The Murder of Faith Hedgepeth: The Trial of Miguel Enrique Salguero-Olivares: Day One: Opening Statements and First Witnesses

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[00:01:40] [SPEAKER_06] My name is Anya, and today we're going to be delving into the first day of the ongoing murder trial in the case of Faith Hedgepeth in North Carolina. Content warning, this episode contains graphic discussion of rape as well as murder. So, Kevin, this is a case that has been a long time coming. This is the murder of 19-year-old Faith Hedgepeth that occurred all the way back in 2012, if you can believe that.

[00:02:08] [SPEAKER_06] A long time ago, a case that many people wondered, is this cold? Only to find out in 2021 that they not only had a suspect, but they were charging him. And it was a name that, frankly, nobody really knew about. So it's one of those cases. And because I am always interested in seeing some of these older cases get cleared up, I wanted to follow this trial. I've been kind of looking forward to this in a weird way to see what happened.

[00:02:38] [SPEAKER_06] And can we finally get some answers in this important story?

[00:02:42] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah, I've been following this case for a while, too. And I'm really gratified that we finally reached the stage where it's ready for the trial to begin. A jury has been seated and it's time for opening statements.

[00:02:53] [SPEAKER_06] Absolutely. So, yes, today was the first day of trial. There was a grueling jury selection process. This took, I think, over a week to seat a full jury and several alternates. So that's a bit unusual. But now both prosecution and defense had their chance to actually sit down and lay out their cases in their opening statements. We are going to talk about those today. We are going to talk about the underlying case.

[00:03:21] [SPEAKER_06] And we are also going to talk about the first two witnesses that were called today and look at some of the most impactful moments from across this first day of trial. My name is Anya Kane. I'm a journalist.

[00:03:33] [SPEAKER_00] And I'm Kevin Greenlee. I'm an attorney. And this is The Murder Sheet. We're a true crime podcast focused on original reporting, interviews and deep dives into murder cases. We're The Murder Sheet.

[00:03:45] [SPEAKER_06] And this is the murder of Faith Hedgepeth. The trial of Miguel Enrique Salguero Olivares. Day one. Opening statements and first witnesses.

[00:04:42] [SPEAKER_06] Before we get to talking about what happened today at trial, I want to tell you all a bit about Faith Hedgepeth. Because she, of course, as the victim, is the person that we should absolutely be centering in this story. And she really sounds like an amazing person. Faith was only 19 when she was murdered, but she had made such a big impact. She was from an extremely close-knit family. They absolutely loved her.

[00:05:06] [SPEAKER_06] She was considered academically gifted, brilliant young woman who really was caring about other people and passionate. I believe at one point she wanted to be a pediatrician. At other times maybe she was thinking about being a teacher. But either way, she wanted to work with children and make a positive impact on her community. She was a member of the Halewa-Saponi tribal community in North Carolina.

[00:05:30] [SPEAKER_06] And then got an opportunity to study at the prestigious UNC Chapel Hill campus, so University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. And when she was murdered, she was a sophomore there. So she was kind of in that community for a while, made a lot of friends, and was enjoying the typical college experience when unfortunately that was brought to an abrupt end.

[00:05:49] [SPEAKER_06] So Faith was murdered on September 7, 2012, and was found dead in an off-campus apartment near the Durham-Chapel Hill border. And one of her friends and her roommate at the time, Karina Rosario, were the ones to discover her body, a very traumatizing event for them. And for many years, this has just been speculated about. We've seen true crime podcasts about it. We've seen people asking who killed Faith Hedgepeth.

[00:06:18] [SPEAKER_06] How could something so brutal happen to this beautiful young woman? And we not have any answers. It's just one of those frustrating cases. But on September 16, 2021, you know, almost on the anniversary of the murder itself, I believe it was nine years and nine days exactly after her death, police ended up arresting a man named Miguel Enrique Salguero Olivares. At the time, he was 28 years old. He was living in Durham, and he was charged with first-degree murder.

[00:06:48] [SPEAKER_06] However, additional charges would follow. I believe he ended up also getting hit with a sexual offense charge and burglary. So it's one of those things, though. People might be wondering, well, okay, 2021, and we are currently in October of 2026. Kevin, how could that be? How could we be this far out and still not have a trial? And rather, it's only just beginning.

[00:07:12] [SPEAKER_00] It investigations take a lot longer than we would like, especially if there's no obvious connection between the victim and the perpetrator. and even once an arrest is finally made, the criminal justice system moves very, very slowly. And it's also important to keep in mind that police do not want to make an arrest until they feel confident they can get a conviction

[00:07:39] [SPEAKER_00] because if they bring a person to trial too soon and that person ends up getting acquitted, they've lost their chance to get in forever.

[00:07:46] [SPEAKER_06] Why is that? Why don't they get another shot at it?

[00:07:49] [SPEAKER_00] Double jeopardy. What does that mean? Double jeopardy means a person cannot be brought to trial for the same charge twice. So if you've been acquitted, you're done.

[00:07:58] [SPEAKER_06] So in other words, it really behooves a prosecutor to do everything right the first time.

[00:08:05] [SPEAKER_00] Exactly.

[00:08:06] [SPEAKER_06] Because there's not going to be a second time, most likely, if things go wrong.

[00:08:09] [SPEAKER_00] Exactly.

[00:08:10] [SPEAKER_06] All right. Let's talk about the different teams at the heart of this. And then what we're going to do is we're going to actually play some clips from the various aspects of today's day of trial. And we are going to kind of discuss them, react to them, get our thoughts out there about those moments. So the defense attorney team for Salguero Olivares are James Rainsford. He is the one you're going to be hearing from today. This is the attorney who delivers

[00:08:39] [SPEAKER_06] the opening statement for the defense. You also have Christopher Barnes and Jason Murphy. So they're seated with their client. You're seeing them throughout the day. The representatives of the state in the form of the prosecutors are Angela Garcia Lamarca. She is the one you're going to be most hearing from. You are going to be hearing her deliver the prosecution's opening statement. You're also going to be hearing from Lisa Coltrane. She is a special state prosecutor who sort of specializes in homicides. And Brooke Stone is another Durham assistant district attorney

[00:09:09] [SPEAKER_06] along with Garcia Lamarca. So those are the two teams. And then, of course, we would be remiss to not mention the judge that is Keith O. Gregory. He is the superior court judge in Durham presiding over this trial. So that is who you need to know about throughout this. Today is October 7th, 2026. This is when it's all kicking off. We spent the day watching this. We're going to be spending many days watching this trial

[00:09:37] [SPEAKER_06] and discussing it all with you, hopefully afterwards, unless something goes horribly wrong. Hopefully that won't happen. But yeah, we're going to be doing that. And I guess let's get into it. Let's hear from Ms. Garcia Lamarca, the Durham County Assistant District Attorney. And let's get into her opening statement and analyze it and see what information surprises us from this and how we think she did.

[00:09:59] [SPEAKER_01] The evidence in this case is louder than the noise around it. Listen to the evidence, not the noise. Faith Hedgepeth was 19 years old in September of 2012. She was a student at UNC. She came from a very loving family, part of the close-knit community, the Halawa-Saponi tribe in Hollister, North Carolina, which she grew up.

[00:10:29] [SPEAKER_01] She was going to be the first person in her family to graduate college and she was on track. In 2017, 2012, the defendant wrecked into her apartment, beat her in the head, sexually assaulted her, and left bludgeoned, bledied, dead or still dying, alone.

[00:11:02] [SPEAKER_01] He also left his DNA. He left his DNA on a murder weapon of a Cardi-Rum bottle that was otherwise covered in blood. He left his DNA on the boxer shorts Faith used to sleep in. He left her used, bledied tampon on the floor next to the bed and he pulled it out of her body. He left his DNA inside her vagina. Casino and Sparrow.

[00:11:33] [SPEAKER_01] He left his DNA inside her neck. Casino and Sparrow. He left his DNA and his palm print and his left palm print on a blue recently bottle that was found on the floor at the foot of the bed. He left his DNA on a white paper food bag that still had a partially eaten sandwich on inside of it. With a note, he left the person who got her body.

[00:12:03] [SPEAKER_01] I'm not stupid. Bitch. Jealous. Disequals to mine and after over a dozen times, men and some men are terrified women and won't laugh at him. Make them feel stupid. Women are terrified and in kill to rape them.

[00:12:25] [SPEAKER_06] All right. So, already a very, very disturbing glimpse into what happened to this 19-year-old young woman as she seemingly slept in her bed where she should be safe in her apartment. And what the state is alleging is that this man broke in, sexually assaulted her, raped her, and murdered her.

[00:12:52] [SPEAKER_00] And it sounds like they have some pretty compelling evidence.

[00:12:55] [SPEAKER_06] What makes you say that?

[00:12:56] [SPEAKER_00] The DNA.

[00:12:57] [SPEAKER_06] Why is that important?

[00:13:00] [SPEAKER_00] I think for the lay person, whenever they look at a criminal trial, they want to see DNA because they recognize that that is the gold standard and that if you leave your DNA at the scene or in a location, it proves that you were there.

[00:13:15] [SPEAKER_06] And one thing that's going to come up and I think it's going to be for me if I had to encapsulate the biggest hurdle for this defense team is DNA is circumstantial. Okay? DNA can be in any place for an innocuous reason. So, if I go over to my best friend's house where I'm old, I'm over there all the time and I leave a palm print with touch DNA on her fridge door,

[00:13:45] [SPEAKER_06] that doesn't mean I did anything bad, right? I mean, there could be any sort of innocuous explanation. But when you have someone who is a stranger to the victim, who is leaving DNA in their body in the form of semen, sperm, everything she mentioned in the form of, like, in the context of it's in her vagina, it's in her rectum, that speaks to a sexual assault because the alternative

[00:14:14] [SPEAKER_06] is that this young, beautiful 19-year-old college student, while on a night where she was busy taking care of her best friend who was drunk and struggling and emotionally distraught and then getting ready for school the next day on that night, she was also just suddenly randomly hooking up with a man who she has no contact with, there's no evidence of contact with him, and is just randomly doing that

[00:14:43] [SPEAKER_06] and doing all sorts of, you know, types of sex with him. And I think that is a really, that is a really tough thing to really get your head around. Yes. Is it possible? Sure. But if it was possible, you think there would be some evidence from the defense about it, maybe they'll raise some good points. I'm not, I'm certainly not saying we should make our minds up. I'm just saying, like, they were gonna have to, whatever went wrong in this investigation that led to it taking all these years to solve, whatever happened,

[00:15:13] [SPEAKER_06] that is such a bad fact for this defense team that it sort of feels like that must be what they are contending with and what they must be thinking about as far as, like, their biggest hurdle. One thing that I think we see in a lot of opening statements is that attorneys will actually try to get ahead of the bad facts. If there's something coming, especially for a prosecutor that might make their side or the police or the prosecutors look bad in front of a jury, they're gonna be the ones to bring that up.

[00:15:43] [SPEAKER_06] Why is that important? Why wouldn't you just try to talk around and pretend like it doesn't exist?

[00:15:47] [SPEAKER_00] Try to ignore it. Because when it comes up, you want the jury to see it through your eyes and through your filter. So you prepare them for it and you explain why in your view it's not a big deal.

[00:16:00] [SPEAKER_06] Okay. That makes sense. And because I think the jury likes you for it because they're like, oh, they're being honest. They're not trying to sell me on something. They're like, they're opening up on what's not so good or what maybe went wrong. But it also, if you can spin it first, then you win because it's like, you know, you're the one who kind of put it in their minds and framed it and then it's gonna be harder for the defense to make as big of a deal of it. We love looking good and saving money.

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[00:21:14] [SPEAKER_06] All right. So now we are going to hear from Garcia Lamarca about why this case took so long and why it proved to be such a struggle for the police agency that took it on.

[00:21:27] [SPEAKER_01] That he was a stranger is no reason. It took years to find him. Because from the jump within a few weeks of face murder they have this single male DNA profile inside her body discovered by the forensic pathologist who did the swabs of her vagina and her rectum and it has DNA all over the country. They knew they had

[00:21:56] [SPEAKER_01] to find the man who left his DNA. Chapel Hill PD investigated this case because it happened in Chapel Hill town but upper Durham County. Not this which was in Durham but Chapel Hill PD investigated the case. Chapel Hill PD y'all is a small town police department and like two or three workers a year.

[00:22:21] [SPEAKER_06] What do you make of the prosecutor describing the police department that way?

[00:22:29] [SPEAKER_00] I think basically it's a way to set expectations. Don't think there's going to be like huge crime labs with lots of resources like you might see on television. Instead think more like this is a smaller town department that they're not used to investigating major crimes so lower your expectations a bit.

[00:22:49] [SPEAKER_06] People should lower their expectations about the behavior of these dogs during this video. Should you ask Nick what he thinks about this?

[00:22:56] [SPEAKER_00] No I think we're good.

[00:22:57] [SPEAKER_06] Okay. So yes so they're talking about they had this bombshell evidence they had this single male DNA profile that could lead back to a suspect and they did the right thing by focusing on people in faith circle because typically with murders you're going to be murdered by someone you know someone who you have some contact with.

[00:23:20] [SPEAKER_00] Whether it's an intimate

[00:23:21] [SPEAKER_06] partner a friend somebody like that. So in this case though it was one of the rarer ones they believe now it is a stranger homicide and that really hurt them. I would still be curious and I'm sure the defense will get into this why it did take so long because prior to 2021 we'd already seen a lot of progress made with different DNA technologies and genetic genealogy leading back to families gosh

[00:23:51] [SPEAKER_06] this dog this dog we can't do anything he just wants to kiss you good lord okay so yeah but we've seen that so I'd be curious like was it just that his family wasn't in some of the genetic genealogy were they just not online in that sense that they couldn't match it or I'd love to know more about that I'm sure we're going to learn more as we get through the whole case because the nice thing about a trial is a lot of these questions are just

[00:24:21] [SPEAKER_06] going to be answered and we're kind of going into it a bit cold I think you and I both kind of you're setting expectations

[00:24:47] you're

[00:24:47] [SPEAKER_06] writing checks that hopefully you will cash you don't want to basically say you're going to see this this and this

[00:25:08] [SPEAKER_01] and then single solitary male DNA profile everywhere including inside Dave's body and also analyze the DNA that came from this of his chain you'll hear from the forensic scientist about the palm print and the thumb print you've never found on the recent time you'll hear from the forensic pathologist

[00:25:38] [SPEAKER_01] who is the woman who conducted the autopsy of Dave's body and confirmed that her cause of death was blunt force trauma due to the DNA you'll also hear from a member of the defendant's family his brother-in-law Elvis who will tell you Elizabeth about the defendant they came here in 2010 from Guatemala they

[00:26:15] [SPEAKER_01] language classes and English and there were a number of families from Guatemala who worked at the out state house and they and other people from Guatemala lived alive in the apartment complex were the basement

[00:26:36] [SPEAKER_06] so what do you make of this sort of outlining of what we're going to see

[00:26:42] [SPEAKER_00] and that's typically what you expect to see from prosecutors in an opening argument because otherwise you're just going to be throwing random facts and witnesses at people and they won't have any idea what they're supposed to take from it so they're basically saying here's what we're going to show you and here's why we're going to show it to you here's how we hope that fits together I

[00:27:05] [SPEAKER_06] was especially intrigued about hearing about this defendant's family being from Guatemala being in sort of this close-knit Guatemalan community in the Durham area and having relatives living in this apartment complex because even though obviously DNA puts somebody at a scene it does raise questions like why was he there why would he go there why would he target this if he is the guilty party and if the answer

[00:27:35] [SPEAKER_06] is just another thing that the jury might find that coincidence too hard to believe right so I thought that was interesting so we're going to hear one more thing from prosecutor Angela Garcia LaMarca and then we can

[00:28:04] [SPEAKER_01] fit fit of rage not because he knew her not because of who she was she was loved by everyone who knew her he didn't do this to her because of who she was he did it because of who he is and you will see you may not see or hear evidence about what exactly precipitated his rage but you

[00:28:34] [SPEAKER_01] crept into her apartment under cover of darkness he walked past the kitchen took two bottles off the counter and bottle and the blue rings of the

[00:29:04] [SPEAKER_01] them off the body and they were found on the floor pulled up her arm and was still inside you'll see that he ripped the tanwha out of her vagina through one of the side next to her feet and he forced his penis into both her vagina and her rectum and he still had enough rage left they took the time to write a note so everybody would know I'm not bitch

[00:29:36] [SPEAKER_01] walk like a whisper back into the dark

[00:29:38] having

[00:29:40] [SPEAKER_01] left behind the most important witness you will have in this trial his own DNA his own friends he's not complicated he's devastating it's horrifying it's a family force nightmare one who will never be from but it's also simple it is

[00:30:10] [SPEAKER_01] the evidence is loud and dear and if you listen to it you will hear and you will be fully satisfied that you know the truth the simple truth that the defendant is guilty of murder he is guilty of sexual offense he is guilty of rape and he is guilty of the murder

[00:30:39] [SPEAKER_01] of

[00:30:45] [SPEAKER_06] concludes it what did you think of that

[00:30:48] [SPEAKER_00] i thought it was a very strong opening statement i like that she said this wasn't about who she was it's about who he was that in other words it's not her fault this happened to him to her it is because of him and his awful traits

[00:31:02] [SPEAKER_06] yeah and to me one thing that disturbed me was you know we're watching this on court tv love that court tv streams these the problem with that is then you have to see the comments underneath that and i saw people saying why would someone just come in

[00:31:32] [SPEAKER_06] this all the time now that doesn't mean that this man is guilty i'm not saying that it's too early to say we have to wait for the facts to come

[00:32:02] [SPEAKER_06] one woman could be a stand in for another woman that they're mad at in their own life so i mean there's any number of reasons but i think i would hope people would recognize that that stuff does happen and yeah i thought that angela garcia lamarca did a great job with this i thought she was very easy to follow she told a story it was a devastating story she was emotional without

[00:32:32] [SPEAKER_06] overly relying on emotion and she laid out the facts in a way that seems like it's going to be very difficult for the defense team to overcome that's where i stood on her performance i thought it was good and it left me being like okay what's the defense going to come out with and i think we're going to hear that now so as i mentioned james rainsford is the attorney giving the opening statement for the defense this is an opportunity for the defense to muddy the waters to

[00:33:01] [SPEAKER_06] maybe ding the police and to actually call into question some of the things the prosecutor said no no she's overstating it it's not as clear cut you need to do this and the thing that often you see defense attorneys do is remind the jurors of the burden of proof can you talk about the burden of proof and why a defense attorney might be very keen to remind everybody about that

[00:33:27] [SPEAKER_00] basically for the government to take away someone's liberty or in some cases their life that's an awesome use of government's power so we don't want to make it too easy because if it's too easy for the government to do that they will end up using that power against innocent people you want to make it as hard as possible and that means the government has the burden of proof in these cases they have to demonstrate beyond reasonable doubt that a particular person is

[00:33:57] [SPEAKER_00] guilty of the crime charge otherwise they must be acquitted and so the defense attorneys always want to remind the jury don't convict unless you're convinced beyond a reasonable doubt otherwise gotta let him off the hook

[00:34:13] [SPEAKER_06] for lay people reasonable doubt does that mean any doubt like if I can came in and did the crime the

[00:34:25] [SPEAKER_00] key word is reasonable it must be a reasonable doubt not beyond all doubt

[00:34:30] [SPEAKER_06] so yeah that's something and that you know I think people's mileage may vary on that though so let's hear from this

[00:34:54] [SPEAKER_04] this is it you know you know or a bar of food down out to that will you see potentially video footage of the food lighting and it is well time stands it off on video footage not 15 minutes instead we have a pretty good idea what time it entered the club they say for a little so

[00:35:28] [SPEAKER_06] what this defense attorney is going to proceed to do is offer the jury someone else to focus their suspicion on this can be a really helpful thing because when you have a heinous case I think sometimes there's a perception that juries might be uncomfortable with just letting someone off the hook it's like this is so awful they're going to see awful images of the crime scene they're going lady faith who had everything going for her and didn't deserve this

[00:35:58] [SPEAKER_06] and it's a boon to a defense attorney to say hey my guy is not the one you should be mad at look over here is that fair to say yeah

[00:36:08] [SPEAKER_00] that's a common strategy it's

[00:36:10] [SPEAKER_06] a good strategy it's a

[00:36:11] [SPEAKER_00] great strategy it

[00:36:12] [SPEAKER_06] kind of deals with the psychology of wanting to blame someone for bad things happening so who is Rainsford's target well it's going to be Karina Rosario Karina Rosario I mentioned I believe earlier she was the roommate of Faith Faith had moved into Karina's apartment and they were living together and by all accounts they were also extremely close friends they're really dear friends

[00:36:41] [SPEAKER_06] but in the years since this case has gone unsolved I myself have listened to podcasts where people speculate a lot about Karina's actions that night picking apart the 911 calls she made and raising questions about maybe she's a suspicious one so it

[00:37:13] [SPEAKER_06] facts where there is no sexual assault that might be more effective because it's like okay if we can pick apart this other person maybe the jury does get to reasonable doubt when you have clear indications of a sexual assault which is all over the place here and of a stranger and his presence in the apartment I think this is maybe the best they can do but it just

[00:37:43] [SPEAKER_06] it's like okay yeah but that doesn't explain the semen you know like that I mean what is your thought yeah

[00:37:50] [SPEAKER_00] I think what you're saying makes a lot of good sense

[00:37:52] [SPEAKER_06] I'm open minded to good idea for the general viewing public to take every single assertion super seriously because I think that can lead to some pretty dark places and accusing people who don't deserve it let's go back and hear more from Mr. Rainsford

[00:38:39] [SPEAKER_04] 420 in the morning she made a few texts she doesn't make any calls until about 4 o'clock she texted the guy in prayer in air and she texted him about 445 saying goodnight and all of a sudden phone called about 4 o'clock in the morning please come get text him please come get it now he went about 15 minutes

[00:39:08] [SPEAKER_04] away he lived on Long Street Chapel Hill and this apartment was in Durham County just over the lines of about the 15 minute drive Mrs. Rainsford says that during the summer she was sitting on the floor in the bathroom no gut no one back in the bedroom didn't wash her hands didn't brush her teeth and she said she had vomited and

[00:39:38] [SPEAKER_04] remember that she stands up walks straight outside gets in Jordan's car when he pulls up and leaves although I didn't hear the opening statement was that Jordan picked her up he noticed something he felt like he had to tell the police light and so on evening September 7th 2012

[00:40:08] [SPEAKER_04] Jordan Freary called a police and said listen I don't know what you did in the morning then she told me to call you if I remembered anything about last night but I want to tell you is this when I picked up a train and she got out of the car I looked over and she was doing something to her hand and she said why did I put on me and I

[00:40:38] [SPEAKER_04] asked her Jordan says he said I asked her yeah why give the blood on me he says she checked all

[00:41:03] [SPEAKER_06] right so what do you make of that fact that's coming out now through the defense's opening statement that the roommate who was with her that night she over the course of the evening is texting with a soccer player Jordan McCrary and asks to go out with him in the middle of the night early in the morning he picks her up and then he claims to police later that she may have had some blood on her finger

[00:41:30] [SPEAKER_00] well this is one of those facts which might mean a great deal or might mean nothing at all and this is the beauty of our adversarial system both sides get to present their strongest possible evidence and try to poke holes in the other side strongest possible evidence so basically we're going to have to wait and see and

[00:41:50] [SPEAKER_06] we're actually going to hear from Karina Rosario in this episode because she is one of the first witnesses to get on the stand and talk so we're going to assess ourselves what she might so you know one thing as I mentioned Mr. Rainford certainly is focusing on the state has the burden he says things like okay the state says that he was a stranger to her

[00:42:20] [SPEAKER_06] and his DNA is there make them prove it so he's he's very much saying you know we can't just take their word for it you have to really demand the most from the state to me that's somebody who's in a really bad position with DNA

[00:42:35] [SPEAKER_00] personally yeah that's fair to say

[00:42:38] [SPEAKER_06] I think like something where it's like well actually he met her online and they had a dating relationship and they hooked up a couple times and that's probably why his DNA there wasn't anything bad it was consensual and then you know that happened earlier and then she was murdered after that that would be something that would be you know a big deal for the defense but prove it seems a little bit like okay I don't know juries seem to really like DNA so I don't know how that's going to go over

[00:43:09] [SPEAKER_06] but I thought was interesting we so frequently hear prosecutors in cases that are not forensically rich we hear them saying don't fall for the CSI effect you know not everything is CSI in this case we're going to hear something similar from the defense so let's hear that

[00:43:49] [SPEAKER_04] everything else is enormous except it's not furthermore only one small spot in this runoff that had blood on him tested for 13 years and all of a sudden the defense said when he tested the rest of the spot so the laws were taken on the remainder of this runoff battle and connected to the defendant and it's not even said

[00:44:19] [SPEAKER_04] they could have tested that bottle waiting back when you hear there's a mixture of multiple multiple sections of alleles are missing all these areas of the bottle could have been tested were not tested I'm asking you to look the like through that I heard a fellow counselor say his HHS tampon was found on the ground and

[00:44:52] [SPEAKER_04] the evidence in this case is that there was a tampon found on the ground there were two profiles only one profile was a full genetic profile my client was slew from that the other DNA that was on a small portion of the

[00:45:23] [SPEAKER_06] right so we're hearing kind of the reverse of the arguments against the CSI effect we're hearing sort of the reverse against what we normally hear about the CSI effect we're hearing a defense attorney say hey just because there's DNA that doesn't mean everything and I think his points are good I think he's trying to muddy the waters with you know hey only a small portion of

[00:46:02] [SPEAKER_06] nobody knows who he is so it you know but he's trying what do you think of this defense attorney's performance in the opening

[00:46:10] [SPEAKER_00] I think he's doing a pretty good job

[00:46:12] [SPEAKER_06] I actually enjoy his sort of world weary demeanor he has that kind of like you know kind of vibe and I like that you know I like that more than the bombastic thing you see sometimes from some defense attorneys clips but he also takes pains to really go after law enforcement talk about how they lost swabs they lost this they lost that so generally I feel like he's doing an effective

[00:46:42] [SPEAKER_06] job whether he will be over he and his colleagues will be the

[00:47:32] [SPEAKER_00] basically as you say you want to tell the story that means you don't start with the last chapter you have to build up to you have to create a foundation you have to demonstrate why certain facts are important so to some the opening of a trial can seem pretty boring but it's usually very important by the end of it

[00:47:55] [SPEAKER_06] yes and in this case and in some other cases we've seen it can really help and go a long way with the jury to humanize the person at the center of this which of course is Faith Hedgepeth the victim in this case this is a young woman who has not gotten to live her life she's not gotten to do whatever she wants to do have a wonderful career meet somebody get married have a child do or whatever she wants to travel and

[00:48:30] [SPEAKER_06] who can speak to this person's personality and make the jury care show the jury why this matters and just tell you a little bit about this victim so that you can come to relate to them and the person who sort of fulfills this role and that we're going to hear from in a moment is Alexis Evans so

[00:49:00] [SPEAKER_06] Faith was only a year older than Alexis because she had a much older sister and in addition to that they both shared the same birthday so they were extremely close and they were best friends and they loved each other and that really comes across in Alexis testimony we're going to hear from Alexis now who is going to describe the last time she ever heard from Faith this was over text shortly before her murder do

[00:49:28] [SPEAKER_01] you remember

[00:49:28] [SPEAKER_06] the last

[00:49:29] [SPEAKER_05] time you communicated with her that week yes I actually got a text message from her the night before I think it may have been around 11 o'clock sometime between 11 and midnight and she just randomly texted me and asked if I was registered to vote registered to vote yes oh was she worried about me voting maybe I was 18 at the time so she was thinking about that and I so

[00:50:11] [SPEAKER_06] we're kind of getting to know faith a bit through someone who loved her kind of getting her personality she's civically engaged she's politically engaged she's looking out for her family she's a little bit snarky which we love and I think this kind of thing can be very effective and it's not necessarily pertinent to the crime so much but it does set up who she was what she was doing and Alexis Evans was also able to testify that she had never heard of the defendant before so again it's kind

[00:50:41] [SPEAKER_06] of putting him more in that stranger category no one is coming forward and saying actually no she did mention meeting this guy and their friends or they were romantically engaged in some capacity so it serves factually and for the overall story about why this matters so the next witness who I think is going to be a really key witness in this whole thing was as I mentioned Karina Rosario this was the last witness of the day I believe she will be coming back to

[00:51:11] [SPEAKER_06] do more what we really saw today was the direct examination from the state but of course she will be cross examined and based on the opening I think Karina Rosario will be cross examined pretty extensively by the defense if they're trying to set her up as the villain they're going to want to really go back and forth with her for a while so this is not the last we've seen of her we're going to see more but for now at least we got through part of the direct examination from what we could tell from the prosecution's perspective I'll ask you this

[00:51:41] [SPEAKER_06] Kevin is it fair do you think my analysis is correct that they're probably going to go hard on her and cross

[00:51:46] [SPEAKER_00] yes that is definitely what I would expect so

[00:51:49] [SPEAKER_06] with that said why do you think the prosecution is

[00:52:08] [SPEAKER_00] you have to remember that no one knows the strengths and weaknesses of the other side's case more than the prosecutor knows what the defense is going to do the defense is going to know what the prosecutors do so they

[00:52:38] [SPEAKER_06] she was extremely intoxicated the night of all of this happening so on some levels some of her recollections are limited but what she does remember is important for establishing some kind of timeline of what happened so it's still important to put her out there it's still important and also she knew faith very well and we're going to hear that and we're going to assess her emotions about this whole situation first we are going to hear her talk about what faith was

[00:53:08] [SPEAKER_06] like

[00:53:09] [SPEAKER_02] faith was super bubbly she was the kind of soul um she always made you laugh she would come up with goofy dances and just the way she would say my name like I came from New Jersey so like I thought you know in the south all of the accents were just like her voice was soothing to me I guess um

[00:53:39] [SPEAKER_02] and she just had this way about making you feel comfortable with her um easy to open up to easy to love just an easy friend

[00:53:52] [SPEAKER_06] so we're seeing pretty clearly the emotion and devastation from this witness just even recalling what faith was like I think that's powerful for a jury to see especially if the you're covering it up but if the jury are getting to see her crying reacting in all these ways that really speak to someone losing someone she loved I think that's that's a that goes a long way

[00:54:21] [SPEAKER_06] so at this point Karina gets into some of the issues she was dealing with at the time where the murder happened so basically what happened was she had been living in this apartment in Durham County with her boyfriend that relationship according to Karina turned abusive she even described an incident where that boyfriend tore the door off the bathroom because she

[00:54:51] [SPEAKER_06] was bad and she ended it and what ended up happening was around that time Faith needed a place to live she had broken her lease she was having trouble with affording everything it can be expensive she was working at Red Robin and working a lot of hours while going to school so they what they decided to do is let's just move in together so Faith came to live with Karina they were really close they were very close friends at this point they had traveled together they did everything together they would hang out constantly so it probably just seemed

[00:55:21] [SPEAKER_06] like a good fit and I mean in some ways it was kind of like your hectic college situation like they showed pictures of their living situation and you basically have like two apartments worth of stuff piled into one apartment there's just piles everywhere of clothing and whatever a college student has it's very messy it's chaos and what Karina said it was our chaos we knew where everything was we got along great we weren't

[00:55:51] [SPEAKER_06] fighting we weren't any issues it was just how we were living she was obviously embarrassed about how messy it was but you know having been a college student myself many many years ago I can say that I mean well my room was a disaster area but I would say that you know this sort of thing is not terribly when I saw it I was like yeah that looks pretty I've seen worse so they're doing that and so now they're

[00:56:21] [SPEAKER_06] living together in this apartment complex these are exhibits a trial and you're sort of seeing the various ways this apartment looked how messy it was how chaotic and jumbled it was there's only one bedroom right so these two young women they would actually share the bed and it

[00:57:08] [SPEAKER_06] was set so we learned about her abusive relationship and she also testifies to other things going on with her at this time she had had an intimate relationship with another individual named Brandon Edwards they had had again an intimate relationship and as a result of that relationship Karina had become pregnant and the week before the murder had actually gotten an abortion and

[00:57:37] [SPEAKER_06] that's you issue but for a lot of people that can be traumatic she testified that she felt that she wasn't getting a lot of support from Brandon over what was a difficult situation for her and she was devastated by that and in addition to

[00:58:09] [SPEAKER_06] she had felt very close to his family so seeing that person really I think triggered her as well so she's dealing with the after effects of this abortion and the situation with Brandon she's dealing with the ex boyfriend situation her claims of abuse seeing his family who she had felt close to and feeling very alone feeling very unloved and she says that as a result of all of these chaotic things going on in her personal life she became

[00:58:39] [SPEAKER_06] incredibly intoxicated that night she said that she's not typically someone who would drink to the point of throwing up but she became very sick she and Faith were out at the thrill until closing time at around 2 a.m. and Faith was the designated driver so Faith was not partaking but Karina as they left as she describes and we're going to see this in a moment became you know very inebriated I was

[00:59:06] [SPEAKER_02] starting to kind of get into like a headspace where I was just not really okay so but at that time it was already almost I think like around 2 a.m. 2.15 so the bar was getting ready to close so Faith and I just packed it up and we walked across the

[00:59:36] [SPEAKER_02] street to the parking garage and I just started breaking down crying and

[00:59:46] I

[00:59:48] [SPEAKER_02] I just remember her holding my hands like and just telling me everything was going to be

[00:59:53] [SPEAKER_03] okay and she was just like great it's going to be fine and we got in the car

[01:00:07] [SPEAKER_02] and we love to go back to the apartment

[01:00:14] [SPEAKER_01] do you remember that

[01:00:15] [SPEAKER_02] drive time no I don't know what we talked about I just know that I had this feeling just feeling sad I was feeling nauseous I was

[01:00:38] [SPEAKER_06] responded she remembers some of the feelings but a lot of the specific things they were talking about are elusive which Kevin you've never drank alcohol really but I can definitely tell you yeah like this sounds like a college experience where you're with your friends at the club someone's crying like things can get very emotional very messy memory can be extremely difficult to hold on to if you're dealing

[01:01:08] [SPEAKER_06] with people who are intoxicated none of this really strikes me as weird or surprising and also once you throw alcohol into the mix people's behavior just goes out the window inhibitions are out the window what you normally do is out the window it's just I don't know speaking from some experience so here is what Karina says she ends up doing next as far as this evening she and Karina go home she remembers throwing up into

[01:01:38] [SPEAKER_06] a waste basket in the apartment and then she ends up going off to what she considered her

[01:02:00] [SPEAKER_02] and he wasn't answering me and he wasn't picking up and then I was also texting Jordan at the time I think me and Jordan were not talking very often so like me seeing him at the thrill just kind of reminded me of good times with him because he had always been really

[01:02:23] [SPEAKER_03] nice to

[01:02:24] [SPEAKER_02] me

[01:02:24] [SPEAKER_03] and

[01:02:26] [SPEAKER_02] he had always been

[01:02:27] [SPEAKER_03] very supportive and kind

[01:02:31] [SPEAKER_02] and I was just kind of venting to him and telling him all the things I had gone through because I think at the time I had told him about my ex and that relationship and I just wanted him to

[01:03:01] [SPEAKER_01] who had you gotten pregnant by is that why you were trying to go

[01:03:07] [SPEAKER_02] yes

[01:03:10] [SPEAKER_01] and did Brandon ever respond that night

[01:03:13] [SPEAKER_02] no

[01:03:15] [SPEAKER_01] who was responding to you Jordan how were you feeling about being

[01:03:38] [SPEAKER_02] I was venting and I realized that Jordan was still up and it looked like Brandon wasn't going to respond to me and I had really wanted to kind of just in a way escape of it and just have somebody that was going to kind of just be

[01:04:08] [SPEAKER_02] presence if that makes sense like I felt like I had a bad relationship I had bringing I felt like neglecting me and I just wanted just somebody to kind of feel a bit loved by I guess

[01:04:27] [SPEAKER_06] so I mean I mean this is very raw emotional testimony obviously it's very

[01:04:32] [SPEAKER_00] sad

[01:04:32] [SPEAKER_06] it's very sad it makes me extremely sad for her I she's a very young woman extremely intoxicated and desperately seeking male validation she feels rejected and harmed by a number of different men in her life and she's basically casting out to find some man who will make her feel loved and that's Jordan McCrary he's the one responding to her and it breaks my heart I mean

[01:05:02] [SPEAKER_06] it's a really sad situation and it's made all the more tragic by then what she's probably had to live with since because by dint of her getting out of the apartment and leaving she left you know she left Faith there and and then what happened happened and certainly that's the fault especially since I feel like there's definitely been a lot of

[01:05:32] [SPEAKER_06] accusations around her when I see people being like this story doesn't make sense I don't know I think anyone who's ever been a drunk college girl could probably tell you it makes some decent sense I think it in a

[01:06:03] [SPEAKER_06] and raw witness so far so maybe things will go differently on cross but I find her compelling and I find her believable what do you think Kevin

[01:06:32] [SPEAKER_06] yeah

[01:06:33] [SPEAKER_00] I find her very believable

[01:06:34] [SPEAKER_06] we've all known someone like this or maybe people have been someone like this you know like I I feel like I've seen situations in college where you know someone's kind of spiraling and texting an ex or doing you know things that might not be the best idea running around and it just didn't end in tragedy right so it's very sad so she ends up going off with Jordan she texts him to pick her up

[01:07:05] [SPEAKER_06] and get her the defense tried to portray that as some kind of really suspicious thing like why did she want to go off with him but

[01:07:39] [SPEAKER_06] what she said it was around 2 a.m. 2 15 a.m. bar is shutting down she and Faith head out and then she spends much of the evening in the bathroom kind of hunched over texting and crying with these various men mostly Jordan who's the one who's actually responding to her and she leaves the apartment at around 425 in the morning so Jordan McCrary picks her up in his car they go to his apartment so

[01:08:08] [SPEAKER_06] I believe the surveillance footage puts them leaving around 2 06 the club so by 3 a.m. they're back at the apartment and 425 she's out of there so at that point Faith is left alone in she has classes around 11

[01:08:38] [SPEAKER_06] a.m. and she has some papers due that day the way she says she would write up her papers is she'd write them by hand and then would type them afterwards so she's got them written out but she needs to type them up and she needs to do it fast because they're due today and class is at 11 so what she does is she needs they would often leave the door unlocked because

[01:09:08] [SPEAKER_06] they only had one key so it was easier sometimes to just leave it unlocked because otherwise you know they're having to trade off the key a lot it's kind of a mess which is kind of what you see with college students you know so she's trying to get a hold of Faith and is not getting a hold of one point was like oh she's calling her she's blowing up her

[01:09:38] [SPEAKER_06] phone why and to me like actually a college student who has papers due who's kind of panicking what she said is I didn't want to get into a situation where Faith has already come to campus away from our off campus housing and like I missed her so I so let's hear what I'm going to do next for these papers so when

[01:10:12] [SPEAKER_01] you walked in did you notice anything unusual about the apartment

[01:10:18] [SPEAKER_02] initially nothing really out of the ordinary I just saw that the bathroom light was on and I just remember thinking that maybe she was up and about and had gotten ready for the day

[01:10:33] [SPEAKER_01] and when you first walked in what were you doing or where were you going

[01:10:38] [SPEAKER_02] I went straight back into the bedroom to grab myself for school

[01:10:43] [SPEAKER_01] and where was all of that

[01:10:45] [SPEAKER_02] she was right behind me

[01:10:49] [SPEAKER_01] and when you walked into the bedroom what did you see

[01:10:59] [SPEAKER_02] so I walked in the comforter was off of the bed it looked like it was pushed over to the left side on the floor and I just saw a couple of spots of blood and I walked around the bed and I saw her

[01:11:30] [SPEAKER_02] and I saw that she had a black eye

[01:11:33] [SPEAKER_03] and she wasn't wearing anything from the waist down and her shirt was pulled all the way up she was of the bed

[01:11:57] [SPEAKER_02] kind of I couldn't tell she was fully flat on the gap between the table or whatever was over there I don't know where did you see blood I saw blood on her arm I believe and then I saw blood on the walls and the

[01:12:27] [SPEAKER_02] bed

[01:12:28] [SPEAKER_06] it really speaks to a very brutal crime scene

[01:12:31] [SPEAKER_00] yeah it's horrifying to contemplate walking in on something like that

[01:12:36] [SPEAKER_06] yeah especially with someone you deeply care so they call the authorities there's a 911 call that's kind of infamous I believe and people often talk about how she doesn't sound right in it I think people put way too much on that kind of thing I

[01:13:13] [SPEAKER_06] say in a compelling computer, everything. Basically, whatever they asked her, according to at least this direct

[01:13:43] [SPEAKER_06] examination, she did. So why is that important to establish if you are the prosecution?

[01:13:50] [SPEAKER_00] You want to make it clear that the person has been fully cooperative, hasn't acted like they

[01:13:54] [SPEAKER_06] are trying to hide anything. Yes. And part of that was going into the station and being photographed immediately after the murders to show that she had no injuries on her body. Why is that important?

[01:14:07] [SPEAKER_00] Because if she had had some sort of suspicious new injuries on her body, it might raise the

[01:14:13] [SPEAKER_06] question that perhaps she was involved. Let's hear one more moment from this testimony,

[01:14:20] [SPEAKER_01] and I think then we can wrap up. After that initial interview on September 8th, 2012, did you meet and talk with law enforcement again? Yes. Do you know how many times?

[01:14:36] [SPEAKER_02] Too many to count. It was a lot, either over the phone or they would have me come down to the station, and then throughout the years, they would reach out to me.

[01:14:50] [SPEAKER_01] Why did you meet with law enforcement at the same time? Because I wanted to be helpful.

[01:14:56] [SPEAKER_02] I didn't want to know what happened. How did it feel not knowing what happened to Faith? Um, it felt like I was going crazy then. It felt like I was living in a nightmare. It felt like, like, one day, just like a normal college student, and the next, it felt like my whole life was with my dog.

[01:15:22] [SPEAKER_03] And the one person that I wanted there to be, there was a evil song.

[01:15:30] [SPEAKER_06] My heart goes out to this woman, and to me, this is all, in some ways, very reminiscent of some of the things that happened around the University of Idaho murders, which, of course, the murders of Zana Karnodal, Ethan Chapin, Madison Mogan, and Kaylee Gonsalves. And we don't mention the perpetrator in that, because who wants to remember that loser? But in that case, you had their surviving roommates who came into a great deal of scrutiny and speculation.

[01:15:58] [SPEAKER_06] And in my mind, it's appropriate for the police to speculate and scrutinize and investigate those individuals, because they're close to the situation, and maybe their stories don't add up. But that's the job of police. It's not the job of an online mob to condemn people without evidence. I think that is totally antithetical to our whole system and kind of wrong. And I think it's bloodthirsty, and it happens too often in true crime.

[01:16:27] [SPEAKER_06] So in this case, in both cases, you had intoxicated young women doing things and people getting confused about it afterwards without seeming to really look at the context at all. And I think the context is important. But in this case, maybe there's information that the defense has that will turn some of this on its head. I don't know. But so far, I found her to be a very credible witness and somebody who seems like they were going through a lot,

[01:16:56] [SPEAKER_06] and that may inform some of their more erratic or confusing behavior. Right? If I suddenly left her house at 425 a.m., that would be weird.

[01:17:06] [SPEAKER_00] That would be weird.

[01:17:07] [SPEAKER_06] Because I don't do that. But if I was walking the streets at 3 a.m., that would be weird because I don't do that. But I will tell you, I did that a lot in college. I used to walk around Colonial Williamsburg at night to clear my head after production night on my campus newspaper because I was like, whoa, that was a lot. And then I'd go decompress in Colonial Williamsburg at 3 a.m. If I had been murdered while that was going on, I'm sure a lot of people would be like, why was she out at 3 a.m.? That's so weird. But, like, I mean, that's just what I was doing.

[01:17:36] [SPEAKER_06] College is a different country. Like, you're doing different things in college. Things are – you're feeling these adult feelings for the first time and have the freedom to act upon them, and sometimes you're making a mess. And so I think it's important for people to remember that while we're looking at a case like this. But we can still be open-minded to what the defense has to say, and we're going to hear from them on cross probably pretty soon, hopefully. And, yeah, this was the first day of trial. These were the moments that stuck out to me.

[01:18:04] [SPEAKER_06] I hope that everyone found them informative and, like, you got something out of hearing us analyze them, and we'll keep covering this case going forward.

[01:18:13] [SPEAKER_00] Sounds good.

[01:18:14] [SPEAKER_06] Awesome. Well, thank you all so much.

[01:18:16] [SPEAKER_00] Thanks so much for listening to The Murder Sheet. If you have a tip concerning one of the cases we cover, please email us at murdersheet at gmail dot com. If you have actionable information about an unsolved crime, please report it to the appropriate authorities.

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[01:19:00] [SPEAKER_00] Special thanks to Kevin Tyler Greenlee, who composed the music for The Murder Sheet, and who you can find on the web at kevintg dot com.

[01:19:10] [SPEAKER_06] If you're looking to talk with other listeners about a case we've covered, you can join the Murder Sheet discussion group on Facebook. We mostly focus our time on research and reporting, so we're not on social media much. We do try to check our email account, but we ask for patience, as we often receive a lot of messages. Thanks again for listening. Thanks for listening.