Mr Putin, suggested that General Surovikin had not been in touch with his relatives. “They say that he was relieved of his post on 18 August by way of closed decree. The family still has had no contact with him,” she wrote on Telegram. General Surovikin was placed in charge of Russian military operations in Ukraine last October, but in January that role was handed to General Gerasimov while General Surovikin was made a deputy. News of the dismissal of General Surovikin came as another drone attack targeted Moscow, believed to be the sixth such assault in a week. The Ukrainian intelligence agency also claimed it had destroyed a key S-400 surface-to-air missile defence system in Russian-occupied Crimea. Such a loss would be another embarrassing blow for the Kremlin, as Ukraine increasingly targets Russia’s assets far behind the front line in southern and eastern Ukraine. Speaking about the drone attack on the Russian capital, Moscow’s mayor Sergey Sobyanin said that one drone had smashed into a building under construction in Moscow City, a prestigious business complex that has been hit by drones twice before. Several windows were broken in two buildings nearby, and emergency services responded to the incident. Russia’s defence ministry claimed to have downed all of the drones in Moscow and the surrounding area. Earlier, a three-hour night-time drone attack by Russia in Ukraine’s southern region of Odesa overnight on Tuesday caused a blaze at grain facilities, according to the head of the Odesa Regional Military Administration, Oleh Kiper. Elsewhere, a Russian drone attack on the city of Romny in northeastern Ukraine struck a local school, killing the principal, his deputy, a secretary and the school librarian, according to Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs. Three people were also killed in the Belgorod region of Russia on the Ukrainian border during the repeated shelling of a sanatorium, according to the region’s governor. Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report Read More The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin ‘dies in plane crash’ Russia's 'General Armageddon' reportedly dismissed after vanishing in wake of Wagner uprising Wagner chief Prigozhin reappears in first video after mutiny - and he’s recruiting

Travis Ikeguchi appeared to “flinch” before fatally shooting Laura Carleton during a heated dispute over a Pride flag, surveillance footage shows. Authorities say Ikeguchi hurled homophobic slurs at Carleton over a rainbow flag flying from her Mag.Pi store in Cedar Glen, California, before firing a single shot that killed the 66-year-old mother of nine on 18 August. The fatal shooting was captured on the store’s closed-circuit cameras, according to the Los Angeles Times. An acquaintance who viewed the disturbing footage told the Times that Ikeguchi momentarily paused before opening fire. “He then almost flinched as if thinking twice but then went for it, grabbed the gun and then aimed it and shot Lauri,” the acquaintance told the Times. Meanwhile, public records reviewed by The Independent have revealed that Ikeguchi’s father is a decorated Florida Highway Patrol state trooper and a firearms and active shooter instructor. The police link comes after officials said that Ikeguchi’s social media accounts on X, formerly known as Twitter, and far-right site Gab were filled with bigoted anti-LGBTQ+ posts and posts showing an intense hatred for law enforcement long before he murdered Carleton. Read More Laura Carleton’s killer was the son of a decorated police officer Laura Carleton’s death and the growing ‘epidemic of hate’ against LGBT+ people in the US A mother and businesswoman whose LGBTQ advocacy cost her her life: Who was Laura Ann Carleton? A California man spewed anti-LGBT+ hate online. Then he murdered a mom-of-nine over a Pride flag

A woman who was chained to the floor of a Kentucky home for two days was freed by police in a dramatic rescue that was captured on newly released body-camera video. Louisville Metro police responded to the dilapidated house on Bolling Avenue around 7pm on Wednesday after neighbours reported hearing cries for help. The doors and several of the windows were barricaded, forcing officers to break in through a second-storey window where they came face-to-face with the distressed woman. Chilling footage shows the unidentified woman sobbing hysterically as police reached her. She was bolted to the floor with screws that were attached to a chain and secured around her neck by a MasterLock. Moises May, 36, who was arrested two days later, was keeping the woman locked up following an argument that turned violent, according to the police report obtained by WAVE3. The woman had left the night of the argument but returned the next day to collect her belongings when Mr May locked her inside a deadbolted room after taking her phone, police said. Mr May, who lives at the home with the woman and their child, allegedly chopped her hair off with a machete, forced her to strip down before he chained her to the floor and threatened to kill her. “You’re gonna get it tonight. I told you the next time you leave and don’t come home, I’d kill you,” Mr May reportedly told her, according to the police report. The woman’s cries for help were finally heard after she managed to break the second-storey window. When officers reached the woman in the grimy room on Wednesday evening and struggled to free her from the chains, she can be heard on the video telling the police that her captor kept the key to the lock on his keychain. “The woman had a chain around her neck, which was secured by a MasterLock, and that chain was bolted to the floor with screws,” the department said. Police located a hatchet in the home and were able to cut through the chain and free the woman. She continued to cry and shake as she was led outside to be treated by EMS. Mr May was arrested two days later and charged with one count of kidnapping, intimidating a participant in the legal process, wanton endangerment, assault, terroristic threatening and harassment. His bond was set at $100,000 and he is scheduled to reappear in court on 28 August. Read More Andrea Vazquez – latest: Gabriel Esparza arrested for murder after kidnapping teen on date with boyfriend Police warn Rachel Morin killer will strike again after weeks on the run Friends of missing Katy Perry songwriter Camela Leierth-Segura fear someone is holding her captive

Maryland police have warned that Rachel Morin’s killer could strike again as he remains at large more than two weeks on from her murder. Harford County sheriff Jeff Gahler told Fox News that identifying and catching the suspect is a “top priority” amid fears that he could do “something harmful to someone else”. “This individual poses a threat to every community from here to Los Angeles because we don’t know where he’s laying his head at night,” he said. Morin, 37, was found dead after heading off for a walk along on the Ma & Pa Trail in Bel Air, Maryland, on the evening of 6 August. Last week, the Harford County Sheriff’s Office announced a major break in the case, revealing that DNA found at the scene of Morin’s murder had been matched to the DNA left at a home where an unknown man broke into a home in Los Angeles and violently attacked a young girl back in March. The suspect, a Hispanic male aged 20-30, was caught on a home security camera leaving the LA home. Over the weekend, hundreds of community members took part in a tribute walk in memory of the mother-of-five. Read More Maryland police have DNA matching Rachel Morin murder suspect and video images but no identity Rachel Morin’s mother breaks silence on daughter’s killing Maryland sheriff calls out ‘heinous coward’ who killed mother-of-five Rachel Morin Rachel Morin’s boyfriend speaks out after police name man wanted over sex assault as suspect in murder