Miguel Salguero Olivares is on trial for the 2012 murder of UNC student Faith Hedgepeth, with prosecutors linking him to DNA found at her apartment. Salguero Olivares arrived in the United States from Guatemala in 2010 with his single mother, when he was 17. Two years later, he was 19 and living in Chapel Hill. He has pleaded not guilty to murder, rape and burglary. Prosecutors said police used DNA from Hedgepeth’s apartment to identify his relatives through public genealogy data, leading to an arrest nearly nine years later. Chapel Hill police arrested and charged Salguero Olivares in connection with the case. Police arrested him in Raleigh in 2021 for driving while impaired. At the time, he told police he was working as a painter and drywall finisher. While he was being held in the Durham County Jail awaiting trial, Salguero Olivares was charged in 2025 with possessing methamphetamine and with possession with intent to sell. Now 33, Salguero Olivares has no prior criminal convictions, and prosecutors said there is no known connection between him and Hedgepeth. His mother has been in the courtroom as the trial unfolds.