Who is Miguel Salguero Olivares? Details emerge about man on trial in Faith Hedgepeth killing

DURHAM, N.C. -- As testimony continues in the murder trial of UNC student Faith Hedgepeth, court records and law enforcement documents provide additional background on the man charged in her death.

Miguel Salguero Olivares arrived in the United States from Guatemala with his single mother in 2010, when he was 17 years old.

At the time of Hedgepeth's killing two years later, he was 19 and living in Chapel Hill.

Nine years after Hedgepeth's death, Chapel Hill police arrested and charged Salguero Olivares.

Investigators said they used DNA found at Hedgepeth's apartment to identify his relatives through public genealogy data.

Police arrested Salguero Olivares in Raleigh in 2021 for driving while impaired.

At the time of that arrest, he told police he was working as a painter and drywall finisher.

In 2025, while being held in the Durham County Jail awaiting trial, Salguero-Olivares was charged with possessing methamphetamine and with possession with intent to sell.

Salguero Olivares is now 33 years old and has no prior criminal convictions.

Prosecutors have said there is no known connection between him and Hedgepeth.

He has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, rape and burglary. His mother has been in the courtroom as the trial unfolds.