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.
Faith Hedgepeth, 19, was found beaten to death on Sept. 7, 2012, in her apartment at the Hawthorne at The View (now-Nova Chapel Hill) near the Durham-Chapel Hill border.
The UNC-Chapel Hill student’s murder launched a nine-year search that ended in September 2021 with the arrest of Miguel Salguero Olivares, who has pleaded not guilty to murder, rape and burglary. He has no prior criminal convictions and no known connection to Hedgepeth.
Chapel Hill Police Capt. Johnnie Britt, who led the investigation, testified Monday that she arrived shortly after Hedgepeth’s roommate called 911. Investigators compared DNA evidence from the scene to hundreds of potential suspects — “a massive undertaking” that lasted two years, she said — but found no matches.
Salguero Olivares was identified through links to distant relatives using genetic genealogy.
On Tuesday, jurors heard from a former State Bureau of Investigation agent who said Salguero Olivares was “evasive” when he and a detective tried to question him outside his apartment in 2021, nine years after Hedegpeth’s death.
They also heard more testimony from Britt, as well as testimony about fingerprints and a palm print found at the crime scene.
Summer Maffett, the western regional director of the N.C. State Crime Lab, testified she tested the Bacardi rum bottle that prosecutors say Salguero Olivares used to beat Hedgepeth for fingerprints or palm prints invisible to the naked eye. Since the ridges of a fingerprint are formed in the womb, no two humans have the same exact fingerprint.
There were several areas of fingerprint ridge detail, but the overlapping prints were “fragmentary” and not enough to compare with any known prints, Maffett testified. Nor were identifiable prints found on a cell phone with a purple case beside Hedgepeth’s body or a white bag with the words “I’M NOT JEALOUS B—-“ and “JEALOUS.”
Maffett testified she found two latent fingerprints and one palm print on a blue wine bottle, which prosecutors say Salguero Olivares picked up before dropping it and using the Bacardi bottle. When she first compared the prints to Rosario’s prints in 2014, Maffett ruled out that the prints belonged to Rosario.
In 2021, when Maffett received Salguero Olivares’ prints, the fingerprint comparison was inconclusive, but the palm print matched Salguero Olivares’ left palm print, Maffett testified.
Former N.C. State Bureau of Investigation agent Cesar Gutierrez testified Salguero Olivares was “evasive” for over 20 minutes when he and a Chapel Hill Police Department detective tried to interview him outside his apartment on Sep. 16, 2021.
“His job as a painter was more important than assisting law enforcement,” Gutierrez testified.
Both sets of attorneys then played body camera footage from the detective, identified only as Detective Matthews. In the clip the defense played, Gutierrez and Matthews repeatedly asked Salguero Olivares to join them in the police car and give them five minutes to ask questions.
Salguero Olivares said his boss had called him and said he needed to take care of his sick daughter, so Salguero Olivares needed to pick up paint and men, according to the video. He tried to walk away from investigators to call his boss before Gutierrez stepped in front.
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Salguero Olivares repeatedly asked why investigators were asking him about the homicide before Matthews went to his car to get his phone and show him a photo of Hedgepeth, according to the video. Salguero Olivares twice denied knowing her or two other people of interest or having sex with her.
“I don’t have nothing to do in Durham,” Salguero Olivares could be heard saying on the video.
In court, Gutierrez testified Salguero Olivares called his boss to ask if he could pick him up, never asking if he could be excused for some time to answer questions. Compared to his mother, who answered questions and told Salguero Olivares to do the same, Salguero Olivares was evasive, Gutierrez testified.
Defense attorney James Rainsford challenged Gutierrez on how he and Matthews approached Salguero Olivares. He asked why they didn’t show him a bigger, printed photograph of Hedgepeth, say her name or provide other specifics given the homicide had happened nine years ago at the time of the approach.
Rainsford also asked why Gutierrez and Matthews insisted on an interview in the police car and did not take Salguero Olivares’ offer to interview him in his apartment. Gutierrez testified going to Salguero Olivares’ apartment would have been too great a risk, as he and Matthews didn’t know who or what weapons were in the apartment.
On redirect examination, Gutierrez testified that Salguero Olivares never asked to look at the photos again and was certain he did not know Hedgepeth.
The fifth day of the trial began with defense attorney James Rainsford finishing his cross-examination of Chapel Hill Police Capt. Johnnie Britt, the lead investigator in the case.
Britt testified she recalled interviewing Rosario’s friend, Marisol Rangel, who told her about Rosario’s ex-boyfriend, Eriq Takoy Jones IV.
Rangel told Britt that Jones — who lived in the same apartment complex as Rangel, Rosario and Hedgepeth — was “very jealous” and once broke into their apartment, forcing Rosario to get a restraining order, Britt testified.
Rainsford pressed Britt on why crime scene technicians did not search the dryer, washer and a bathroom trash can or collect a hand towel for evidence. Britt testified she could not speak to the technicians’ decisions.
Rainsford also questioned how photos from the scene showed technicians moving Hedgepeth’s body despite the medical examiner’s instruction not to do so. Britt testified Hedgepeth’s body would have to be moved at some point and did not recall any other manipulation beyond what photos revealed.
On the redirect examination, Britt read the medical examiner’s instructions to place bags on Hedgepeth’s hands and feet to preserve evidence. She testified some manipulation of Hedgepeth’s body was also necessary to take photos of her without the comforter covering her.
Britt testified that a downstairs neighbor Joy Barker, who told police she had heard a few loud thumps from upstairs between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m., told police she did not hear any yelling or arguing along with the thumps.
With respect to the evidence police did not collect, Britt testified there were pieces of evidence they probably would collect if they could go back. But the missing evidence did not “make or break” the investigation. Even after follow-up interviews with Barker and Rosario’s then-boyfriend, Jordan McCrary, the investigation kept leading back to the DNA evidence from the apartment.
“Everything led back to the defendant,” Britt testified.
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This story was originally published October 13, 2026 at 7:56 AM with the headline “Day 5 live updates: Palm print matched suspect’s in Hedgepeth murder trial, witness says.”
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