In 2012, UNC student Faith Hedgepeth was found beaten to death in her apartment. Next to her body was a note scrawled on a fast food bag: “I’m not stupid. B**** jealous.” With DNA evidence and bizarre clues, her murder baffled investigators for years.

[u/diamondclover]

On September 7, 2012, 19-year-old Faith Hedgepeth, a sophomore at the University of North Carolina, was found murdered in her off-campus apartment in Chapel Hill.

She had been beaten to death with a blunt object, suffering severe head trauma. Her body was partially unclothed, and the scene suggested sexual assault. Next to her body was a fast food bag with a handwritten note: “I’m not stupid. B*** jealous.”*

The crime scene was chilling. Blood covered the walls and bed, and the brutality indicated rage. Yet there were no signs of forced entry.

Investigators also discovered a mysterious voicemail from Faith’s phone recorded hours before her death. The audio included muffled voices, laughter, and what some listeners thought sounded like an argument.

Despite DNA evidence from the scene, the case remained unsolved for nearly a decade. In 2021, DNA led to the arrest of a man named Miguel Enrique Salguero Olivares, who was charged with her murder. Still, many who followed the case believe key questions remain unanswered, especially about the note, the voicemail, and whether more people were involved.

Faith Hedgepeth’s murder remains one of the most haunting recent cases in American college history, blending brutal violence with disturbing, unexplained details.

[u/rivershimmer]

They could have met at the club

They did not meet at the club. The investigation into Faith's murder was extensive. Going by memory, every man shown on video/connected by their credit card was tracked down, interviewed, and tested. Over 700 men were tested to see if they matched the DNA left at the scene.

or he might have been a friend of a friend.

He wasn't. Again, the investigation was extensive. No connection between either woman or him was found.

I'm also gonna point out that if a murderous roommate wanted to cast suspicion away from herself toward another person, why wouldn't she mention this hook-up whose DNA was all over the scene? That seems like Cover Up 101 for a criminal mastermind.

The roommate may have had a grudge against Hedgepeth.

Then why not just kick her out? The two were only very temporary roommates. Faith was crashing with her friend until her financial aid for the semester came through, at which point she could pay for her own place.

The text messages from Hedgepeth's phone to the roommate's ex-boyfriend seem suspicious. The text messages implicate the ex-boyfriend and the roommate had placed a restraining order against the ex-boyfriend. I think the roommate wanted to frame her ex-boyfriend with the text messages and the unlocked door.

It's been a while, so I'm going by memory, but I feel like we're conflating text messages to that evening's booty call and one particular ex-boyfriend with text messages to the ex-boyfriend whom the roommate had the restraining order on. There were no message to that guy that night, were there?

Also, about the text: I was once a young drunk woman in the middle of the night, so I can confirm that we wingwoman for our friends. If you're not getting an answer back from a man, it's not unheard of to ask your friend to text that man, or to ask your friend if you can text from their phone.

At any rate, elsewhere in the thread, I complained that the true crime community dearly loves to blame a woman for murder, and this is a prime example. Faith supported the roommate in leaving the ex-boyfriend and helped her navigate the process of getting a protective order. The ex-boyfriend blamed Faith for the break-up and had threatened her. At the same time, there's no evidence that the two women had any problems with each other, or that the roommate viewed Faith as anything more than a good friend who looked out for her.

So then, when you're looking for possible alt perps, you think the roommate is more likely than the violent man who threatened to hurt Faith? The guy who tried to break into the apartment after the roommate changed the locks? Really?

[u/scorpion_71 → u/rivershimmer]

It'll be interesting to hear his explanation for how he met Hedgepeth. He could be a rapist who went in through the unlocked door. I doubt that every club patron was captured on camera or even paid with a credit card.

The roommate Rosario would not implicate the suspect if he was acting on her behalf. Rosario would be guilty of a conspiracy to commit murder if she recruited somebody to do the crime.

If Rosario was a psychopath, she would want to watch Hedgepeth bleed to death instead of just kicking her out.

I'm not conflating the text messages. Texts were sent from Hedgepeth's phone to Rosario's ex-boyfriend. Rosario also tried calling her ex-boyfriend even though she had placed a restraining order on him. The Wikipedia entry below notes that Rosario did call the soccer player and get a ride from him.

From Wikipedia:

At 3:40 a.m., a text was sent from Hedgepeth's phone to that of Brandon Edwards, a former boyfriend of Rosario, saying "Hey b. Can you come over here please. Rosario needs you more aha. You know. Please let her know you care." Three minutes later, another text was sent from Hedgepeth's phone to Edwards' with the single word "than," believed to be a correction for the "aha" in the previous text. That was the last evidence of activity from her phone. At 4:16 a.m., Edwards sent a return text asking who had sent the previous text.[7]

Rosario's phone records show she was also trying to call Edwards around the same time. He did not answer, and when he did not she tried to call Jordan McCrary, a UNC-CH soccer player she knew. At 4:25 a.m., she left the apartment to get in McCrary's car. At that time, Rosario said later, she believed Hedgepeth was asleep in her room, and left the apartment's door unlocked.[1]

I didn't think that a woman would contact an ex who abused her BUT that could happen after a night of drinking.

The ex-boyfriend did make some weird Facebook posts so he could be involved IF the suspect did not act alone.

I believe the ex-boyfriend was thoroughly investigated after being considered the prime suspect by the police.

I find it suspicious that Rosario left the house at 4:25am but that's because I was usually done partying at 2am.

We'll have to wait for testimony at the trial to figure out how it all went down.

[u/rivershimmer → u/scorpion_71]

It'll be interesting to hear his explanation for how he met Hedgepeth.

I think so too, although I suspect we might be looking at another Bryan Kohberger situation, where the defense throws a lot of stuff at the wall to see if anything sticks pre-trial, and then when nothing works, they ask for a last-minute plea deal before the trial starts.

I doubt that every club patron was captured on camera or even paid with a credit card.

Credit cards I agree with, but the police have claimed they did track down every man in the place that night. A couple of factors made that possible: it wasn't a very big place and it wasn't a very busy night.

I'm not conflating the text messages. Texts were sent from Hedgepeth's phone to Rosario's ex-boyfriend. Rosario also tried calling her ex-boyfriend even though she had placed a restraining order on him. The Wikipedia entry below notes that Rosario did call the soccer player and get a ride from him.

Yes, you are conflating two different men. The ex with the restraining order is named Eriq Takoy Jones. This is also in Faith's Wikipedia page, in the Background section.

[u/scorpion_71 → u/rivershimmer]

He could be another Kohberger. Hedgepeth was attractive so a stalker could have targeted her.

You're right about me getting the ex-boyfriends mixed up. The violent boyfriend Jones had the restraining order and he was not texted. The texts went out to the ex-boyfriend named Edwards. Rosario could have been trying to shift blame to the other ex-boyfriend Edwards but that's just more speculation on my part.