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Faith Hedgepeth

North Carolina v. Miguel Enrique Salguero-Olivares

Faith Hedgepeth was found dead on September 7, 2012. Nine years later, a man was arrested. This page tracks the case from background through daily proceedings.

The Charges

Count 1: First-degree murder · N.C.G.S. 14-17 · Class A
Count 2: First-degree burglary · 14-51
Count 3: First-degree forcible rape · 14-27.21
Count 4: First-degree forcible sexual offense · 14-27.26.

Penalty

Salguergo-Olivares is seeking life without parole. The state is not seeking the death penalty

Court

Durham County Superior Court · Judge Keith Gregory

Defendant

Miguel Enrique Salguero-Olivares · Pleaded not guilty to all four counts

Status

Jury selection underway · Openings not yet given · As of October 4, 2026

Road to Trial

1

September 7, 2012

Faith Hedgepeth found dead. Apartment 1502, 5639 Old Chapel Hill Road, Durham.

2

September 16, 2021

Miguel Enrique Salguero-Olivares arrested in Durham with the SBI. In the Durham jail since that date.

3

October 21, 2024

Amended indictment adds burglary, forcible rape, and forcible sexual offense.

4

August 3, 2026

Salguero-Olivares pleads not guilty to all four counts.

5

September 21, 2026

Judge Gregory bars the defense from telling the jury Rosario did it. Jury can hear blood, car, shirt, and thumps.

6

September 28, 2026

Jury selection begins.

7

After week one

Eleven jurors agreed. One seat and alternates still needed. Opening statements not yet given.

Case Background

All detail below comes from warrants, filings, hearings, or named news reports. Sources are noted. Some reporting has been inconsistent at times, and I've tried to notate that when I see it.


Case Background Video

The Victim

Faith Danielle Hedgepeth

Faith was 19 years old. A junior at UNC Chapel Hill, studying biology. A Gates scholar. Haliwa-Saponi, from Hollister, North Carolina. Her birthday was September 26. She would have turned 20 that month.

Family

Father Roland · Mother Connie · Sister Rolanda. Her car was a Honda registered to Connie.

School

Junior · UNC Chapel Hill · Biology · Gates Scholar

Heritage

Haliwa-Saponi · from Hollister, North Carolina

Provided by Roland Hedgepeth


The People

Key Names

Karena Rosario

Roommate. Primary tenant of apartment 1502. About 20 at the time of the 911 call. She has not been charged. She is a likely witness. The defense cannot argue she committed the killing.

Marisol Rangel

Friend. With Rosario when Faith was found. Not on the 911 recording. Interviewed September 8, 2012, by Investigator L. Bostelman. Source: warrant.

Jordan McCrary

UNC soccer player Rosario had been seeing. Picked her up around 4:25 to 4:30 a.m. Told an investigator he saw blood on her finger when she got in the car. Listed by the state as an out-of-state witness.

Eriq Takoy Jones

Rosario's former boyfriend. Name is redacted in the warrants. The 9th Street Journal uses it. 50B protective order filed July 11, 2012. Lived a few buildings away. DNA did not match the male profile from the apartment. Defense has argued not everything was tested.

The Apartment

Hawthorne at the View

Location

Apartment 1502 · 5639 Old Chapel Hill Road, Durham · On the Durham-Chapel Hill line

Tenancy

Rosario was the primary tenant. Reporting has called it a one-bedroom. The warrants say a bedroom. They do not say one bed.

Address note

A sealing motion calls the street Old Durham Road. The warrants and the 911 call use Old Chapel Hill Road. On the 911 call, Rosario first said apartment 1602, then confirmed 5639 Old Chapel Hill Road.

September 7, 2012 — Search Warrant Application

What Officers Found

From the September 7 search warrant application.

Chapel Hill officers were sent to 5639 Old Chapel Hill Road, apartment 1502, for a possible dead body. The primary tenant said she had seen the victim laying on the floor, unresponsive, and let them in.

Officers wrote that they found Faith dead on a bed, face up, hanging off the bed over a pool of blood, black shirt pulled up over her head, no clothes from the waist down. Blood spatter on the closet. A bloody tampon lying beside her on the bed. A small white paper bag in the center of the bed.

Autopsy — once unsealed

Blunt force trauma to the head. Cuts and bruises on arms and legs. Blood under her fingernails.

Protective sweep

Apartment secured. Officers found no one else in the residence.

September 14, 2012 — sealing order

Judge Carl Fox sealed the autopsy. Typed: until further order. Handwritten on the order: "for 90 days or." In 2014 a judge unsealed the 911 call and a set of search warrants. Source: warrant and court order.

Scene Stills from Uploaded by ABC's 20/20

The Night Before

Davis Library. Then The Thrill.

Earlier that evening

Davis Library, then back to the apartment, then The Thrill on Rosemary Street. The club admitted people under 21.

~12:40 a.m.

Arrived at The Thrill. Source: surveillance, September 7 warrant.

2:06 a.m.

Left the club. Rosario said she was not feeling well. Faith drove. Source: warrant.

~2:40 a.m.

Home, by Rosario's account. Before 3, by other accounts. A 2013 memo says Faith was last known alive around 3 a.m.

3:05 a.m.

Rosario texted McCrary that she had been hit for no reason. Text has not been released. Source: 2026 defense filing, as reported by WRAL.

3:40:56 a.m.

Text from Faith's phone: "Hey. Can you come over here please. Karena needs you more aha. You know. Please let her know you care." Source: September 11 warrant, Investigator Johnnie Britt.

3:43:06 a.m.

Second text from Faith's phone: "Than." Reply came at 4:16:26 p.m.: "Who is this?" Source: September 11 warrant.

3:44, 3:52, 3:55, 4:14 a.m.

Rosario's calls. Each under 40 seconds. Source: September 11 warrant.

Between 3 and 4 a.m.

Downstairs neighbor heard three thumps — like a heavy bag or furniture, not footsteps. Rosario did not report hearing them.

4:04 a.m.

Rosario texted McCrary: "Please come." Source: 2026 defense filing.

~4:25–4:30 a.m.

Rosario left with McCrary. September 11 warrant says about 4:30. 2013 memo says about 4:27. Defense filing says she claims about 4:25. She spent the rest of the night at McCrary's.

~11 a.m.

Rosario returned with Marisol Rangel. Called Faith's name. Found her. Called 911 at 11:01 a.m.

ABC included surveillance footage in the above video.

A Text from Faith's Phone. Search-warrant page, Sept. 11, 2012 — Investigator Johnnie Britt application.

The 911 Call

Unsealed in 2014

Rosario is the only voice on the call. Rangel was with her and is not on the recording. Rosario says she just walked in, found her friend unconscious, blood everywhere, on her back, off the bed, blood on pillows and comforter, feels cold.

She says there is "stuff in my room that was not here before," and "it looks like someone had came in here." The dispatcher tells her not to touch anything else and to leave the door unlocked. She gives the address as Hawthorne at the View, 5639 Old Chapel Hill Road, and first says apartment 1602. She says she is 20. Police arrive at the end of the call.


Rosario's Statement

What Rosario Told Police

Rosario was sick

She said she threw up in a trash can Faith put beside the bed, then was in the bathroom from about 3:05 until she left. She was the one throwing up, not Faith. Only the two of them were home. No disturbances.

Faith was asleep

She said Faith was asleep when she left. The front door was unlocked. She did not take a key. She did not say she heard the thumps.

September 13, 2012, Officer Matthews. Clips from that interview were played in court September 21, 2026. More on that below.

Defense said that by then she knew Matthews had McCrary's account of the blood on her finger. She first said she did not remember the blood. Later she said the red was from slushy drinks she had vomited.

Physical Evidence — Rosario

Blood on Rosario's Finger

McCrary's account

He saw blood on her finger when she got in the car. She looked at her hand and said she did not know why it was there. He asked. She changed the subject. Source: investigator voicemail McCrary left, evening of September 7.

Police finding

Police examined and photographed her hands. No visible cut or injury was found. Source: CBS 17 quoting the documents.

CBS 17, quoting the documents, reported as follows:

Physical Evidence — Bathroom

The Doorframe Swab

A blood mark was found on the bathroom doorframe where Rosario said she was sitting. A stain about two inches long was swabbed, then lost. A private lab could not profile what remained. SBI had used part of the swab.

Two other swabs from reddish stains around the bathroom sink were presumptive positive for blood. No profile was obtained.

Judge Gregory called the lost swab absurd, denied a motion to dismiss, and did not find bad faith. Source: hearing, as reported by WRAL.

Photograph of the doorframe are in the defense filing, shown by CBS 17.

Defense filing coverage — CBS 17

Physical Evidence — McCrary's Car

A Mark on the Passenger Door

Police searched McCrary's car and found a presumptive-positive blood mark on the passenger side where Rosario was sitting. An officer said it would be a game-changer if it was Faith's blood, because the pickup was around 4:20 a.m. and the 911 call was after 11. A lab could not get a profile. The sample was used up. There is no public photo of that door.

Source: CBS 17, coverage of defense filing.

The Shirt

Different Accounts of Where It Was Found

Rosario told police she left the club wearing a shirt she had borrowed from Faith — a cream tube top with black polka dots. In one interview clip she called it purple. She said that after McCrary picked her up, she changed at his place: took the black piece out of the tube top, put that back on, put on a purple shirt, and left the tube top on the floor by his bed. She said it should still be there.

Police did not find it there. They found it in the apartment bedroom. Accounts of exactly where differ. One says on the bed, partly under the covers. One says partly under Faith's body. The News & Observer says under a bloody comforter, with red spots on that shirt and on Rosario's shorts. Spots on both tested inconclusive.

The Alleged Weapon

A Bacardi Peach Bottle

Origin

Normally lived in the kitchen. Found in the bedroom with tissue and DNA. Source: news reporting. The 2012 warrant file does not name the bottle.

The label

The released photo label reads Bacardi Peach Red. Some stories call the weapon a wine bottle. The photo of the weapon is the Bacardi.

A second bottle

2014 warrants say a wine bottle and a Bacardi were both taken. Later filings call the second bottle a blue Riesling. Keep them separate.

The Note

On a Time-Out Takeout Bag

"I'M NOT STUPID
BITCH
JEALOUS."

Discrepancy

The September 7 warrant quotes "I am a jealous bitch," in pencil. The September 11 warrant description is closer to the photo. Source: warrants.

Blood

The bag had almost no blood on it. The wall, the comforter, and the pillow did.

Television analyst only

Peggy Walla, for Crime Watch Daily, looked at a photo of the note. Her analysis is not a State Crime Lab report.

Takeout bag photo — law enforcement release shown by Investigation Discovery.

Other Persons of Interest

Rosario's Former Boyfriend

50B protective order

Filed July 11, 2012. He lived a few buildings down. Warrant says the basis was a domestic assault and that he kicked two doors off their frames. Source: warrant.

Threat reported

A former roommate of Faith's called police September 9 and said Faith had told her, between May and July, that he hated her and said he would kill her if Rosario did not get back with him. Warrants say he resented Faith because of her influence over Rosario. Source: warrant.

September 7

He came to the scene, went to the police department, came back to the tape, and was told to leave because the 50B was still active.

September 6 text and tweet

Both asked forgiveness "for what he was about to do." September 10 Facebook cover: a prayer asking God to forgive his sins and to protect him from the girls who did not deserve him. Source: WRAL, from the warrants. WRAL reporting.

DNA

Did not match the male profile from the apartment. The lost bathroom swab and the used-up car sample were not compared to him. Defense has argued not everything was tested.

Name is redacted in the warrants. The 9th Street Journal identifies him as Eriq Takoy Jones. 9th Street Journal.


Sept. 11, 2012 warrant page — 50B and Jones' language.

Other Persons of Interest

Another Phone in the Area

Cell tower dump

Just before March 1, 2013, Lt. T. Smith reviewed a cell-tower dump and found a number tied to a person at an address already known to investigators. A call from that phone at 4:15 a.m. on September 7 was in the target area. Name redacted. Source: 2013 memo.

2010 Ohio report

A 2010 report from New Albany, Ohio, flagged him for threats against his mother's boyfriend and a handgun the boyfriend could not find. Source: 2013 memo.

His account

He told police he was at The Thrill and drove home. He was a UNC student. Salguero-Olivares was not. He has not been charged. The memo does not say his DNA was compared to the scene.

Not the defendant

He is not Miguel Salguero-Olivares. He has not been named publicly.

Source: 2013 memo.

Disputed Evidence

A Voicemail Stamped 1:23 a.m.

A friend had a voicemail from Faith's phone, stamped 1:23 a.m. Club video shows them still at The Thrill. The friend thought it was a pocket dial and deleted it. After she heard Faith was dead, she had the carrier restore it and gave it to Chapel Hill police. That account is from Crime Watch Daily host Matt Doran.

Television analyst — Arlo West

February 16, 2016, Crime Watch Daily. West said he heard Faith saying ow and help me, a second woman who sounded angry, and at least two men. He said the timestamp was wrong because of a known iPhone glitch. He was not paid. He is not a state or defense witness in any filing. Police did not adopt his transcript.

Police response

Chief Chris Blue told the News & Observer that investigators thought the call came from the club and that their analysis was not finished. Police later said the metadata matched the club. They asked West for his file. They did not adopt his transcript. Source: News & Observer.

Faith's father

Roland Hedgepeth said he believed the recording was his daughter being killed.

Crime Watch Daily, part 4. West and Walla are television analysts, not lab reports. Neither is a state or defense witness in the trial filings.

DNA Phenotyping

A Composite from the Unknown DNA

Source

September 2016. Chapel Hill police released a Parabon NanoLabs Snapshot from the unknown male DNA. Released on ABC's 20/20.

Description

Olive skin · brown or hazel eyes · black hair. Drawn at a default age of 25. Ancestry estimate on the report: Latino.

Result

It did not identify anyone. A tip tool was posted. Case number on the released sheet: 12-20848.

The Defendant

How Salguero-Olivares Was Identified

He was not a named suspect in 2012. Genealogy work and relative interviews identified him first. Distant relatives were interviewed and gave DNA.

August 16, 2021

A DWI arrest in Raleigh: asleep in a running vehicle, open container, no operator's license, no insurance, registration violation. Listed a Chapel Hill address and a pizzeria job. He missed court September 3. An order for arrest issued September 7. Source: CBS 17.

September 14, 2021

Chapel Hill and the SBI got a DNA sample taken from him without his knowledge during a DWI stop and sent it to the State Crime Lab two days before the arrest. The News & Observer says it is unclear whether the September 14 sample was that August stop or a later one. Source: News & Observer and ABC11, from unsealed warrants.

September 15, 2021

AG Josh Stein said a DNA match was made. 229 samples had been analyzed to rule people out.

September 16, 2021

Arrested in Durham with the SBI. Warrants for blood, hair, saliva, and the apartment carried out the same day. Six cell phones and a laptop seized. September 16, 2021 address in warrants: apartment complex, 4200 block of Garrett Road, Durham. He was 28 at arrest, 19 in 2012.

September 30, 2021

A warrant sought fingerprints and palm prints.

Booking photo credit: 9th Street Journal.


Background

Lived in the area at the time. Worked as a painter and drywall installer. He has said he did not know Faith.

Charges

Count 1: First-degree murder · September 16, 2021.
Counts 2, 3, 4 added October 21, 2024.
Plea of not guilty to all four. August 3, 2026.

Penalty

The state is not seeking death. A murder conviction is life without parole.

Note: The line about "memories or communications" is a reporter's paraphrase of the phone seizure warrant, not a direct quote from the warrant.


DNA Evidence

What the Lab Found — and What Remains Unsettled

News & Observer, September 27, 2026: a State Crime Lab figure from the sexual assault kit — about 147 septillion times more likely if the profile came from Faith and Salguero-Olivares than from Faith and an unknown, unrelated man. The story does not say the profile came from semen. It does not attach that number to the Bacardi, the boxers, or the Riesling.

Reporting also says DNA attributed to him was on the Bacardi, plaid boxer shorts, and the blue Riesling, and that a palm print on a bottle matched him. Which bottle holds the palm print is not settled in the reporting.

Semen was collected in 2012. Police told ABC in 2016 it was more likely than not that Faith was raped. In September 2021, WRAL reported investigators still had not said publicly whether she was sexually assaulted.

Tampon — August 5, 2026 hearing

Prosecutors said Faith's DNA was on the absorbent part. Someone else's DNA was on the string. Defense said his DNA was not on the tampon. Whose DNA is on the string has not been reported. The September 7 warrant says the tampon was lying beside her on the bed. Do not write that it was found in her. Source: CBS 17.

Defense position

These are likelihood ratios, not a match. They have not denied his DNA was at the apartment. They say his DNA was not on the tampon, the bottle handle, and other objects. Not everything was tested. Some evidence was lost. The 147 septillion figure is the kit, not the bottle.

Fingerprint Evidence

Two Thumbprints. One Palm Print.

Bloody thumbprints — defense expert

An expert says the two bloody thumbprints on the Bacardi neck are not his. An earlier report found no identifiable prints on that bottle at all.

Palm print

A palm print on a bottle is his. Which bottle holds the palm print is not settled in the reporting.

Lost swab

A bathroom swab was lost after SBI used part of it. The judge denied a motion to dismiss and did not find bad faith. He called the loss absurd.

What the Judge Has Ruled

Limits on the Defense

Barred

Judge Gregory barred the defense from telling the jury Rosario did it. If third-party guilt comes up, it is handled outside the jury first. Ruled September 21, 2026.

Permitted

The jury can hear about the blood on her finger, the car, the shirt, the bathroom doorframe, and the downstairs neighbor's thumps.

Lost swab

Dismissal denied. No finding of bad faith. Loss called absurd.

THE SHIRT - Karena's Different Descriptions

September 21, 2026 Hearing included Rosario interviews on September 8 and September 13, 2012.

CBS 17 caught a portion of this hearing, but I can't find a full hearing feed anywhere.

Karena told police she left the club in a shirt she had borrowed from Faith, a cream tube top with black polka dots. She said that after Jordan McCrary picked her up, she changed at his place. She took the black piece out of the tube top, put that back on, put on a purple shirt, and left the tube top on the floor by his bed. She said it should still be there.

Police did not find it at his place. They found it in the apartment, in the bedroom. Accounts of exactly where differ. One says on the bed, partly under the covers. One says partly under Faith’s body. The News & Observer says under a bloody comforter, with red spots on that shirt and on Karena’s shorts.

Key Evidence Summary

State and Defense Going In

Reported state points

DNA — sexual assault kit

147 septillion likelihood ratio. Source: News & Observer, September 27, 2026.

Palm print

On a bottle from the scene.

Weapon

Bacardi Peach bottle — tissue and DNA recovered from the bedroom.

Note

"I'M NOT STUPID BITCH JEALOUS" — on a Time-Out bag.

DWI sample

DNA collected from the defendant two days before arrest. Compared with the scene.

State wants Faith's blood-alcohol level out. State also wants out a former officer's analysis of the 911 call. Rosario cannot be argued as the killer.

Defense points from filings and hearings

  • Thumbprints on the Bacardi neck — expert says not his. An earlier report found no identifiable prints on that bottle.
  • Tampon string: someone else's DNA. His DNA not on the tampon.
  • The shirt: found in the bedroom after she said she left it at McCrary's.
  • Blood on Rosario's finger, no cut found. Passenger-door sample used up. Bathroom swab lost.
  • 3:05 a.m. hit text and 4:04 a.m. "Please come" text.
  • Three thumps between 3 and 4 a.m., before she left.
  • Boxers opinion — no witness has said Faith was wearing them. Defense objects to the officer's opinion.
  • 147 septillion is the kit, not the bottle. These are likelihood ratios, not a match.
  • Inconclusive samples they want excluded: DNA from under a fingernail, on her underwear, on a pen.
  • Phone texts — they say the 3:40 a.m. texts were more likely written by Rosario. A limited swab of the phone did not show her DNA.
  • The delay: murder charged in 2021, rape, sexual offense, and burglary not added until October 2024. Defense asked for the records on why.
Open Questions

What Remains Unsettled

DNA and prints

Which samples were tested, which are likelihood ratios, which are inconclusive. Whether the kit figure is semen. Not stated in reporting. Which bottle holds the palm print.

The timestamp

1:23 a.m. voicemail from Faith's phone. Police say the metadata matched the club. A television analyst disputed the stamp. Police did not adopt his view.

The note

Unclear when it was written. The bag was not bloody. A television analyst said it may have been written before or away from the blood. Not a lab finding.

The shirt

Found in the apartment under a bloody comforter, not at McCrary's as Rosario said. Accounts of exactly where in the bedroom differ.

Time of death

The defense reads the medical examiner's line — given Faith's blood-alcohol content, she was likely dead before 3 a.m. — as placing death before Rosario left. The state wants that level excluded.

The 2024 counts

Why rape, sexual offense, and burglary were not added until 2024. Defense has asked for those records.

Daily Recap Log — Newest First

Trial Proceedings

Recaps will be added here each day, newest at the top. Jury selection was still underway as of October 4, 2026. Opening statements had not begun.

Week One — September 28 through October 4, 2026

Jury Selection

Began September 28, 2026. After week one, eleven jurors agreed. One seat and alternates still open. No testimony. No openings.

What is still outside the jury

Faith's blood-alcohol level. A former officer's analysis of the 911 call. Any argument that Rosario committed the killing. Handling of third-party guilt evidence goes through the judge first.

Links and Sources

Pre-Trial Reporting and Records

More From Me:

My Case Deep Dive Video: https://youtu.be/bI6TsnvWZgI
Live trial coverage: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUeMh7PS98Qo
Clips and older case coverage I threw into a playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbKTJS17oVAg
Trial Notes: https://hedgepeth.kattnotwilliams.com

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