Life sentence in UNC student's murder after 14 years
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Faith Hedgepeth's sister, mom and cousin at a vigil at the Haliwa-Saponi Tribal School in 2012. Photo: Corey Lowenstein/Raleigh News & Observer/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
A jury on Friday convicted Miguel Salguero-Olivares of murdering UNC-Chapel Hill student Faith Hedgepeth more than a decade ago.
- Salguero-Olivares is sentenced to spend life in prison.
The big picture: The case was a mystery that baffled the university community and tortured Hedgepeth's family and friends as it sat unsolved.
What they're saying: Her family remembered her as enchanting and described years of anguish.
- "Our hearts were ripped out and it's like there's just hollowness there," her dad Roland Hedgepeth said.
- "It just seemed like such a senseless and cruel act," her mom Connie Hedgepeth said, adding that her heart also "aches for [the convicted killer's] family. We try to raise our children the best we know."
Flashback: Faith Hedgepeth was a 19-year-old college student found beaten to death in her apartment shortly after the fall semester began in 2012.
- Years passed with no outward signs of progress in the case. Then, in 2021, Chapel Hill police charged Salguero-Olivares with murder and rape. He pleaded not guilty.
- Investigators used ancestry data to surface Salguero-Olivares as a potential suspect, then collected a DNA sample from him during a 2021 traffic stop in Raleigh, The News & Observer reported from arrest warrants.
Catch up quick: Salguero-Olivares and Faith Hedgepeth were strangers, according to prosecutors, who say that is why the case went cold.
- Prosecutors based their case largely upon DNA collected from the scene, an apartment that Faith Hedgepeth shared with another Carolina student.
- The prosecution said that Salguero-Olivares left behind semen and that his DNA was on the murder weapon — a Bacardi rum bottle. During closing arguments Thursday, a lead prosecutor said "forensic evidence is screaming his name."
The other side: Defense attorneys gestured toward Faith Hedgepeth's roommate, Karena Rosario, who was last to see her alive and who called 911 after finding her body.
- Rosario testified that she and Faith Hedgepeth had gone out drinking in Chapel Hill that night, returning home together after 2am. Rosario then left after 4am in a car with a friend. When she returned to the apartment around 11am, Faith Hedgepeth was dead.
- The defense questioned the forensics and the prosecution's theories but declined to present any evidence. Salguero-Olivares did not testify.
Zoom in: The jury reached its verdict around 4:20pm Friday, one day after deliberations began. The trial lasted more than three weeks.
- Salguero-Olivares was convicted of all charges, including first-degree murder, burglary and rape.
- He did not immediately react. After a few moments, he shook his head repeatedly in apparent disbelief.
The latest: Superior Court Judge Keith Gregory immediately had Salguero-Olivares handcuffed and — after hearing from the family — sentenced Salguero-Olivares to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
What's next: The judge said Salguero-Olivares' attorneys indicated he would appeal.