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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Prosecutors on Thursday presented DNA evidence that was collected, tested and led police to charge Miguel Salguero Olivares with the murder of Faith Hedgepeth.
Hedgepeth was a 19-year-old student at UNC-Chapel Hill when she was found beaten to death in her off-campus apartment on the morning of Sept. 7, 2012.
After nine years, DNA and fingerprint analysis led investigators to charge Salguero Olivares with murder, rape and burglary in September 2021. He has pleaded not guilty and has said he did not know Hedgepeth.
Prosecutors spent the majority of Wednesday walking through the reports and analysis performed by N.C. State Crime Lab forensic scientist Erin Ermish.
Ermish is the only person who conducted DNA and serology (the study of the clear liquid part of blood) analysis in the Hedgepeth case. Defense attorney James Rainsford questioned her on several parts of her analysis:
Rainsford asked Ermish to review results from another DNA analysis of the alleged murder weapon, a Bacardi rum bottle, that he said his office requested months before the trial. (Rainsford later corrected himself and said the state, not his office, requested the additional analysis.)
Ermish tested the cap, neck, body and shoulder of the rum bottle, she testified. The results revealed DNA samples that either lacked the quality and quantity to determine who they came from, or that ruled Salguero Olivares out as a contributor.
Ermish testified earlier that her 2021 analysis of the rum bottle cap revealed Salguero Olivares was most likely a contributor to a DNA sample that also included Hedgepeth’s DNA.
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Ermish testified that DNA samples recovered from other crime scene items pointed to or matched Salguero Olivares’ DNA profile, including:
Ermish also testified her tests spotted male DNA on a green and white pen and the white string of Hedgepeth’s tampon, but she could not conclude if the male DNA was likely to be or matched Salguero Olivares’ DNA.
Assistant District Attorney Angela Garcia-Lamarca asked Ermish about her DNA analysis reports from 2019 to 2021. By 2020, the State Crime Lab had upgraded its technology to detect smaller DNA samples and adopted a new technique to isolate male DNA from mixtures with female DNA.
Ermish’s Dec. 10, 2021, report summarized her comparison of Salguero Olivares’ DNA with the unknown DNA profile found from Hedgepeth’s vaginal and rectal swabs, she testified.
Ermish concluded Salguero Olivares was 114 septillion times more likely than another male to have contributed to the sperm cell DNA mixed with Hedgepeth’s DNA, she testified.
Body fluids from the cap of the Bacardi rum bottle, the alleged murder weapon, were 48.6 tredecillion times more likely to be a mixture of Hedgepeth and Salguero Olivares’ DNA, Ermish testified.
Hedgepeth’s roommate, Karena Rosario, was ruled out in the 2021 analysis as a possible contributor to the DNA mixtures tested, Ermish testified — leaving Salguero Olivares as the most likely contributor.
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This story was originally published October 15, 2026 at 8:47 AM.