Faith Hedgepeth Verdict: 14 Years to Justice

Status stamp: CONVICTED — APPEAL PENDING

Image note for readers: All images in this file are original illustrations created for Dark History Files. They are atmospheric artwork, not photographs and not real evidence. No image in this file depicts Faith Hedgepeth, the defendant, or any real person, and no image depicts the crime itself.

THE FILE CARD

Case File No.	DHF-002
Subject	Faith Hedgepeth
Date	September 7, 2012
Location	Off-campus apartment, Hawthorne at the View, Chapel Hill–Durham line, North Carolina, USA
Status	CONVICTED — APPEAL PENDING
Investigating agencies	Chapel Hill Police Department; North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation; Durham County District Attorney's Office
Conviction	On October 23, 2026, a Durham County jury found Miguel Salguero-Olivares guilty of first-degree murder, first-degree rape, first-degree sexual offense, and first-degree burglary. Judge Keith Gregory sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder, plus consecutive prison terms for the other counts. The defence indicated at sentencing that it will appeal.
One-line summary	A 19-year-old university student was found dead in her apartment in 2012; for nine years her case had a DNA profile but no name, until a genetic-genealogy lead and a DNA sample from a traffic stop identified a stranger — and a 2026 trial ended in guilty verdicts on all counts.

Why this file is not stamped "SOLVED — FILE CLOSED": a guilty verdict and a life sentence are facts of record, but the defence indicated an appeal at sentencing, and no appeal outcome exists yet. This file therefore carries the honest stamp — CONVICTED — APPEAL PENDING. If the appeal changes the outcome, this file will be updated, dated, and re-stamped — never quietly rewritten.

THE CASE

Faith Hedgepeth was 19 years old, a third-year biology student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Gates Millennium Scholar, and a member of the Haliwa-Saponi Tribe. She had grown up in Warren County, North Carolina, raised by her mother, Connie, with help from an older sister, after her parents divorced within a year of her birth. In high school she had been an honor student and a cheerleader. She hoped to be the first member of her family to graduate from college, and to work with children — as a pediatrician, or as a teacher. Her family described her as outgoing, warm, and full of joy.

On the morning of September 7, 2012, her roommate, Karena Rosario, returned to the off-campus apartment the two young women shared and found Faith dead in their bedroom. Rosario called 911 and told the operator her friend was unconscious and cold to the touch. Police arrived to a scene that would stay unsolved for nine years — and that, fourteen years later, would end in a Durham County courtroom with guilty verdicts on every charge.

This file tells the story the way the record tells it: Faith first, facts first, the prosecution's arguments labeled as the prosecution's arguments, the defence's arguments given their place, and no detail invented where the record has none.

The last night

September 6, 2012, was an ordinary Thursday in Faith's life, and the record of it is unusually complete. That evening she attended a rush event for Alpha Pi Omega, a historically Native American sorority she hoped to join, leaving at about 7:15 p.m. to work on a paper about the history of her tribe. She and Rosario studied together at the university's Davis Library from about 8 p.m., and between 8:30 and 9 p.m. Faith exchanged texts with her father about the sorority. The two young women left the library at about 11:30 p.m., returned to their apartment around midnight, and half an hour later left again for The Thrill, a nightclub in downtown Chapel Hill. They arrived at about 12:40 a.m.

Security cameras at the club show Faith and Rosario leaving at 2:06 a.m. It is the last visual record of Faith anywhere. By about 3 a.m. the two were back at their apartment. A neighbor who lived below them and was awake watching television later said she heard three thumping noises shortly afterward, like a heavy bag being dropped or furniture being overturned. Around the same time, Faith's Facebook page was accessed.

At about 4:25 a.m., Rosario left the apartment. She later told police she had called a friend, Jordan McCrary, to pick her up, that Faith was in bed, and that she left the front door unlocked. Rosario testified at trial that Faith was conscious and breathing when she left. She later tried to call Faith for a ride. Faith did not answer.

What happened inside the apartment between that departure and the late morning is the heart of this case — and the part of it that only the trial could answer. Rosario returned at about 11 a.m. with another friend, Marisol Rangel, and found Faith dead in the bedroom. The 911 call that followed was played for the jury at trial: a distressed Rosario telling the operator she had walked in and found her friend unconscious.

The morning after, and the evidence left behind

Investigators found that Faith had suffered fatal head injuries, and that she had been sexually assaulted. In the bedroom they recovered the physical evidence that would define the case for the next decade: a blood-covered rum bottle that prosecutors would later identify as the weapon used to inflict the head injuries; a second bottle, a wine bottle, carrying a palm print; a handwritten note on a fast-food bag, reading "I'm not stupid, b----. Jealous."; and biological material that yielded a complete male DNA profile — from a sexual assault kit, from the bottles, and from the note.

That profile was the case's great frustration. Police collected DNA from hundreds of people connected to Faith's life. None of it matched. Investigators compiled a list of roughly 1,700 people connected to her in some way and took about 100 DNA samples to cross-reference against the crime-scene evidence. Still no match. The profile belonged, it seemed, to a stranger — and strangers leave no trail of friends, messages, and motives for detectives to follow.

For nine years, that was where the case stood: a full DNA profile, a note, a palm print, and no name.

The DNA break

The break came from a technique that did not exist in usable form in 2012. In late 2020, investigators turned to investigative genetic genealogy — comparing the crime-scene DNA profile against profiles in public ancestry databases and building family trees outward from partial matches until a candidate emerged. The candidate was Miguel Salguero-Olivares, a man with no known connection to Faith or her friends, who lived in the area at the time of the killing.

The identification still needed a confirmatory sample. That came the following year: Salguero-Olivares was arrested on a drunken-driving charge in Wake County in August 2021, and a DNA sample obtained after that arrest matched the crime-scene profile. On September 16, 2021, Chapel Hill police arrested the 28-year-old Durham man and charged him with first-degree murder. According to court documents released in January 2022, the DNA found at the scene and the palm print on the bottle matched Salguero-Olivares.

He pleaded not guilty. In November 2024, prosecutors amended the indictment to add charges of first-degree burglary, first-degree rape, and first-degree sexual offense. The case moved slowly toward trial, as major cases do: pretrial hearings ran through 2025 and into 2026, and jury selection began in Durham County Superior Court on September 28, 2026, before Judge Keith Gregory.

The trial

Opening statements began on October 7, 2026. The State's case, led by Assistant District Attorneys Angela Garcia-Lamarca and Brooks Stone alongside Special Prosecutor Lisa Coltrain, called 23 witnesses over nine days: law enforcement investigators, forensic experts, and Faith's friends and family.

The forensic evidence was the center of the State's case. Prosecutors presented DNA connecting Salguero-Olivares to the rum bottle, to the sexual assault kit, and to the note. A state crime lab forensic scientist testified that DNA swabbed from Faith's body was enormously more likely to be a mixture of Faith's and Salguero-Olivares's DNA than of Faith's and an unknown person's — the kind of statistical weight that, prosecutors argued, left no room for coincidence. The palm print on the wine bottle was also presented as his.

The prosecution also offered the jury a reconstruction of the night — and this file labels it clearly as the prosecution's reconstruction, not as an established fact. Prosecutors argued that Salguero-Olivares had been at a cookout at the apartment complex that night, that he approached Faith and Rosario in the parking area, that Faith rebuffed him while looking after her roommate, and that, humiliated in front of the people gathered nearby, he returned to the apartment after Rosario left and attacked Faith. That account was the prosecution's argument for motive. It was not corroborated by any witness who saw him enter the apartment, and the jury's verdict does not turn any part of it into a proven fact beyond the charges themselves.

The defence, for its part, called no witnesses, and Salguero-Olivares did not testify. His lawyers argued that the investigation had suffered from tunnel vision, that evidence had been mishandled, and that the DNA could be explained another way: that he had had consensual sex with Faith days before her death, and that DNA from intercourse can remain for days. They challenged the State's claim that he was a stranger to Faith, and they questioned Rosario's account of the night and the processing of the crime scene. Closing arguments were delivered on Thursday, October 22. The jury began deliberating that day.

The verdict — and the appeal

Late on Friday afternoon, October 23, 2026, after deliberating for about six hours over two days, the jury returned unanimous verdicts: guilty on all four counts — first-degree murder, first-degree rape, first-degree sexual offense, and first-degree burglary.

Judge Gregory sentenced Salguero-Olivares the same day: life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder, which the jury had found on both premeditation and felony-murder grounds, plus consecutive prison terms for the burglary, rape, and sexual offense counts. As the verdict was read, Salguero-Olivares shook his head and said, "It's not fair." His defence indicated at sentencing that it will appeal the convictions and sentences.

Then came the part of the day that belonged to Faith's family. Her mother, Connie Hedgepeth, told the court she had forgiven the man convicted of killing her daughter, and that she felt the closure and peace her family needed after more than fourteen years. Her father, Roland Hedgepeth, counted the wait out loud for the court: "That's 14 years, six weeks and four days or 169 months and 18 days and 5,158 days." Judge Gregory, who told the court his own son had been a UNC-Chapel Hill student at the time of the murder, stepped down from the bench to embrace Faith's parents after the hearing.

The Durham County District Attorney, Satana Deberry, said the verdict "represents an important moment of accountability," and thanked the prosecutors, investigators, and forensic scientists who had worked the case for more than a decade. The State's closing refrain, delivered by Garcia-Lamarca, had been that "the evidence in this case is louder than the noise around it." The jury agreed.

But a verdict is not the end of the legal story while an appeal is open, and this file does not pretend otherwise. The defence has indicated it will appeal; the grounds and the timeline of that appeal were not yet public when this file was written. Until an appellate court rules, the honest stamp on this file is CONVICTED — APPEAL PENDING, and the file will be updated when the appeal is decided.

Faith Hedgepeth wanted to be the first in her family to graduate from college, and to spend her working life helping children. She was weeks short of her twentieth birthday when she died. Fourteen years later, a courtroom in Durham gave her family something they had waited 5,158 days to hear: a verdict, on every count, with her name on it.

TIMELINE

• September 26, 1992 — Faith Danielle Hedgepeth is born in Warren County, North Carolina, to Roland and Connie Hedgepeth. She is raised in Hollister and Warrenton, and is a member of the Haliwa-Saponi Tribe.
• 2010 — Faith enrolls at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on a Gates Millennium Scholarship, hoping to become the first member of her family to graduate from college.
• Spring 2012 — After two years at the university, Faith takes a hiatus for the spring semester. Over the summer she lives in an off-campus apartment at the Hawthorne at the View complex, between Chapel Hill and Durham, which she shares with her friend Karena Rosario.
• September 6, 2012, evening — Faith attends a rush event for the Alpha Pi Omega sorority, then studies with Rosario at Davis Library from about 8 p.m. She exchanges texts with her father about the sorority between 8:30 and 9 p.m.
• September 6, 2012, about 11:30 p.m. — Faith and Rosario leave the library, return to their apartment around midnight, then leave again for The Thrill nightclub in downtown Chapel Hill, arriving at about 12:40 a.m.
• September 7, 2012, 2:06 a.m. — Security cameras at The Thrill show Faith and Rosario leaving the club. It is the last visual record of Faith anywhere.
• September 7, 2012, about 3 a.m. — The two are back at their apartment. A neighbor below later reports hearing three thumping noises shortly afterward. Faith's Facebook page is accessed around the same time.
• September 7, 2012, about 4:25 a.m. — Rosario leaves the apartment after calling a friend to pick her up. She later tells police Faith was in bed, and that she left the front door unlocked.
• September 7, 2012, about 11 a.m. — Rosario returns with her friend Marisol Rangel, finds Faith dead in the bedroom, and calls 911. Responding officers confirm Faith is dead at the scene.
• September 2012 onward — Investigators recover a male DNA profile from the scene, but DNA from hundreds of people connected to Faith produces no match. The case goes cold.
• Late 2020 — Investigators turn to investigative genetic genealogy, comparing the crime-scene DNA profile against public ancestry databases and building family trees toward a candidate.
• August 2021 — Miguel Salguero-Olivares is arrested on a drunken-driving charge in Wake County; a DNA sample obtained after that arrest matches the crime-scene profile.
• September 16, 2021 — Chapel Hill police arrest Salguero-Olivares, 28, of Durham, and charge him with first-degree murder in Faith's death. He pleads not guilty.
• January 2022 — Court documents released this month state that the DNA found at the scene and the palm print on the bottle match Salguero-Olivares.
• November 2024 — Prosecutors amend the indictment to add charges of first-degree burglary, first-degree rape, and first-degree sexual offense.
• September 28, 2026 — Jury selection begins in Durham County Superior Court before Judge Keith Gregory.
• October 7, 2026 — Opening statements begin. The State will call 23 witnesses over nine days.
• October 22, 2026 — Closing arguments are delivered. The jury begins deliberating.
• October 23, 2026 — The jury returns unanimous guilty verdicts on all four counts after about six hours of deliberation over two days. Judge Gregory sentences Salguero-Olivares to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder, plus consecutive prison terms for the other counts. The defence indicates it will appeal.

EVIDENCE & LEADS

• The last visual record. According to trial testimony and reporting, security cameras at The Thrill nightclub show Faith and Rosario leaving at 2:06 a.m. on September 7, 2012. No later image or sighting of Faith is on the record.
• The 3 a.m. noises. A neighbor living below the apartment later told investigators she heard three thumping noises shortly after 3 a.m., like a heavy bag being dropped or furniture being overturned. Faith's Facebook page was accessed around the same time. Neither fact, on its own, establishes what happened in the apartment.
• The 11 a.m. discovery. According to Rosario's trial testimony and the 911 call played for the jury, Rosario returned at about 11 a.m. with Marisol Rangel, found Faith dead in the bedroom, and called 911, telling the operator her friend was unconscious and cold to the touch.
• The fatal injuries and the sexual assault. Investigators determined Faith died from fatal head injuries, and that she had been sexually assaulted. This file states those findings in those terms and no more graphic detail.
• The rum bottle. Prosecutors identified a blood-covered rum bottle recovered from the bedroom as the weapon used to inflict the head injuries, and presented DNA connecting Salguero-Olivares to it.
• The wine bottle and the palm print. A second bottle, a wine bottle, carried a palm print that, according to court documents released in January 2022, matched Salguero-Olivares.
• The note. A handwritten note on a fast-food bag found at the scene read "I'm not stupid, b----. Jealous." Prosecutors presented DNA connecting Salguero-Olivares to the note. Who wrote it, and what it meant, was argued at trial; the note itself is an exhibit, not an explanation.
• The sexual assault kit and the DNA profile. Biological material recovered at the scene yielded a male DNA profile. Police tested DNA from hundreds of people connected to Faith's life, and compiled a list of roughly 1,700 connected people, without a match — until the genetic-genealogy lead and the 2021 confirmatory sample identified Salguero-Olivares.
• The genetic-genealogy lead. In late 2020, investigators compared the crime-scene profile against public ancestry databases and built family trees toward a candidate. That candidate was Salguero-Olivares, a man with no known connection to Faith or her friends.
• The 2021 confirmatory sample. A DNA sample obtained after Salguero-Olivares's August 2021 drunken-driving arrest in Wake County matched the crime-scene profile. His arrest on the murder charge followed on September 16, 2021.
• The prosecution's reconstruction of motive. Prosecutors argued that Salguero-Olivares had been at a cookout at the apartment complex that night, approached Faith and Rosario in the parking area, was rebuffed by Faith while she looked after her roommate, and returned after Rosario left. This is the prosecution's argument, presented as such at trial. No witness testified to seeing him enter the apartment.
• The defence's answer. The defence called no witnesses and Salguero-Olivares did not testify. His lawyers argued the investigation suffered from tunnel vision, that evidence was mishandled, and that his DNA could be explained by consensual sex with Faith days before her death, since DNA from intercourse can remain for days. They also challenged the State's claim that he was a stranger to Faith.
• The verdict and sentence. On October 23, 2026, a Durham County jury found Salguero-Olivares guilty of first-degree murder (on both premeditation and felony-murder grounds), first-degree rape, first-degree sexual offense, and first-degree burglary. Judge Keith Gregory sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder, plus consecutive prison terms for the other counts.
• The appeal. The defence indicated at sentencing that it will appeal the convictions and sentences. The grounds and timeline of the appeal were not yet public when this file was written.

STILL UNKNOWN

• What exactly happened inside the apartment between about 4:25 a.m. and 11 a.m.? The jury's verdict establishes, beyond a reasonable doubt in the eyes of the law, that Salguero-Olivares committed the crimes charged. The minute-by-minute sequence inside the apartment — when he entered, how the attack unfolded — is known only through the trial's forensic record and the prosecution's reconstruction, and parts of that reconstruction remain argument, not proven fact.
• What did the note mean? The words on the fast-food bag — "I'm not stupid, b----. Jealous." — are an exhibit, not an explanation. Whether the writer meant jealousy, insult, or something else entirely has never been established, and the note should not be read as a confession of motive.
• What about the voicemail? A call recorded from Faith's phone in the early hours of September 7 has been interpreted differently by different analysts, and its timestamp does not line up neatly with the rest of the timeline. It was not a settled piece of the trial story, and this file does not treat it as one.
• Was anyone else involved? No co-defendant has ever been charged, and the State's case presented a single attacker. The trial record does not establish any accomplice.
• What will the appeal decide? The defence has indicated it will appeal the convictions and sentences. Until an appellate court rules, the legal story is open, and this file's stamp stays CONVICTED — APPEAL PENDING.

A fairness note, stated plainly: in the years this case was unsolved, online speculation sometimes focused on Karena Rosario — her 911 call, her decision to leave the apartment, the unlocked door. Rosario was never charged. At trial she testified as a witness, and before trial the judge barred the defence from arguing her guilt. Chapel Hill police have said she cooperates with the investigation. This file repeats no speculation about her, and no reader should take any sentence in it as casting doubt on a witness the court treated as a witness.

What would change this file: an appellate ruling upholding the convictions, in which case this file will be re-stamped SOLVED — FILE CLOSED; an appellate ruling overturning any conviction, in which case this file will be updated with the ruling and re-stamped accordingly; or any new, officially confirmed evidence about the hours inside the apartment. Any of those would earn this file an update, dated and noted — never a silent rewrite.

WATCH THE FULL STORY

No companion video yet. Dark History Files has not yet published a Curiozoid documentary on the Faith Hedgepeth case. When one is made, it will be linked here, and this file will be updated.

Previous file: DHF-001 — The Somerton Man: The Stranger With a Secret in His Pocket.

Next file:  DHF-003 — Nancy Guthrie Missing in Tucson: Still No Answers.

---

Compiled from public records, court reporting and law-enforcement releases. If you have information about this case, contact Chapel Hill Police or the Durham County District Attorney's Office — Dark History Files does not take tips directly and is not affiliated with any law-enforcement agency.

Images in this file are original illustrations created for Dark History Files, not photographs and not real evidence.

Read how every file is built on the About page, or request a file via the Contact page.