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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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Fourteen years after Marisol Rangel found her friend Faith Hedgepeth covered in blood, she still struggles to remember her as she was in life.
Whenever she thinks of Hedgepeth, she sees the horrific scene inside the off-campus Chapel Hill apartment where the 19-year-old UNC student was killed.
“It’s all I can think about, the blood and everything,” Rangel testified Oct. 8, her face crumpling as she struggled to speak through sobs. When she left the Durham courtroom, her cries could still be heard beyond the two double doors.
Rangel, Hedgepeth and her roommate, Karena Rosario, had different personalities, but they clicked when they met at UNC, according to Rangel’s and Rosario’s testimony last week. Their friendships grew into something that felt more like family.
On Sept. 7, 2012, Rangel, then 23, and Rosario, then 20, returned to the apartment expecting to find Hedgepeth sleeping late, they testified. Instead, they found her body hanging off the bed, streaked with blood. Rosario called 911 and, at the operator’s request, touched her friend’s arm. It was cold.
Fourteen years later, they’re reliving that horrific day while testifying at the trial of Miguel Salguero Olivares, who is accused of raping and murdering their friend. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, rape and burglary.
Their testimony has revealed how their close friend’s killing left them struggling with grief, public scrutiny and relentless attention from the media. Their friendship didn’t survive the strain of the aftermath.
“I don’t even remember the last time I talked to her,” Rangel, now 37, testified about Rosario. “It’s been years.”
Rosario and Hedgepeth met in 2010 during their freshman year at UNC and quickly became inseparable, Rosario, now 34, said from the witness stand.
Rosario said she left New Jersey, where she grew up with her twin sister, in 2010 to attend UNC without knowing anyone in North Carolina, she testified.
Hedgepeth grew up about 90 minutes from Chapel Hill in the rural community of Hollister and was a member of the Haliwa-Saponi Tribe.
The two saw each other daily, sharing meals, late-night snacks and conversations between classes, Rosario said.
Hedgepeth was “easy to open up to,” Rosario testified. “Easy to love.”
Rangel had started at UNC a few years before crossing paths with Rosario at a Carolina Hispanic Association meeting, and the two quickly became friends, they both testified.
Rosario introduced Rangel to Hedgepeth at a birthday party in a dorm room. Rangel and Hedgepeth quickly connected over their similar experiences growing up in small North Carolina towns.
Hedgepeth was goofy, with an infectious smile, Rangel recalled.
“She had a lot of joy,” Rangel testified. “She gave, like, big hugs to everyone and just kind of made you feel seen.”
Rosario was different. She was quieter, softer and warm, Rangel testified. She had plenty of personality, but it took time for her to feel comfortable enough to show it.
As the older friend, Rangel looked out for the younger women, the two testified. She grew close to both, but Hedgepeth and Rosario shared a particularly strong bond.
“Honestly, like sisters,” she said.
In the summer of 2012, Hedgepeth asked Rosario if she could move into her off-campus apartment after her lease expired. She was working long hours as a server at Red Robin to make ends meet and hoped to save money by sharing a place.
Rosario had been living with her boyfriend, but he moved out around July after they had problems in their relationship, she testified.
“We didn’t really have like a plan, but I, obviously, I said yes,” Rosario testified.
Hedgepeth brought her clothes and furniture to Rosario’s apartment off Durham-Chapel Hill Boulevard, dropping it all into Rosario’s already furnished one-bedroom, one-bath apartment.
“We had two apartments worth of stuff, and I think we just never took the time to clean it up,” Rosario testified.
Just after midnight on Sept. 7, 2012, Hedgepeth and Rosario went to The Thrill, a popular Chapel Hill nightclub, before returning to their apartment around 2:50 a.m.
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Rosario testified that she drank red slushie tequila drinks and became emotional while talking about her complicated relationships with two young men.
Hedgepeth helped her to the car and listened as she cried, Rosario said.
Back at the apartment, Hedgepeth helped Rosario inside and placed a lined trash can beside her bed, where Rosario soon vomited.
Around 3 a.m., Rosario moved to the bathroom and began texting several people, including Jordan McCrary, whom she asked to come pick her up.
Ninety minutes later, Rosario left with McCrary. The two women shared one apartment key, Rosario said, so she left the apartment unlocked and Hedgepeth asleep in bed, according to her testimony and initial statements.
Later that morning, Rangel picked up Rosario at McCrary’s home and drove her back to the apartment, around 11 a.m.
The two walked upstairs, Rangel calling out Hedgepeth’s name as they entered.
“We walked in, and there was just blood everywhere,” Rangel testified.
Rosario called 911 as Rangel stood beside her. They went outside, where a responding police officer arrived. Later, they met with UNC counselors and spoke with police.
Hedgepeth’s killing remained unsolved for nine years until police arrested Salguero Olivares in September 2021, saying DNA evidence connected him to the crime.
After losing Hedgepeth, Rangel tried to help Rosario through her grief, Rangel testified.
Rosario, who soon moved back to New Jersey, stopped eating for a time, Rangel testified. Her mother was worried and reached out to Rangel.
Rangel and other friends put together a journal filled with encouraging notes and space for Rosario to write about what she was going through.
Over time, Rangel began to feel she was giving more to the friendship than she could sustain. Eventually, the two stopped talking.
“It was hard,” she said.
For Rosario, the years since Hedgepeth’s death have brought numerous questions from police, defense attorneys and the public.
Investigators interviewed her “countless times,” Rosario testified, leaving her to wonder whether she had chosen the right words to describe what happened or why they were asking new questions about that night.
Around 2016, Rosario walked out her front door to find a crew from ABC’s “20/20” waiting for her.
Rangel gave an emotional interview for the news magazine’s 2016 episode about new developments in Hedgepeth’s then-unsolved killing. Reporters constantly call her phone, so she screens all calls, she testified.
Rangel left UNC around 2014 and now lives in Western North Carolina with her husband, who she was living with when Hedgepeth was killed, she said. They have a daughter.
Rosario initially planned to transfer to a college closer to home, she said. But during a visit to Chapel Hill in the summer of 2013, an academic adviser encouraged her to consider returning to UNC, she said.
The adviser gave Rosario a small turtle figurine that reminded her of Hedgepeth, she said. She left the meeting in tears, saying it was a sign that she should return to UNC and finish what she had started.
Rosario returned that fall and graduated in spring 2016 with a degree in psychology.
But for Rangel, moving forward has not erased the memory of finding Hedgepeth’s body. She said she rarely talks about her friend because she doesn’t want the image that has haunted her for 14 years to overshadow the happier memories held by others who knew her.
Everyone who loved her has so mean great final memories with Hedgepeth, Rengel said.
But not Rangel, and the last image of her friend is all she can think about, she said.
“What do you mean?,” the prosecutor asked.
“Seeing Faith like that … just like the blood and everything. It’s just – it’s a lot,” Rangel said.
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