Murdered UNC student Faith Hedgepeth’s roommate recalls earth-shattering moment she found her dead
The roommate of murdered UNC student Faith Hedgepeth recalled the earth-shattering moment she found the young woman’s dead body.
Karena Rosario, 34, was called to the witness stand by prosecutors and delivered an emotional testimony after opening statements concluded on Wednesday morning.
She spoke as Miguel Enrique Salguero-Olivares, 33, appeared in court for the first day of his trial in connection to the murder and rape of Hedgepeth.
Hedgepeth, a 19-year-old junior, was found by Rosario, naked and beaten to death in their off-campus apartment on the morning of September 7, 2012.
A taunting note the killer etched on a fast-food bag and left next to the young woman’s body was also found, reading: ‘I’m not stupid b***h jealous.’
Investigators made no arrests for nine years until Salguero-Olivares was taken into custody on September 16, 2021.
More than a decade after the crime, Rosario detailed the tragic moment she found her friend dead in their apartment during her testimony.
‘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 said.
Karena Rosario, the roommate of a murdered UNC student, Faith Hedgepeth, recalled the earth-shattering moment she found her dead body, while speaking on the witness stand
Hedgepeth, a 19-year-old junior, was found by her roommate, naked and beaten to death in their off-campus apartment on the morning of September 7, 2012
‘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,’ she said.
She shared details about the events leading up to Hedgepeth’s death and the last night her friend was seen alive during their visit to The Thrill nightclub in Chapel Hill.
Rosario described Hedgepeth as sister to her and said: ‘She just had this way about making you feel comfortable with her.’
She testified about feeling upset that night, which prompted Hedgepeth to drive them both from the nightclub back to their apartment around 3am.
‘I just remember her holding my hands and telling me everything’s going to be okay,’ Rosario said in court.
The roommate recounted the story while in tears on the stand and visibly overwhelmed with emotion.
Rosario informed the jury that the amount of alcohol she drank made her memory fuzzy, but that she remembered sitting in their apartment bathroom while calling and texting multiple people.
She said that Jordan McCrary, a friend, had picked her up from the apartment around 4.30am and brought her back to his home.
Miguel Enrique Salguero-Olivares, 33, appeared in court in North Carolina for the first day of his trial in connection to the murder and rape of UNC student Faith Hedgepeth
Hedgepeth’s killer left a note to next to her body, reading: ‘I’m not stupid b***h jealous’
She testified she did not remember Hedgepeth responding to her when she announced she was leaving the apartment. Rosario said she did not take the door key with her.
Rosario confirmed that she and Hedgepeth shared one key to their apartment, with the last person leaving held responsible to lock the door.
On the morning Rosario found Hedgepeth, she said she attempted to call her to pick her up from McCrary’s house. She received no answer and said she called multiple times out of worry that Hedgepeth had taken their shared apartment key with her to class.
Rosario was eventually picked up by Marisol Rangel, another friend, before arriving back to their apartment. Rangel also testified in court on Thursday morning and explained details about that night.
When Rangel and Rosario arrived, they noticed the bathroom light was on. They found Hedgepeth’s body drenched in blood along with the walls and bed.
‘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 said.
Rosario said when she touched Hedgepeth she felt cold.
When The Chapel Hill Police arrived at the apartment, Rosario said she asked them if they were going to call an ambulance, but that Hedgepeth was already pronounced dead.
‘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 said.
She testified that after Hedgepeth’s death she had left UNC but returned a year later to finish her degree and now lives out of state.
According to WRAL, Rosario’s testimony continued on Thursday morning alongside McCrary, Ervin Mitchell, a security worker at The Thrill nightclub, and other witnesses at the stand.
Since being arrested and charged in 2021, Salguero-Olivares has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, first-degree rape, first-degree sexual offense and first-degree burglary.
