Roommate Recalls 'Earth-Shattering Moment' Finding Faith Hedgepeth Dead

Karena Rosario, the roommate of Faith Hedgepeth, a University of North Carolina student who was murdered, delivered emotional testimony recounting the moment she found her friend dead in their off-campus apartment. Hedgepeth, 19, was discovered naked and beaten on the morning of September 7, 2012.

During the opening day of Miguel Enrique Salguero-Olivares's trial, 33, who is accused of Hedgepeth's murder and rape, Rosario described the scene. "I walked in. The comforter was off of the bed. It looked like it was pushed over to the left side on the floor. I just saw a couple spots of blood," Rosario testified. "I walked around the bed and saw her hair. I pulled the comforter down, and I saw that she had a black eye. She wasn’t wearing anything from the waist down and her shirt was pulled all the way up."

Next to Hedgepeth's body, investigators found a note written on a fast-food bag that read: "I'm not stupid b***h jealous."

Rosario spoke of the events leading up to that morning, including a visit to The Thrill nightclub in Chapel Hill. She described Hedgepeth as being like a sister to her. Around 3 a.m., Hedgepeth drove them back to their apartment. Rosario testified that her memory of the rest of the night was unclear due to alcohol consumption, but she recalled being in the bathroom and contacting friends via text. She stated that a friend, Jordan McCrary, picked her up from the apartment around 4:30 a.m. Rosario did not recall Hedgepeth responding when she announced she was leaving.

Rosario and Hedgepeth shared one apartment key, with the understanding that the last person to leave would lock the door. The following morning, Rosario attempted to call Hedgepeth from McCrary's house. Receiving no answer, she became worried that Hedgepeth had taken their shared key to class. Another friend, Marisol Rangel, picked Rosario up, and they returned to the apartment.

Upon their arrival, they noticed the bathroom light was on. "We’re walking through, we get to the bedroom and all you could see was just blood everywhere. Faith was wrapped in a comforter. And so, we just froze and we had to call for 911," Rangel told the court.

Rosario recalled touching Hedgepeth and finding her cold. When Chapel Hill Police arrived, Hedgepeth had already been pronounced dead. Rosario expressed her devastation, saying, "I felt like I was going crazy. I felt like I was living in a nightmare. It felt like one day I was a normal college student and the next my whole life was flipped upside down, and the one person I wanted to be there with me was not."

Rosario eventually left UNC but returned to finish her degree a year later and now resides out of state. Following the crime, investigators did not make an arrest for nine years. Salguero-Olivares was taken into custody on September 16, 2021. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder, first-degree rape, first-degree sexual offense, and first-degree burglary.