Faith Hedgepeth

On the morning of September 7, 2012, 19-year-old Faith Danielle Hedgepeth, a sophomore at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was found dead in her off-campus apartment at the Hawthorne at the View complex. She had been beaten and sexually assaulted. A handwritten note on a brown paper bag near her body appeared to contain a threatening message.

Faith, a member of the Haliwa-Saponi tribe of North Carolina, had been out at a nightclub with her roommate the night before. DNA evidence was collected at the scene, including a male profile that did not match anyone in law enforcement databases. The case generated significant attention on campus and in the Haliwa-Saponi community.

For nine years, the DNA profile went unmatched. In 2021, Chapel Hill police partnered with Parabon NanoLabs to conduct genetic genealogy analysis on the DNA. The technique identified the DNA as belonging to Miguel Enrique Olivares, a man who had lived in the Chapel Hill area at the time of the murder but had no prior connection to Faith.

Olivares was arrested in September 2021 and charged with first-degree murder and first-degree rape. He was convicted in 2023 and sentenced to life in prison. The case was a landmark for the use of investigative genetic genealogy in solving cold cases and brought long-awaited justice for Faith's family and tribal community.