Faith Hedgepeth Murder Verdict: Guilty After 14 Years

A Durham County jury found Miguel Salguero-Olivares guilty of first-degree murder, rape, sexual offense and burglary in the 2012 killing of UNC-Chapel Hill student Faith Hedgepeth. The court sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder charge, with the judge ordering the sentences to run consecutively. Salguero-Olivares has indicated he will appeal the convictions and sentences.

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Prosecutors relied heavily on DNA and fingerprint evidence collected after a drunk-driving stop in September 2021 linked Salguero-Olivares to the crime scene. Forensic scientist Erin Ermish testified that DNA swabbed from Hedgepeth’s body was 170 septillion times more likely to be a mixture of Hedgepeth’s and Salguero-Olivares’s DNA than a mixture involving an unknown individual. More than 25 State Bureau of Investigation special agents worked the case, and over 400 DNA samples were gathered. The defense questioned the reliability of the investigation but did not present any witnesses.

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Faith Hedgepeth, a 19-year-old junior majoring in biology and a member of the Haliwa-Saponi tribe, was found dead in her off-campus apartment with extensive skull fractures and severe injuries to her arms and legs. Her parents delivered emotional impact statements after the verdict, expressing a mixture of relief and lingering grief.

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Judge Keith Gregory acknowledged the family’s loss, hugged the Hedgepeth parents after proceedings, and confirmed that Salguero-Olivares was a year younger than Faith and also a UNC-Chapel Hill student at the time of the murder.

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• “I guess I have been really overwhelmed,” — Connie Hedgepeth, mother of the victim

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• “That's 14 years, six weeks and four days or 169 months and 18 days and 5,158 days ... that's how long it's been,” — Roland Hedgepeth, father of the victim

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• “They still got the guy because he left his DNA like confetti all over that room,” — Lisa Coltrain, prosecutor

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