A Durham County jury convicted Salguero-Olivares on Oct. 23, 2026, of first-degree murder, rape, sexual offense and burglary in the September 2012 death of UNC-Chapel Hill student Faith Hedgepeth. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
On Friday, Oct. 23, 2026, a Durham County jury found Salguero-Olivares guilty of first-degree murder, first-degree rape, first-degree sexual offense and first-degree burglary, a day after deliberations began.34 Superior Court Judge Keith Gregory sentenced him to life in prison without parole.34 The trial opened with statements on Oct. 7, 2026, more than 14 years after Hedgepeth's death.5 On Oct. 14 and 15, a state crime lab forensic scientist testified that DNA mixtures from Hedgepeth's body and from a rum bottle prosecutors call the murder weapon were far more likely to include Salguero-Olivares than unknown, unrelated people; under cross-examination she said other swabs from the bottle were inconclusive and three excluded him.14 Testimony continued on Friday, Oct. 16, with prosecution witnesses who lived at Hedgepeth's apartment complex.16
Salguero-Olivares has not been convicted. Everything in this section is an allegation by prosecutors or police, or testimony at a trial that is still under way. Testimony is evidence for the jury to weigh, not a finding of fact.16
Hedgepeth grew up in Hollister, N.C., and was a member of the Haliwa-Saponi tribal community.23 She was a biology major and was active in the Carolina Indian Circle and as a volunteer at the American Indian Center.1126 Prosecutors described her as “a caring friend” who was on track to be the first in her family to graduate from college.5
Hedgepeth, 19, was a sophomore at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.19 According to prosecutors’ opening statement, she and her roommate had been at a club, and Hedgepeth, the designated driver, drove them home.5 Prosecutors told jurors the roommate, who was drunk and sick, called a friend to pick her up around 4 a.m. and returned hours later to find Hedgepeth dead.5 The roommate has testified that Hedgepeth was conscious and breathing when she left, and that she returned to find her in their bedroom, nude from the waist down; “I pulled the comforter down and saw she had a black eye,” she testified.11 She told jurors a 911 dispatcher asked her to check whether Hedgepeth was warm: “And I told them that she felt cold.”5 According to prosecutors, the two women shared one key, and the roommate left the door unlocked.7
A doctor from the North Carolina Medical Examiner’s Office testified that she performed the autopsy on Sept. 8, 2012, and described “multiple lacerations on scalp, forehead and face,” which she said were blunt force injuries made by an object.9 The medical examiner testified that blunt force trauma to the head caused Hedgepeth’s death.9 On cross-examination, she testified that death from such injuries could come within seconds to minutes.9 A sexual assault nurse examiner called by the prosecution testified that the autopsy report and photographs were “not inconsistent with a sexual assault,” and agreed that a person can be sexually assaulted without injuries.10
A Chapel Hill police forensic technician displayed a 1.75-liter Bacardi rum bottle that prosecutors identify as the murder weapon.11 Investigators found a handwritten message on a crumpled fast-food bag at the scene, which reads, as the AP rendered it, “I’m Not Stupid (expletive) Jealous.”511 The judge has allowed prosecutors to argue that a pen found at the scene was used to write it.18
The technician acknowledged on the stand that mistakes were made in processing the scene, and said she was still in training in 2012.11 A swab taken from a red spot on the bathroom doorframe, which an initial test indicated could be blood, was lost before it could be tested; “That step was missed,” she testified, agreeing with a prosecutor that it was a mistake.8 A retired police forensic specialist testified that she boxed the swab and that they searched the evidence locker, the truck and the lab for it.811 The technician testified that no other evidence was missing.8
In 2014 the State Bureau of Investigation and Chapel Hill police announced a reward of up to $40,000.1 In 2015 police said the case “is not a cold case,” that they had “excellent evidence,” and that “continued advances in DNA technology” had opened “additional avenues of investigation.”2 Over the years, more than a dozen DNA analysts studied 53 evidence submissions and analyzed 229 samples to rule out suspects, according to the state attorney general.25 Police said Salguero-Olivares was never considered a suspect early in the case.24
According to search warrants as reported in 2022, investigators used DNA ancestry technology on crime-scene DNA, which identified distant relatives of the suspect; those relatives gave interviews and DNA that helped identify him.22 The warrants say investigators then obtained his DNA, without his consent, during a driving-while-impaired stop.22 The State Crime Lab matched that sample to a profile from the crime scene, authorities said.23 Chapel Hill police arrested him in Durham on Sept. 16, 2021, without incident, with the help of the SBI, and charged him with first-degree murder.25 Before trial, the judge excluded evidence about the genetic genealogy work, so jurors are not hearing it.18
Jurors watched body-camera video from Sept. 16, 2021, of investigators questioning him in a parking lot.1213 Shown a photo of Hedgepeth, he repeatedly said he did not know her, and asked, “What do I have to do with that?”12 A former SBI agent who took part as a Spanish-speaking agent testified that Salguero-Olivares appeared “evasive” and did not seem surprised when told he was a suspect.12
He was later indicted on additional counts; the charges at trial are first-degree murder, first-degree rape, first-degree sexual offense and first-degree burglary.1711 He pleaded not guilty on Aug. 3, 2026.17 The Durham County District Attorney’s Office is not seeking the death penalty.18
At an August 2026 hearing on the lost swab, the defense argued, “Forensic evidence is going to be used to prosecute my client,” and said the loss made its case harder; prosecutors called it “a mistake, a negligence issue,” with “no evidence of it being lost in bad faith.” A defense motion to dismiss was denied.18 The judge also barred testimony and argument about the underlying data of inconclusive DNA results, and ordered that he appear before jurors in civilian clothing and without visible restraints.18
A State Crime Lab forensic scientist testified on Oct. 13 that a palm print on a blue Riesling wine bottle found on the bedroom floor was his left palm; two fingerprints on that bottle were inconclusive when compared with him, and she drew no conclusions from prints on the rum bottle.1213
On Oct. 14 and 15, State Crime Lab forensic scientist Erin Ermish testified that she would not say DNA belongs to a specific person with certainty because “every person on earth has not had their DNA tested,” and instead gave statistics.14 She testified that a mixture from swabs of Hedgepeth’s body was “170 septillion times more likely” to come from Hedgepeth and Salguero-Olivares than from Hedgepeth and an unknown, unrelated person, and that a mixture from the top of the rum bottle was 48.6 tredecillion times more likely to come from the two of them than from two unknown people.14 She testified that the predominant profile on the bag bearing the note matched him, and that a partial profile on the wine bottle was consistent with his DNA.14 The roommate was excluded from one clothing mixture.14
Other results were less clear. Ermish testified that fingernail swabs held a mixture of three male contributors that was inconclusive, so he could be neither included nor excluded, and that 2012–2013 reports noted DNA from an unidentified person that could not be excluded from several items.14 Under cross-examination, she said additional swabs from the neck, shoulder and body of the rum bottle were inconclusive, and three of them excluded him.14 Rainsford also asked why some items were tested and others were not, and about the population groups used in the statistics.15
In his opening, Rainsford pointed to a friend who picked up the roommate that night and said he saw what looked like blood on her hands, and to a downstairs neighbor who reported loud thumps between 3 and 4 a.m.5 In a 2012 police interview played for jurors, the roommate, asked about blood on her hand, said, “I was throwing up red stuff,” and that she did not remember the conversation.10 The defense has questioned why the rum bottle was not photographed before it was collected, why other items in the apartment were not collected, and how police questioned Salguero-Olivares and explored other potential suspects.811 The former lead investigator testified that she did not know why a hand towel near the sink was never collected; on redirect she said further testing would not undermine the DNA evidence already collected.13
The defense rested without calling witnesses, and Salguero-Olivares told the court he would not testify.3 The jury began deliberating on Thursday, Oct. 22, and late that afternoon asked for summaries of lab reports and fingerprint readings.3 At about 4:20 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 23, it found him guilty of first-degree murder, first-degree rape, first-degree sexual offense and first-degree burglary.43 As the verdict was read, he could be heard saying, “It’s not fair.”3
Judge Keith Gregory sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder, and to consecutive terms of 64 to 89 months for burglary and 240 to 348 months each for rape and sexual offense.3 Hedgepeth’s parents gave victim impact statements; her mother said the family finally had “the closure we need,” and her father said, “Our hearts were ripped out and it’s like there’s just hollowness there.”34 The judge said the defense indicated he would appeal.4
On Oct. 16, prosecutors called two men who lived at Hedgepeth’s apartment complex in 2012. One, who said he organized a cookout near her building on Sept. 6, 2012, testified that an acquaintance brought a friend he did not know and cannot remember; asked whether the defendant could have been that friend, he said, “I don’t remember.”16 The other, who is related to the defendant by marriage, testified through an interpreter.16 A jail official testified that recordings of the defendant’s jail calls exist; they were not played.16
Salguero-Olivares was 28 when he was arrested, which would have made him 19 at the time of Hedgepeth’s death.24 A neighbor and family friend told the News & Observer that his mother brought him from Guatemala in 2010 or 2011 and raised him as a single mother, and that he did not speak English when he arrived.28 He is a native Spanish speaker.12 After his arrest his mother told WRAL that he did not attend UNC-Chapel Hill and did not have many friends there, and said, “My son is not a murderer. I believe in my son.”27
He most recently worked as a painter and drywall finisher, the News & Observer reported, and before moving to Durham had lived in Chapel Hill.28 He was living in Durham at the time of his arrest.23
According to the News & Observer, he was convicted of driving while impaired in Orange County in 2014.28 In August 2021 he was charged in Wake County with driving while impaired, having an open container, a fictitious tag, and driving without a license or insurance, WRAL reported.27
No testimony, finding or on-record statement about Salguero-Olivares’s mental health was found in the sources reviewed.
He was held without bond in the Durham County jail from his arrest until his conviction, and was sentenced to life without parole on Oct. 23, 2026.233 In 2025, a warrant charged him with possessing methamphetamine on jail premises, including possession with intent to sell or deliver; he has not been tried on those charges in the sources reviewed and is presumed innocent of them.20 Apart from his remark as the verdict was read, Salguero-Olivares has made no public statement about the case in the sources reviewed.
In closing, prosecutor Lisa Coltrain told jurors that investigators "still got the guy because he left his DNA like confetti all over that room."3 At trial, prosecutors said Salguero-Olivares, a stranger to Hedgepeth, entered her apartment and killed her "in a fit of rage," leaving his DNA on the rum bottle they call the murder weapon and on a note written on a fast-food bag. "The evidence in this case is louder than the noise around it," Assistant District Attorney Angela Garcia-LaMarca told jurors.56
Defense attorney James Rainsford told jurors prosecutors had left out key details and urged them to ask, "Where's the rest of the evidence?" He points to a bathroom blood swab police lost, items that were never collected or tested, and inconclusive DNA results, and argues that DNA alone does not prove guilt: "Finding something doesn't mean a crime occurred. You have to connect them."5814 The defense rested without calling witnesses, and Salguero-Olivares did not testify. As the verdict was read, he could be heard saying, "It's not fair." His lawyers indicated he would appeal.34
Faith Hedgepeth is found dead in her off-campus apartment in Chapel Hill.23
The SBI and Chapel Hill police announce a reward of up to $40,000 for information in the case.1
Police say the case "is not a cold case" and that advances in DNA technology have opened new avenues of investigation.2
Chapel Hill police arrest Salguero-Olivares and charge him with first-degree murder; he is held without bond.23
He pleads not guilty; pretrial hearings follow.17
After a hearing on the lost bathroom swab, a defense motion to dismiss is denied.18
Opening statements are made in Durham County Superior Court.5
A state crime lab DNA analyst testifies for the prosecution and is cross-examined; the state's case continues.1416
The defense rests without calling witnesses; after closing arguments, the jury begins deliberating on Oct. 22.34
The jury finds him guilty on all four counts at about 4:20 p.m., and Judge Gregory sentences him to life without parole plus consecutive terms.43
His lawyers indicated he will appeal the convictions and sentences; an appeal from a life sentence goes to the North Carolina Court of Appeals.43 No appeal had been reported as filed as of Oct. 24, 2026.