A suspect is charged with Faith Hedgepeth’s murder. Here’s what we know so far.
Chapel Hill police announced Thursday a suspect has been arrested for the murder of Faith Hedgepeth, more than nine years after the UNC student was found dead in a friend’s off-campus apartment.
Miguel Enrique Salguero-Olivares, 28, of Durham, was taken into custody earlier on Thursday. He is charged with first-degree murder, and is currently being held in the Durham county jail without bail.
Local and state law enforcement officials said their search for a suspect involved hundreds of interviews and testing DNA samples, and the investigation remains ongoing.
Officials did not provide additional details about Salguero-Olivares’s arrest, or a relationship to Hedgepeth, if any.
“Patience will be asked of you,” Chapel Hill Police Chief Chris Blue said at a news conference outside the Chapel Hill Town Hill. “This story will take time to completely unfold.”
Assistant Chief Celisa Lehew added, “This investigation is not complete. Our work is not done.”
As the investigation into Hedgepeth’s death continues, here’s what we know about her killing, what evidence police have gathered, and Salguero-Olivares, the suspect. Information is based on previous News & Observer reporting and what law enforcement disclosed Thursday.
Who is Faith Hedgepeth?
Hedgepeth, 19, was a sophomore at UNC-Chapel Hill when she was killed in September 2012. She grew up in Hollister, North Carolina, a small community on the Warren-Halifax County border, and was a member of the Haliwa-Saponi tribal community.
Her parents are Roland and Connie Hedgepeth. An older sister, Rolanda Hedgepeth, was 18 when Faith was born, and was like a second mother to her.
“When I got the news this morning, I didn’t do anything but cry, and thank God,” Connie Hedgepeth said at Thursday’s news conference. “When I cried, it was tears of joy, tears of relief, knowing that someone had been arrested in her case.”
“It’s been a long nine years,” said Roland Hedgepeth, her husband and Faith’s father.
Faith Hedgepeth arrived at UNC on a scholarship for advanced minority students, but also worked part-time jobs for grocery and gas money. At the time of her death, she was working at a Red Robin restaurant in Durham, not far from the Chapel Hill border.
She aspired to become a pediatrician and return to her community to pursue a medical career there.
What happened the night of the murder?
On Thursday, Sept. 6, 2012, the day before she was killed, Hedgepeth attended a recruiting event for Alpha Pi Omega around 6 p.m., according to police. She then went to Davis Library on the UNC campus with her friend and roommate, Karena Rosario.
About 7:30 p.m., Hedgepeth and Rosario returned to Rosario’s home at the Hawthorne at The View apartment complex (later renamed Preserve at the Park and now called Nova Chapel Hill) on Old Chapel Hill Road near the Durham-Chapel Hill border.
Rosario was letting Hedgepeth stay with her until Hedgepeth could move into her own apartment later that month.
The women left Rosario’s apartment after midnight on Sept. 7 and went to a Chapel Hill nightclub on Rosemary Street called The Thrill. Surveillance footage shows them arriving at 12:40 a.m. and leaving at 2:06 a.m. Rosario later told police they left because she wasn’t feeling well. They then returned to Rosario’s apartment.
Around 4:25 a.m. Rosario left the apartment, picked up by a male friend, and left Hedgepeth home alone and asleep in the bedroom. Rosario told police she left the door unlocked.
When was Hedgepeth discovered?
Rosario got a ride back to her apartment with a friend, Marisol Rangel, and they arrived around 11 a.m. They discovered Hedgepeth on the bed with blood under her head.
Rosario called 911 at 11:01 a.m.
She told the dispatcher that her roommate was unconscious and that there was “blood everywhere.” The dispatcher repeatedly asked her to check to see if Hedgepeth was breathing, so that Rosario could possibly give her aid, and Rosario said she did not want to touch her. When Rosario told the dispatcher that Hedgepeth felt cold to the touch, the dispatcher advised her to leave the body and not to touch anything.
When police arrived, they found Faith’s body hanging off the bed, face up, wearing only a black shirt that was pulled up over her head, according to a search warrant released in 2014.
How did Hedgepeth die?
Hedgepeth’s head was bludgeoned to the point that medical examiners had concluded her cause of death was blunt-force trauma, according to an autopsy report released to the public in September 2014.
The report also showed cuts and bruises on her arms and legs, and blood under her fingernails. In addition to blood that had pooled underneath Hedgepeth’s head, there was blood spattered on the wall and closet door as well.
Police told ABC News in 2016 that there also was the possibility that Hedgepeth was raped.
What evidence have police collected?
Police have said they believe a Bacardi Peach Rum bottle that was normally kept in the kitchen is the murder weapon. The bottle had “tissue fragments” and DNA on it.
In addition to blood and tissue evidence, police collected semen from Hedgepeth’s body.
Police also found a white, Time-Out fast-food bag on the bed with the handwritten words: “I’M NOT STUPID BITCH” and “JEALOUS.” The bag didn’t have blood on it, unlike other pieces of evidence collected from the room.
A friend later turned over a bizarre voicemail message from Hedgepeth that appeared to be an accidental pocket dial from the night she was killed. The message was hard to understand, but was analyzed by experts, some of whom believe it captures moments from the assault.
Chapel Hill police have said they do not consider the voicemail to be from the time of the assault.
How did police identify the suspect?
Authorities matched Salguero-Olivares to DNA collected from the original crime scene, North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein said Thursday.
DNA evidence was invaluable in identifying a suspect, Stein said, with 229 samples analyzed to rule out suspects.
Over the course of their investigation, the Chapel Hill Police Department has conducted thousands of interviews and performed hundreds of DNA tests based on forensics found at the scene of the murder.
Search warrants released in September 2014 indicate that police initially looked closely at several men in connection with the case but none matched the DNA found at the scene.
In 2016, police released a computer-generated composite of the possible killer, created by Parabon Nanolabs based on DNA evidence at the scene.
The DNA phenotyping indicated the man is likely Latino with dark olive to light olive skin tone, brown or hazel eyes and black hair. Police said previously the composite sketch does not rule out that others may have been involved.
What is known about the suspect, Salguero-Olivares?
Assistant Chief Celisa Lehew said Thursday that Salguero-Olivares had not been a suspect or person of interest in the case since the investigation began.
Lehew did not say when police first began investigating Salguero-Olivares, nor what led them to do so.
Salguero-Olivares’ record includes a charge for driving while impaired in Wake County from September, court records show.
His blood alcohol level was .2, which is more than twice the legal limit, documents said. His driver’s license was temporarily revoked following the charge.
Salguero-Olivares, who had a Chapel Hill address listed, was also charged with no operator’s license, no liability insurance, an open container alcohol violation and a registration violation, according to court records.
He failed to appear in court Sept. 3 and an outstanding order for his arrest was issued Sept. 7, court documents showed.
What happens next?
Salguero-Olivares will appear in Durham County court Thursday. The case will be prosecuted by the Durham County district attorney.
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