Faith Hedgepeth was a UNC sophomore when she was killed on Sept. 7, 2012. Her murder was unsolved until Sept. 16, 2021, when Chapel Hill police made an arrest in her case. The murder trial begins Sept. 28, 2026. Here’s ongoing coverage about Hedgepeth and the case.
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The News & Observer is providing live updates during the day. Follow through the day for the latest from the trial.
A Durham County jury will continue to hear evidence Wednesday as the prosecution establishes how it believes Faith Hedgepeth was killed.
Hedgepeth, a UNC-Chapel Hill student, was found beaten to death in her apartment on the morning of Sept. 7, 2012. Investigators testified that DNA evidence led them to charge painter Miguel Salguero Olivares with murder, rape and burglary in 2021.
Salguero Olivares, who came to North Carolina from Guatemala in 2010, has never been convicted of a crime, and witnesses testified they never knew him nor did Hedgepeth ever mention him.
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Salguero Olivares’ defense grilled lead investigator and Chapel Hill Police Capt. Johnnie Britt on evidence police neglected to test on Tuesday, but Britt testified the missing evidence did not “make or break” the investigation.
“Everything led back to the defendant,” Britt testified.
Jurors also watched video showing investigators approach Salguero Olivares in his apartment parking lot on Sept. 16, 2021, in which former N.C. State Bureau of Investigation agent Cesar Gutierrez testified the defendant was “evasive.”
Tuesday ended in the middle of testimony from the western regional director of the N.C. State Crime Lab, Summer Maffett, who said a blue wine bottle had Salguero Olivares’ left palm print on it.
Prosecutors say Salguero Olivares picked it up before using a Bacardi rum bottle to fatally beat Hedgepeth.
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Faith Hedgepeth’s friends found her body. Their lives were never the same.
Jurors see video, hear from investigator in Hedgepeth trial
Palm print matched suspect’s in Hedgepeth murder trial, witness says
This story was originally published October 14, 2026 at 8:34 AM.