Jury Convicts Man in Faith Hedgepeth Murder, Judge Gives Life Without Parole

A Durham County jury on Friday, October 23, 2026, convicted Miguel Salguero-Olivares of first-degree murder, first-degree rape, first-degree sexual offense and first-degree burglary in the killing of Faith Hedgepeth, a 19-year-old sophomore at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Judge Keith O. Gregory then sentenced Salguero-Olivares to life in prison without the possibility of parole, according to the Durham County District Attorney's Office. The verdict closed a case that had stayed open for more than 14 years.

Hedgepeth was found beaten to death in her off-campus apartment in Chapel Hill on September 7, 2012. Her roommate, Karena Rosario, testified that Hedgepeth drove them home from a club at about 2 a.m. that night, that Rosario later left with a friend, and that she returned hours later and found Hedgepeth's body. An autopsy showed extensive skull fractures and cuts to her face and head, and severe injuries to her arms and legs.

The forensic case

Prosecutors built their case on forensic evidence from the apartment. Experts testified that the defendant's fingerprints and palm print were found on a wine bottle at the scene, and that his DNA was found in Hedgepeth's body, on a note written on a fast-food bag found at the scene, and on a blood-covered rum bottle that investigators identified as the weapon. Erin Ermish, a forensic scientist with the state crime lab, testified that DNA swabbed from Hedgepeth's body was 170 septillion times more likely to be a mixture of DNA from Hedgepeth and Salguero-Olivares than from Hedgepeth and an unknown person.

Salguero-Olivares, now 33, was arrested in September 2021, nine years after the killing. CNN reported that he was pulled over for driving while intoxicated and provided a DNA sample that prosecutors said matched evidence from the crime scene. The District Attorney's Office said advances in forensic DNA analysis helped investigators identify him as a suspect.

What the two sides argued

Jurors deliberated for six hours over two days. Salguero-Olivares did not testify, and his attorneys rested without calling any witnesses. In closing arguments, prosecutor Angela Garcia-Lamarca told jurors, "We know who did it. The forensic evidence is screaming his name." She described the pain the family has carried since 2012.

Defense attorneys argued that investigators had tunnel vision, questioned Rosario's account of the night, and pointed to areas of the apartment police did not search and to blood evidence that was later lost. They argued the DNA could have come from a consensual encounter days before the killing. Prosecutors answered that no mistake in the investigation could explain away the palm print and the DNA found across the room.

District Attorney Satana Deberry said after the verdict: "Faith Hedgepeth was just 19 years old when her life was taken. She had a bright future ahead of her, a family who loved her, and a community that has mourned her loss for more than fourteen years." She added: "While nothing can restore the life that was lost, today's verdict represents an important moment of accountability."

Friday was the 19th day of the trial, including jury selection. The jury began deliberating on Thursday and asked for summaries of lab reports and fingerprint readings before reaching its verdict late on Friday afternoon.