Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - FINALLY JUSTICE: Arrest Made for the Murder of 19-year-old UNC Student

Episode Date: November 19, 2021

Faith Hedgepeth, 19, is found by her roommate, covered in blood, inside her North Carolina apartment. Autopsy reports show the college student was beaten to death, sustaining severe head injuries. Investigators said an empty liquor bottle found near the body is used in the crime. For nine years, the investigation yields no suspects, but now an arrest has been made.Joining Nancy Grace today: Connie Hedgepeth - Victim's Mother Wendy Patrick - California prosecutor, author “Red Flags” www.wendypatrickphd.com 'Today with Dr. Wendy' on KCBQ in San Diego Dr. Angela Arnold - Psychiatrist, Atlanta GA www.angelaarnoldmd.com, Former Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Obstetrics and Gynecology: Emory University, Former Medical Director of The Psychiatric Ob-Gyn Clinic at Grady Memorial Hospital Dr. Todd M. Barr, M.D. - Deputy Medical Examiner/Forensic Pathologist at Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office (Cleveland OH) Sheryl McCollum - Forensic Expert & Cold Case Investigative Research Institute Founder, ColdCaseCrimes.org Sarina Fazan - Four-time Emmy Award-Winning TV Anchor & Reporter, Sarina Fazan Media, sarinafazan.media, Podcast: "On The Record with Sarina Fazan" @sarinafazannews, YouTube: Sarina Fazan TV Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A beautiful young UNC co-eds murder her family distraught. What happened to Faith Hedgepath? Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Indira 911, where is your emergency hi um i just walked into my apartment and my friend just like to be unconscious okay what's your address ma'am

i live at hawk at this view. Give me the address. I just moved here. I'm about to get it. Oh, my God. It's 5639 Old Chapel Hill Road in Durham. Okay, you say your friend is unconscious? He's unconscious. I just walked in the apartment and there looks like there's blood everywhere. Okay, listen to this.

You are hearing the 911 call made by Faith Hedgepath's roommate. You know, that's one of the first things I like to play for a jury because it takes you to the moment, to the scene of the crime, and very often you learn things you can't learn later as a trial progresses. Take a listen to more of that 911 call. Faith Hedgepath, a co-ed there at UNC, found unconscious in the floor by her roommate. Listen. How old is she? She's 19. Okay.

I don't know. I don't want to touch her, but... Listen to me. Is she breathing? I don't know. You need to check and see. Is she breathing? Kate, I don't think so? I don't think so. I don't think so.

Okay, listen to me. There's blood everywhere. There's what? There's blood everywhere. I don't know what happened. I'm trying to understand what the roommate is seeing. You know, very often it's critical in what position the victim has been found. Has this scene been staged in any way? Take a listen to more of that 911 call.

Okay, is she on her back or is she laying on her stomach? She's on her back, but, like, I think she fell off the bed because she's like off the bed. There's blood all over the pillows, like in the cup from there. I just don't know what happened. Okay. All right. Listen to me. All right.? Is someone coming? Yes, I've got somebody coming. I've got somebody coming. I need for you to help her. I need for you to go up to her. We need to see if she's breathing or not.

Okay? I don't think so. Okay. Listen to me. Go up. The paramedics are on their way you're hearing the 911 dispatcher trying to give instructions to faith hedgepath's roommate who has discovered her she thinks she's unconscious she's not she's dead faith hedgepath just 19 years old found dead in her apartment that she

shared with the roommate on September 7th. Classes were just kicking into that time at very popular UNC. Joining me, an all-star panel to make sense of it all. First of all, Wendy Patrick, California prosecutor, author of Red Flags, and you can find her every day on Today with dr wendy kcbq san diego dr angela arnold renowned psychiatrist joining us from the atlanta jurisdiction uh weighing in her website angela arnold md.com dr todd barr deputy medical examiner forensic pathologist at the medical examiner's office cheryl mcc, founder and director of the

Cold Case Research Institute. You can find her at coldcasecrimes.org. Serena Fazan, four-time Emmy Award-winning TV anchor and reporter, star of On the Record with Serena Fazan. But first, I want to go to a very special guest joining us. It's Connie Hedgepath. This is Faith's mother. Connie, thank you for being with us. You're welcome. You know, I've always wanted to ask you a question. How did you pick the name Faith for Faith Hedgepath?

At that time, when I found out I was pregnant, there was trouble in my marriage. And I had to leave after she was two months old. My husband, he was on drugs. And so I had to leave when she was two months old. And I knew it was my faith in God that got me through it, so I named her Faith. You know, it's interesting, Connie, that everyone has a reason behind the name they choose for their child, and I've always wondered about why you named her Faith. We were just playing that 911 call, and I want to apologize for any hurt that it causes you, but we have to confront the evidence head on.

Do you remember when you were contacted and told something had gone very wrong? Yes, it was just like it was yesterday. I was at work, and I was getting ready to have a meeting. I was the human resource manager at Lowe's in Rnit Rapids, North Carolina. And one of my managers came to me and told me that one of my co-workers, which he worked part-time, and he worked with the Runnit Rapids Police Department, he needed to see me. And so I went in the manager's office and closed the door, and he told me that he had a lady on the phone from Chapel Hill Police Department that wanted to speak to me.

Can I ask you right there, when you were told that, did you get any feeling or hunch? No, I mean, I just wonder, was it something about faith? But, you know, I didn't know what it was about. So, and of course, you know, that doesn't enter a parent's mind that their child is dead. But anyway, so when I picked up the phone, or when he came in the phone, she asked me, did I know Faith Hetchbest? And I said, yeah. And she said, how do you know her? I said, she's my daughter.

And she said, well, I'm sorry to inform you, but Faith is dead. Oh, my goodness. And I said, no, she's not dead. You must have the wrong person. You know, it can't be her. And she said, it is her, and we have ID'd her, and we need you to come to Chapel Hill. When had you last spoken to her?

I spoke to her, the last time I spoke to her was, that was on Friday. And I had spoke to her on Tuesday, which was my birthday. She had called me and wished me a happy birthday at work. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, we are talking to Connie Hedgepath. This is Faith's mother joining us. You know, to you, Cheryl McCollum, you can learn a lot about your victim and what you learn about your victim projects what you learn.

It unveils evidence that you use to determine who is the assailant. Because this is what I learned about Faith Hedgepath. Faith, of course, gorgeous, beautiful brunette, young girl, just 19 years old and very, very smart. I don't know if you knew this, Cheryl, but she had actually won a scholarship to study biology at UNC Chapel Hill. And her dream was to become a doctor. Not only that, she worked as a waitress and had come out of school because her caseload was so heavy. She didn't have time to study as much as she wanted to. What a dream child to have a child that wants to study more. And then she went back and still with the scholarship and she was considering teaching.

I mean, everything about her was good and wonderful. And that tells me a lot, Cheryl. This is not a young girl who was experimenting with alcohol and drugs and men and staying out all night partying. This is a girl that actually wanted to study even more. And that rules out a lot of possibilities. It rules out a lot of possibilities and a lot of people. Let's just say she wasn't coming out of a bar at 4 a.m. and got kidnapped. Exactly. So you and I would spend a lot of time looking at suspect pools.

So if somebody were, you know, using or dealing drugs, if somebody were, you know, dancing at a club for a living. You mean a stri stripping people. I can't believe you of all people are mincing words, but go ahead. But again, I mean, it matters because you're exposed to people that have a criminal element. And I want to be clear. One victim is not more important than another victim because they are more saintly. What I'm saying is, it's all about the evidence for me, Cheryl.

Who, as you said, who was she exposed to? What's my pool of suspects? Go ahead. Because that's where it starts. If she were, you know, she was in the library earlier that day. Yeah. Okay, so she's around other students that are studious and, you know, trying to get their work done. Then, you know, she's with her roommate.

Again, limited access to people. Very limited. She was at a rush event. Those are very specific people. The majority are going to be women. So, again, her suspect pool is very small here. She's been exposed to very few people that would have a criminal element. You know, let's start at the beginning. Maybe Cheryl McCollum, director of the Cold Case

Research Institute and forensics expert, maybe we jump the gun. Let's go to Serena Fazan joining us, investigative reporter on the record with Serena Fazan. Serena Fazan, thank you for being with us. Let's just start at the beginning. And I want you to hear Serena before you kick it off. Take a listen to more of that 911 call. Listen carefully. She's not moving. Okay. And will you touch her arm? Tell me, how does she feel? Okay, ma'am, we need to find out if we can help her or not you've got to you know do as i'm asking so we can help her all right okay if you can lay her flat on her back. Remove any pillow.

Leave her flat on her back. Flat on her back. Remove any pillow. Okay. Okay. Kneel next to her. Look in her mouth for food or vomit. Okay. Kneel next to her. Look in her mouth for food or vomit. Tell me something. Listen to me. Listen to me. What is your name? I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. It's okay, honey. It's okay, honey. Listen to me. Okay. All right. All right. All right. Let me go straight out to Dr. Todd M. Barr,

joining us, Deputy Medical Examiner and Forensic Pathologist. Dr. Barr, thank you so much for being with us. I've got a question. Why is that so important? First of all, in my mind, 911 operators, you know, God bless them. But what they're asking the person, unless you're trying to explain how to do CPR, they ask the most inane questions like, well, who was with her earlier today? Tell me her DOB. Just all kind of, let me just say, obscure facts. When the person is clearly going out of their mind, you hear the roommate keeps saying there's blood everywhere, there's blood everywhere. But in this case, she's trying to tell the roommate, Karina, how to perform CPR.

We heard her state, put her on a flat surface. What's the point of what the dispatch is telling her? Well, Nancy, I think the reason she wants her flat on the floor is that in case there's any evidence that she might even be breathing shallow, that CPR could be started. And if she's in an awkward position, like hanging over the side of a bed or curled up under or something to that effect, it's not effective to do CPR at those positions. So I think she's trying to calm the roommate down by asking her these mundane questions and to get the body positioned in an area where CPR would be most effective. Now, my only concern is if in fact the young lady is not breathing, then moving her around and dragging her around is only going to confound the evidence that's there at the scene.

Guys, what are we learning from the fact that there is blood everywhere? What that's telling me, Wendy Patrick, is it's a stabbing or a shooting, or it could be blunt object. You know, it also tells me that this killing took an amount of time. In other words, it wasn't one gunshot. It wasn't one stab. It was something that was prolonged over time. And that's one of the clues right from the beginning. You know, we talk about ear witnesses, eyewitnesses. This was something that over the course of time should have been noticed, heard, seen, experienced by somebody else in the building. So that's what we learned by the amount of blood. And I have to agree with

the doctor here. Moving the body around might do exactly that. Obscure whatever important evidence that blood pattern can tell us. We're about to learn a little bit more. Take a listen to this. Listen to me. When you touch her, how does she feel? Does she feel warm? No, she feels cold. She feels cold? Okay. Yes. Okay. All right. Don't touch anything else. Okay? Don't touch anything else. I'm so angry. I'm in a hurry. Okay. They're on their way. I've got police on the way to you, and I've got medics on the way. I can't believe this. Okay.

I can't believe this. Okay. What room is she in? She's in my bedroom. Okay. I want you to go back into the living room, okay? What room is she in? She's in my bedroom. Okay, I want you to go back into the living room, okay? I don't know what's going on. Okay, listen to me. There's someone in my room that, like, was not here before. Okay, listen to me.

It looks like someone had came in here. Okay, okay. It really does. So she's saying it really does look like someone has been in the room. We also heard earlier it looks like she, quote, slid off the bed. Was there a rape attempt? And what does it say that she is already cold to the touch? What does that say to you, Cheryl McCollum?

It's going to give them a time of death, Nancy, because, again, she's already cold to the touch. There's blood everywhere. So the 911 operator at this point knows what she's dealing with. This is not someone that is unconscious. This is someone that is no longer alive. So they're going to start their investigation at that moment and then back up several hours. Well, it tells me something completely different. It tells me she has been dead for a while. I got to figure out the last time that roommate saw her. I got to figure out the last time she was seen anywhere. Did she make a cell phone call? Did she make a credit card transaction? Did she use her ATM? Did she use one of those cards to get in and out of a parking garage? Because based on cold to the touch, she has been dead for hours.

Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. To our special guest joining us, Dr. Todd M. Barr. Why do I care about the timeline? Because it could help reduce the number of suspects that would have been around her. Dr. Todd Barr joining us, a deputy medical examiner out of Cleveland. Dr. Barr, she's in ambient air. So we know that the apartment is probably somewhere between, let's just say, 69 and 72. How long?

And this is the scene of the crime based on all the blood. She was not killed somewhere else and dumped there on her bed. That didn't happen. So we know she's killed in the apartment. We know the approximate temperature. How long would that take for her body to go completely cold to the touch? We just learned that in the 911 call. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of variables involved in that, what she was wearing at the time. I have a hard time, you know, after everything I've read about this case, the feeling that she was absolutely cold to the touch. I have a hard time believing that since it couldn't have been more than just a few hours,

as far as I understand. And the other thing that I just quickly wanted to mention about moving the body, you know, some of those things, even like with blood spatter on the wall and blood cooling on the floor, is the blood coagulated or is it still liquid? Are there drag marks through the blood indicating that maybe the body was moved at some point? And by moving the body to the floor and trying to attempt CPR, those are some of the things that I was mentioning that might be obscured in the process. But as far as being cold to the touch, you know, that would take a number of hours to get to that point because your body only decreases in temperatures like one to two degrees every hour or so. So it would take quite a while. Yes, jump in. And I agree with Dr. Barr.

Go ahead. I do too. Doctor, she was only wearing a t-shirt that was pulled up over her head. And also from 3 a.m. the last time she was seen, it was 11 a.m. the next morning. So approximately eight hours. But what I'm saying is, of course, I'm just a JD. I'm not an MD. But doctor, she was already cold to the touch, cold.

That's what the roommate said. So her body had had time to decrease from 98.6 to, what would you say would be cold? 60? 60 degrees? You know, it would take a lot longer than eight hours to get to 60 degrees. That's my only concern. How about 70? Yeah, I mean, 70 to 80 degrees. I mean, she could certainly have, you know, if her murder had happened relatively, you know, eight hours earlier, there's a good chance she could be cold to the touch by the time someone got to her. Yep, yep. But it wouldn't have happened within just one or two hours prior.

Right, so that's really narrowing down the time of death. We know that there's blood everywhere. We hear Serena Fazan describing that. I want to know something more about the apartment. Connie Hedgepath, this is Faith's mother. Ms. Hedgepath, what can you tell us about the apartment? Have you ever seen it?

Yes, we went in it to get Faith's things out of it. What kind of area, what part of town was it in? Good area, bad area? What? It was a good area. It wasn't that far from school.

Gosh, how many apartments have I dragged from all my junk from one apartment to the next, trying to get cheaper rent around undergrad and law school? And you think, you know, and this is a common misperception, Dr. Angie Arnold, psychiatrist, joining us out of the Atlanta jurisdiction. You drop your children off at school or at their off-campus apartment and it's near campus and you think, okay, that's safe. Yeah, it's not.

You know, and also, Nancy, think about the fury that you're in when you're dropping your child off at campus. We just took my kid over to Georgia Tech this weekend. There are tons of kids. I'm not groaning about Georgia Tech. I'm groaning about the thought of leaving the children. Go ahead. And there are just tons of kids. I'm not groaning about Georgia Tech. I'm groaning about the thought of leaving the children. Go ahead. And there are just tons of kids walking around.

And, you know, they're moving into a new place. I don't think people are really paying as much attention as they should to what's going on because there's excitement and there's fear. And so, you know what? You don't pay as much attention to everybody that is around you as you should. And, I mean, Nancy, the cases that I've had of my young college students that come to see me, oh, my God, that their apartments have been broken into and whatnot. I will tell you, Wendy Patrick, I am handing out your book to every college student that comes to see me. I lived in some real doozies just to get the cheaper rent and they were not in safe areas. But according to Faith's mom, Connie, and she's right, by the way, this was a low crime area

just off campus. So you'd think she's safe. Okay, so what happened? Was there a shooting? Was there a stabbing? Was there a bludgeoning? Well, listen to our Cut 12, our friends at 20-20. When police arrive, they see an empty bottle of rum.

It was covered in blood, blood smudges. It was a brutal, brutal death. Did it seem like there was forced entry going into the apartment? No, there is no sign of forced entry. Semen is also discovered on Faith's body. Investigators use it to generate a DNA profile. They're convinced that DNA belongs to the killer

and that he may also have perpetrated a sexual assault. Is it more likely than not that she was raped? Yes. In the search for Faith's killer, that DNA profile will become sort of a glass slipper. But who will fit it? You are hearing Chapel Hill Police Lieutenant Salisa LaHue speaking to Ed Lopez. Serena Fazon. So there was a rape and the murder weapon was a rum bottle. Explain.

A rum bottle, a Bacardi peach rum bottle. Nancy, can you imagine? And they found, as you just heard in that snippet, they did find forensic evidence on that rum bottle. But what this indicates is that this was an extremely violent attack and perhaps a personal one. Did they get any fingerprints off the rum bottle? From as far as I know, they didn't get fingerprints, but there was plenty of tissue fragments and DNA on it. And Connie, I know this is very hard to hear and we do apologize, but they had a lot of DNA and tissue fragments enough to compile a pretty good portfolio. I mean, they interviewed— You're talking about a DNA profile when you say portfolio.

Yes. Cheryl McCollum, not only director of the Cold Case Research Institute, but forensic expert, the reality is this ain't this guy's first time at the rodeo, OK, this guy is either raped or attacked before or he's done it since. Just just rapists can't help themselves. They will do it again. I guarantee you his DNA is somewhere else to be found. Absolutely no question about it. It actually surprises me they don't have other unsolved cases with a matched DNA

of this perpetrator. That's shocking unless he's in prison for something else. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, we're looking at all angles about how this gorgeous 19-year-old UNC University North Carolina co-ed was brutally murdered. And we got one answer, Serena Fazan. She was sex attacked. Yes, she was. I mean, very sadly, detectives did find semen on her body. They, you know, found tissue fragments.

They found blood under her fingernails. So she fought hard. Also on the scene, a mystery note. Take a listen to our cut 13, our friends at 20-20. What was some of the most important evidence that you collected from the bedroom? There was a biscuit bag that was from Time Out restaurant. Time Out is very popular in Chapel Hill, and it's immediately identifiable. Faith had gone out the night before, stopped at Time Out, and brought food back to the apartment.

But now, that same bag contains five angry words. On the bag was some writing that said, I'm not stupid bitch jealous. What did you make of that? Obviously, big evidentiary value. The note is found on the bed. It is written in pen. Police say both the note and the pen

have the killer's DNA on it. So police believe he wrote it. But here's a puzzle. While the room is covered in blood, the note is not. Police say the cleanliness of the note suggests the killer's hands, once bloodied after using the bottle as a murder weapon, didn't flee immediately.

Instead, he may have taken his time to wash his hands and write that five-word screed. Adding to the mystery, police can't say for sure who the note was left for. As to the intended target, per se, about the note, there were two residents there, and it would make sense the note was left for one of them. So a note that was clearly placed after the murder because everything else in the room was spattered with blood, but not the note.

Take a listen to what Faith's father says. I cut 14. You're listening to a voicemail that came from Faith's phone on the night of the murder to her friend, Una Chavis. It was probably unintentional, the result of an accident we've all made. She's notorious for doing a bullet dial phone call where she accidentally calls somebody with the phone in her pocket, so I just assumed that was what it was. If it sounds undecipherable to you, you're not alone. But when we brought Roland into WTVD to tell us what he hears, he was unequivocal. I hear screaming in the background, his face voice. We're screaming.

Please. Get off me. Rowan's assessment is simple. His daughter is in grave danger. This is my baby girl's voice, and I know her voice. You're hearing our friend Ed Lopez at 2020 WTTV. Also, now take a listen to our friends at Crime Watch Daily. Does this audio recording, a pocket dial, actually record Faith's murder?

Do you believe what you're listening to here is Faith being murdered? Yeah, I do. There's a critical moment of this recording here where, and it's so difficult for me to read out even the transcript to you, but there's the words, I think she's dying and do it anyhow. I feel like Faith's being restrained at that point based on what I'm hearing now. Okay. Listening to that, do you recognise Faith's voice? When she says, ow, I know it's Faith. And I have no doubt what's where. Faith's family cringing with every graphic, brutal detail.

There's the phrase, I can't believe you did it, Rosie. What are your thoughts on that statement? My initial impression from that statement is that the female herself has done something at that point too, Faith. Either has hit her in the head or whatever. To me, it sounds like three against one. Straight out to Connie Hedgepath, this is Faith's mother joining us. That call was about 2.59 a.m. And it seems to suggest there's more than one person there. And it also seems that she's saying it can't be you.

Did it Rosie? Who's Rosie? I have no earthly idea. To Serena Fazon, what are we learning from this cell phone? Did a garbled pocket dial from her cell phone actually catch, capture the sound of Faith, hedge pass, murder. What about it, Serena? Well, Nancy, you know, there's been a lot of debate over that phone call, over that

very phone call, because some argue that the phone call was timestamped at 1.23 a.m. And at that time, she was at the Thrill, which is that dance club. I know Roland is convinced that that was during the time of her death, but there's been a lot of debate over exactly what time that phone call was taken. Very, very chilly, clearly, though. To Cheryl McCollum, weigh in on this cell phone call. Well, it's obviously disturbing, but again, it goes to the timeline, but they have got to find out exactly when that came through.

Then kind of, you know, there's more to this note to me, Nancy, than the butt dial. The note is there. The note is absolutely something we know is connected. The way it's written, the lack of blood tells me one of two things. He could have cleaned up and written the note afterwards, or he could have brought it with him. It could have been something he wrote sitting in his car, watching her. So we don't know when it was written, but to me that would be very critical. But the words on it, you know, calling the victim a bitch, saying that they're jealous. I mean, those are things

that are very concerning. And again, I agree with you. This is not his first rodeo. He's going to continue if he's out. He's going to continue to harm people. You know, to Cheryl's point, to Cheryl's point, Nancy, you wonder whether or not what you hear on the call is inconsistent with the notes because you have the note. It sounds like it could be a jealous motivation and maybe he wrote it first, like Cheryl was saying, that's why there's no blood. But then if you listen to the call, it might not really corroborate jealousy having been the motive.

If there are more people there, though, there's more of a chance that someone's going to talk, that somebody is going to implicate somebody else. So that's another piece of evidence. You know, let this be a lesson to anybody that thinks that it's as easy as finding DNA to find a suspect. You know, it's very difficult for me to believe, Wendy Patrick, that with DNA from the semen and obviously the killer was holding a rum bottle and you've got handwriting that they can't catch. Fate, the Hedgepast killer.

Yeah. And, you know, this is one of the things that is always challenging. Sometimes when jurors watch too much CSI or some of these other crime forensic dramas that make it seem like it's as easy as finding a DNA sample and developing a subject. You might develop a suspect profile, as they did in this case, but that doesn't necessarily mean you're going to find the suspect right away. But this case and the chronology shows all the other clues we have to keep in mind in order to bring justice. To Connie Hitchpath, this is Fate's mother. Connie, we talk sometimes about Fate as if she were a specimen because we're really analyzing the evidence. I want you to tell me your most vivid ones is the way she just carried herself, just kind of bouncing around. And, you know, when she came home, she would always say, you know, Mama, give me love.

And we hugged each other. If we sat down and watched TV, she would lay on me. And we just lay there together and watch TV on the sofa. I mean, I'm sitting up and she's laying on me, you know, and I just miss her hug, you know, talking with her. I just miss her so much. And we talk about the bud call. I mean, you know, a lot of times, you know, like, you know, they say it was from the club, but in the timeline.

And, you know, I had gotten a new phone, but I went back and looked at my text messages back and forth to her way back in March. And I went all the way back to March looking at them. And I was noticing how the timeline as far as the stamp on my phone, was totally off. We didn't talk at 3, 4 o'clock in the morning. And that's some of those timelines that I saw. And even on that Sunday, I wanted her to come home because we were meeting my son in Richmond. We were going to eat out for my birthday, but she had to work. And so we called each other maybe four times that morning, or called each other that morning and that evening. But she came home that evening when we got back and she came with Corrina. They wrote together

and she came to my daughter's house and we sat there and talked and she sat in the floor and played with the dog and you know, when I go down to my daughter's house, I can just see her in the floor playing with that dog, you know. But, you know, that was the last time that I saw her was that Sunday evening. Where does the case stand now? Take a listen to Crime Online's John Limley. After nine years, investigators are announcing a major break in the Faith Hedgepeth case,

and a Durham, North Carolina man is now behind bars. That man is 28-year-old Miguel Enrique Salguero Olivares. He's charged with first-degree murder in Hedgepeth's death and is being held without bond. For more, here's WNCN-TV's Mackenzie Stasko. Chapel Hill police aren't releasing much, but they ultimately say DNA collected from the scene those nine years ago ultimately led them to the suspect. Now, police would not say how long Olivares was living in Durham when he was arrested today or if he knew Faith, but again, say that the DNA collected from the scene, with that, they were able to make a match.

And Chapel Hill police say this case is far from over, and that they are still currently pursuing other potential leads, not ruling out other people potentially involved in this case. Meanwhile, Olivares is being held in the Durham County Jail without bond. Now, it's interesting to note that, as McKenzie said, investigators are not closing the book on this case, going so far as to say they believe there are others out there that could have been involved in Hedgepeth's death.

Guys, if you have any information regarding the brutal rape and murder of this UNC co-ed, Faith Hedgepath, please call 919-614-6363. 919-614-6363. We wait as justice unfolds. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.