A man has been charged with murder in the 2012 beating death of a North Carolina college student, police said Thursday.
Chapel Hill police announced at a news conference on Thursday that Miguel Enrique Olivares, 28, of Durham was arrested in connection with the beating death of Faith Hedgepeth at her off-campus apartment, Chapel Hill Police announced Thursday.
Olivares is charged with first-degree murder and is being held without bail. It's not known if he has an attorney.
“Nine years and nine days ago tragedy struck our community,” Chapel Hill Chief of Police Chris Blue said in announcing the arrest, according to NBC News. “Police officers responded to a heartbreaking scene. One where a promising young life had ended way too soon.”
Assistant Police Chief Celisa Lehew said the investigation is not complete, but provided no additional details.
Hedgepeth, a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was 19 years old when she was discovered dead in her apartment on Sept. 7, 2012.
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Faith’s roommate had left for the night and then returned approximately seven hours later to find Faith "covered by a blanket on top of her slightly askew mattress with large amounts of blood," according to the autopsy report released in 2014.
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The report showed Faith had been beaten to death, suffering extensive skull fractures and cuts to her face and head. She also had injuries to her arms and legs.
North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein said Thursday that the arrest was made possible after the State Crime Lab matched a DNA profile found at the original crime scene to a DNA sample submitted by the State Bureau of Investigation and the Chapel Hill Police Department.
Faith's parents, Connie and Roland Hedgepeth, who both spoke to "Dateline" back in April 2020 about the case, spoke at the news conference on Thursday.
“When I got the news this morning, I didn't do anything but cry and thank God and praise God, because I put it in his hands and it was his timing,” Connie said. “I don't know why it took so long, but I just know that it was Him.”
