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The Killing Of Faith Hedgepeth: New Findings & What Did The Autopsy Report Show?

In 2012, a 19 years old student of UNC, Chapel Hill, Faith Hedgepeth, was brutally murdered in her off-campus apartment. In the past, the killing of Faith Hedgepeth had sparked many concerns and left everyone disturbed.

Who is Faith Hedgepeth?

Faith Hedgepeth was a descendant of the Haliwa-Sapona, which is a Native American tribe. The State of North Carolina recognizes it. She was born in 1992 and raised in Warren County, and it is within the locality of the tribe’s traditional area.

Less than a year after Faith was born, her parents got separated. Then she grew up in Hollister and Warrenton solely by her mother, Connie Hedgepeth. Connie’s older sister, who assisted her in raising Faith Hedgepeth, was her sole rock.

Faith’s aunt tried to support her and Connie as long as she could. Connie Hedgepeth had two boys, a daughter, and a husband with a drug addiction problem, so she decided to name her fourth child “Faith.”

Education

Faith had proven herself to be the most thoughtful and most intelligent student throughout her educational career. She was an honor student who participated in almost every other high school activity, like volunteering, charity work, and worked for extracurricular clubs and organizations.

Faith Hedgepeth was shortlisted for the scholarship program at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. She worked very hard and excelled well enough to receive a Gates Millenium Scholarship.

Her father was also a dropout of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. She aspired to be the first to earn a college diploma in her family. She pondered continuing her education to become a pediatrician or a teacher after completing her undergraduate degree.

Background

She used to live with her female friend in a shared apartment. Since freshman year, Karena Rosario and her boyfriend, Eriq Takoy Jones, have been friends with Faith Hedgepeth.

Jones and Rosario’s relationship had been marred by domestic violence, and she ultimately stopped it, and he walked out. He did, however, attempt to break into the flat twice in early July 2012, despite Rosario changing the locks. 

Hedgepeth finally took Rosario to court to obtain a protection order prohibiting Jones from entering the residence. Jones is said to have hated Hedgepeth’s influence over his ex-girlfriend.

Faith was working in a restaurant named Red Robin near the Durham border. During a phone call with Hedgepeth, Eriq Takoy Jones once threatened to murder her if she came between Rosario and him.

Rosario, who lived in the Hawthorne at The View apartment complex on Old Chapel Hill Road on the Durham-Chapel Hill’s border, allowed Hedgepeth to live with her until she could relocate into her own place after a month was having Hedgepeth stay with her.

The killing of Faith Hedgepeth

According to investigators, Hedgepeth went to a rush event for Alpha Pi Omega around 6 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 6, 2012, the day before she was murdered, and then proceeded to Davis Library on the UNC campus with her friend and roommate, Karena Rosario.

Both friends Hedgepeth and Rosario came back home around 7:30 p.m. But they wanted to enjoy the night and decided to go outside that night.

On September 7, the girls walked out of the house after midnight and headed to The Thrill, a Chapel Hill nightclub on Rosemary Street. They arrived at 12:40 a.m., according to surveillance footage.

Rosario informed police that she felt not okay, and the two were seen fleeing from the nightclub at 2:06 a.m. on security camera. They went back to Rosario’s place.

Aftermath

At approximately 4:25 a.m. Rosario told officers she left the residence and was fetched up by two male companions, abandoning Hedgepeth alone in the bedroom. Rosario admitted to leaving the door unlocked.

A friend, Marisol Rangel, picked up Rosario and returned to her apartment at 11 a.m. They called Hedgepeth’s name and saw Faith lying on the mattress with blood under her head. And both freaked out.

At 11:01 a.m., Rosario dialed 911 urgently. Her friend was unconscious, and Rosario told the officials that the room was covered with blood everywhere. 

The operator repeatedly requested her to check for Hedgepeth’s breath because then Rosario might possibly assist her. Still, Rosario refused to touch her when Rosario notified the operator that Hedgepeth was chilly to the touch.

Then Rosario was told by the operator and was urged to leave the body and not to touch anything. According to a search warrant issued in 2014, authorities discovered Faith’s half-naked body lying off the bed, face-up, wearing just a black shirt that was lifted up over her neck.

Further Investigation

A bloodied Bacardi rum bottle and a scribbled message on a fast-food bag beside Hedgepeth’s corpse on the bed that just said, “IM NOT STUPID BITCH JEALOUS,” have also been discovered by police. 

Lehew has stated that she believes the murderer wrote the message. It was also highlighted that Hedgepeth, a girl, and two males were having a furious debate inside the club.

The conversation was just before an hour she was slain, according to a 2016 “pocket dial” voicemail obtained by News & Observer journalist Tom Gasparoli. 

According to Hedgepeth’s father, one of the voices was Faith; police Assistant Chief Celisa Lehew stated the other voices had been recognized, but she would not name them.

Eriq Takoy Jones IV, which was under a protection order to refrain from Rosario’s home, and Brandon Edwards, who was also pals with Hedgepeth, have also been suspected by police. 

On the day Faith’s brutally murdered body was discovered, officers found text exchanges between him and Hedgepeth.

Autopsy Report

According to autopsy results disclosed to the public in September 2014, Faith Hedgepeth’s skull was bludgeoned so severely that forensic experts ruled she died from blunt-force trauma. 

There were also scrapes and bruises on her legs and arms, as well as blood beneath her fingernails, according to the report. Blood had splashed over the walls and the closet door, in contrast to the pooling beneath Hedgepeth’s head. 

The lethal weapon, according to police, was a Bacardi Peach Rum bottle that was placed in the kitchen. “Tissue pieces” and DNA were found in the bottle, and Semen was taken from Hedgepeth’s body.

In 2016, police informed ABC News and claimed it’s much more than probable that Hedgepeth was sexually assaulted and then brutally murdered.

New Findings

Miguel Salguero-Olivares, 28, of Durham, was arrested on a first-degree murder charge in Hedgepeth’s killing on September 16, 2021, by the Chapel Hill Police Department.

Miguel was not a suspect at first, but after being arrested for drunken driving in Wake County the previous month, he was verified through DNA evidence. The police encouraged the public to be patient as they worked out the specifics in a statement.

Final Word

Hedgepeth’s murder was covered in many crime series, including “20/20” in 2016 and “Breaking Homicide” on the Investigation Discovery channel in April. Another story was covered on the famous murder mysteries podcast Crime Junkie in October 2020.

Nine years ago, Faith Hedgepeth was murdered in her off-campus residence, and authorities are still searching for her killer. Nearly 2,000 persons were interviewed in the Hedgepeth murder investigation over the course of four years. 

Multiple persons and organizations have donated more than $40,000 in prize money for information that would lead to an arrest, but the case is still unsolved.

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