Miguel Enrique Salguero-Olivares is a 28-year-old Durham man who has been charged in the 2012 murder of University of North Carolina student Faith Hedgepeth in Chapel Hill.
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Miguel Enrique Salguero-Olivares: Man Charged in Faith Hedgepeth’s Murder
Miguel Enrique Salguero-Olivares is a 28-year-old Durham man who has been charged in the 2012 murder of University of
North Carolina student
Faith Hedgepeth in Chapel Hill. Salguero-Olivares was charged with first-degree murder on September 16, 2021. The 19-year-old UNC student was killed in her off-campus apartment on September 7, 2012. Her roommate found her body and called 911 to report there was “blood everywhere,” according to investigators.
1. Salguero-Olivares Was Identified After His DNA Matched Evidence From the Crime Scene, Police Say
Authorities in North Carolina announced the arrest of Miguel Salguero-Olivares during a press conference on September 16, 2021, more than nine years after Faith Hedgepeth was killed in her apartment. The investigation was led by the Chapel Hill Police Department and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, with assistance from the Durham County District Attorney and the state attorney general’s office, the state crime lab and other agencies, including the FBI, officials said. Parabon Labs also assisted. Salguero-Olivares was identified through DNA, authorities said.
2. Salguero-Olivares Currently Lives in Durham, Previously Lived in Chapel Hill, Worked as a Painter & Moved to the United States From Guatemala in 2010, Neighbors Say & Records Show
Salguero-Olivares came to the U.S. from Guatemala when he was a teen, in 2010, about two years before Hedgepeth was killed,
the Raleigh News & Observer reports. His most recent address was in Durham, where he worked as a painter, according to records. His neighbor told the newspaper Salguero-Olivares spoke little to no English when he came to the United States.
Before moving to Durham, Salguero-Olivares lived in an apartment complex on Ephesus Church Road in Chapel Hill, the News & Observer reports. Few other details about Salguero-Olivares have been revealed. According to CBS 17, Salguero-Olivares said in court documents he has worked at a pizzeria.
Salguero-Olivares’ mother
told WRAL, “My son is not a murderer. I believe in my son. I believe it. He said he don’t know the girl.” She said he never attended UNC-Chapel Hill and didn’t have many friends at the university. The news station wrote, “A family friend of Salguero-Olivares told WRAL that the act doesn’t fit the person she knows, pointing to principles passed down from his parents and grandparents.”
3. Salguero-Olivares Was Convicted on a DWI Charge in 2014, Has Pending Traffic Offenses & Had an Active Warrant for Failure to Appear in Court When He Was Arrested, Records Show
Salguero-Olivares was convicted of driving while intoxicated in 2014 in Orange County, North Carolina, court records show. He was most recently arrested in Raleigh, North Carolina, in August 2021 on charges of driving while intoxicated and driving without a license or insurance,
according to Spectrum Local News.
The news station wrote, “Jails in North Carolina routinely take DNA samples from people arrested and feed those into a database to see if they match any pending cases.”
4. Police & Prosecutors Declined to Release Additional Details About the Accusations Against Salguero-Olivares, Including Whether They Know of a Motive or How He Ended Up in Hedgepeth’s Apartment
Police and prosecutors have declined to release many details about the investigation, including whether they know if Salguero-Olivares knew Hedgepeth. They have also not said if they know if there is a motive in the case. Salguero-Olivares would have been 19 when Hedgepeth was killed.
Hunter Glass, who worked on the case as a private investigator,
told ABC 11 that Salguero-Olivares’ name had come up as having been at a party at Hedgepeth’s apartment complex, but he said he “didn’t stick out.” Police have not confirmed any details about a party and whether Salguero-Olivares was there. Glass told the news station, “I would want to know why and who else knew. I don’t believe that only one person knows this case. And I don’t believe that there was only two and one can’t tell us. So, I do believe that there were either other witnesses, I believe, or not witnesses, at least heard something, knew something but kept it close to their chest because they didn’t want to talk about it, or they were afraid they would be implicated in it.”
5. Salguero-Olivares Made His First Appearance in Court & Was Held Without Bond
Salguero-Olivares made his first court appearance on September 17, 2021, and was ordered held without bond on the first-degree murder charge. He is being represented by a public defender. His attorney could not immediately be reached by Heavy for comment on the case. Salguero-Olivares received the assistance of a translator during the court appearance. His next hearing was set for October 7, 2021.
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