Karena Rosario remembered the devastating moment she discovered her roommate, UNC student Faith Hedgepeth, had been murdered.
Prosecutors called the 34-year-old to the witness stand after opening statements concluded Wednesday morning, prompting an emotional account of the events.
Rosario testified as Miguel Enrique Salguero-Olivares, 33, faced the first day of his trial over Hedgepeth’s murder and rape.
Hedgepeth, a 19-year-old junior, was found naked and beaten to death in the pair’s off-campus apartment on the morning of September 7, 2012.
Beside her body, investigators found a taunting message etched onto a fast-food bag: ‘I’m not stupid b***h jealous.’
The case remained unsolved for nine years before Salguero-Olivares was arrested on September 16, 2021.
More than a decade after the killing, Rosario told jurors about the horrific moment she found her friend dead inside their apartment.
‘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 murdered UNC student Faith Hedgepeth, recalled the devastating moment she found her friend’s body while testifying
Hedgepeth, a 19-year-old junior, was found naked and beaten to death by her roommate 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 testified.
Rosario also described the hours before Hedgepeth’s death, including their final night together at The Thrill nightclub in Chapel Hill.
Rosario said Hedgepeth was like a sister to her, adding: ‘She just had this way about making you feel comfortable with her.’
She recalled becoming upset that night, leading Hedgepeth to drive them from the nightclub back to their apartment at about 3 a.m.
‘I just remember her holding my hands and telling me everything’s going to be okay,’ Rosario told the court.
The roommate delivered her testimony through tears, appearing visibly overwhelmed as she recounted the events.
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Rosario told jurors that the amount of alcohol she had consumed left parts of her memory unclear. However, she remembered sitting in the apartment bathroom while calling and texting several people.
She said a friend, Jordan McCrary, picked her up from the apartment at about 4:30 a.m. and took her back to his home.
Miguel Enrique Salguero-Olivares, 33, appeared in a North Carolina court for the first day of his trial over the murder and rape of UNC student Faith Hedgepeth
Hedgepeth’s killer left a note beside her body that read: ‘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.
