Fourteen years after Faith Hedgepeth was found dead, the 19-year-old University of North Carolina student’s final hours are being revisited in a North Carolina courtroom. The opening days of the murder trial have featured emotional testimony and renewed scrutiny of evidence that went missing during the investigation.
Miguel Enrique Salguero-Olivares, 33, faces charges of first-degree murder, rape, sexual offense and burglary in Durham County Superior Court. Prosecutors accuse him of killing Hedgepeth, a biology major at UNC-Chapel Hill, in 2012.
The trial has entered its second week. Dr. Heather Waleski, a sexual assault nurse examiner with Atrium Health, has testified about the forensic medical findings collected in the case.
The early testimony prompted tears from witnesses, jurors and people watching from the gallery, the 9th Street Journal reported. Jurors were shown the alleged murder weapon, while close-up images of Hedgepeth’s face and body led some spectators to shield their eyes.
University of North Carolina student Faith Hedgepeth was murdered in 2012. (Courtesy of Ronald Hedgepeth)
Descriptions of the severe trauma to Hedgepeth’s brain proved so difficult to hear that the judge halted proceedings for a recess Friday.
At the center of the trial is a dispute over DNA evidence. Prosecutors say it helped identify Hedgepeth’s killer, while defense attorneys argue the case reflects an unreliable investigation in which crucial physical evidence disappeared.
A roommate’s discovery
Hedgepeth’s roommate, Karena Rosario, 34, broke down in tears Wednesday while describing how she found Hedgepeth in their bedroom at an off-campus apartment near Old Chapel Hill Road. Hedgepeth was nude from the waist down, Rosario testified.
“I walked around the bed and saw hair. I pulled the comforter down and saw she had a black eye,” Rosario told the court, ABC 11 reported.
Rosario retraced the events of Sept. 6, 2012, telling jurors that she and Hedgepeth studied at a campus library before returning to their apartment to change clothes. The two women then went to The Thrill nightclub.
Karena Rosario and Faith Hedgepeth are pictured together. (Courtesy of Ronald Hedgepeth)
They returned to the apartment at about 3:40 a.m. Rosario said she became ill after drinking and left roughly 45 minutes later to stay with a friend.
According to Rosario, Hedgepeth was awake, breathing and responsive when she left.
Rosario later called Hedgepeth to ask for a ride, but Hedgepeth did not pick up.
A friend, Marisol Rangel, drove Rosario home. When they entered the apartment around 11 a.m., Rosario said, they found Hedgepeth near her bed.
Rosario testified that blood covered parts of the walls, bed and Hedgepeth’s arm. She also told a 911 dispatcher that Hedgepeth’s body felt cold.
When officers arrived, Rosario said she asked whether an ambulance was on the way.
“I asked if they were still going to bring the ambulance, but they said she was gone,” Rosario testified.
DNA testing
Investigators collected DNA from the apartment and tested hundreds of samples from people connected to Hedgepeth. None produced a match.
Years later, investigators used genetic genealogy, comparing DNA recovered from the crime scene with profiles in public ancestry databases. That search ultimately pointed to Salguero-Olivares, who was not known to Hedgepeth’s family and friends.
Miguel Enrique Salguero-Olivares was charged in the 2012 murder of Faith Hedgepeth. (Raleigh/Wake City-County Bureau of Identification)
Authorities received a break nearly a decade later. On Sept. 16, 2021, police pulled Salguero-Olivares over during a DUI stop in Wake County, N.C. After obtaining a DNA sample, they charged him with murder.
Prosecutors later added the rape, sexual offense and burglary charges.
The evidence
On Friday, prosecutors presented items recovered from the bedroom, including a Bacardi rum bottle, a wine bottle and a crumpled Time-Out restaurant biscuit bag.
Investigators found a profanity-laced handwritten message on the fast-food bag that read, “I’m not stupid, b—-. Jealous.”
Chapel Hill police forensic technician Tamika Price displayed the 1.75-liter rum bottle to the court, which prosecutors identified as the murder weapon used to deliver blows to Hedgepeth’s head.
“When I put my hands on her head, I could feel where the side of her head was very soft. It was indented,” Price testified, ABC 11 reported.
The jury heard how investigators found the defendant’s DNA on the fast-food bag and the rum bottle.
Questions about the investigation
Under cross-examination, defense attorney James J. Rainsford pressed investigators on how they collected and preserved crime scene evidence.
Price acknowledged under oath that processing mistakes were made. She admitted that she was still in training during the 2012 investigation.
From left, Faith’s sister Rolanda Hedgepeth, mother Connie Hedgepeth and cousin Jonathan Hedgepeth join other family, friends and community members at a candlelight vigil at the Haliwa-Saponi Tribal School in Hollister, North Carolina, to remember and pray for Faith Hedgepeth. (Corey Lowenstein/Raleigh News & Observer/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Rainsford questioned why investigators did not photograph the rum bottle before collecting it, and asked why they did not collect additional items from the apartment.
The defense also focused on a missing swab gathered from a reddish stain on a bathroom doorframe. Price testified that an initial test indicated the stain could be blood, but investigators could not find the swab for further laboratory testing.
Retired forensic specialist Sheleathea Quick said she remembered investigators collecting and boxing a swab, but did not know what happened to it.
“We searched the evidence locker,” Quick said. “We searched the truck. We searched the lab.”
People walk on the campus of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill on June 29, 2023, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. (Eros Hoagland/Getty Images)
The trial continues
Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty.
Salguero-Olivares would face mandatory life in prison without parole if convicted of first-degree murder, along with possible prison sentences on the rape, sexual offense and burglary charges.
Testimony from state forensic and medical experts is scheduled to continue Tuesday morning.