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19-year-old University of North Carolina student Faith Hedgepeth was brutally murdered on the morning of Sept. 7, 2012, in an off-campus apt. To this day, despite LOTS of evidence and suspicions, the case remains unsolved. It is my hope that a collaborative Web effort ("hivemind") may accomplish what law enforcement has been unable to do in two long years… solve this vicious, senseless crime. In recent years Web collaboration of 100s, has been the tool allowing many decades-old problems in science to be solved in a matter of months; it can work for solving crimes as well. On behalf of Faith, her friends, and loved ones... let's DO IT!

Here are links to several of the podcasts/sites that have covered the case in recent years (and of course you can google for many more news reports) -- I would caution though that virtually all podcasts and extended treatments of this case (including this blog!) have some facts wrong, and are highly speculative:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Np8a4FoGE20 [20/20 broadcast]


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yz8mBob9aPs ["Trace Evidence"]


https://truenoirstories.wordpress.com/2016/06/25/faith-hedgepeth/


http://twistedpodcast.libsyn.com/episode-50-the-murder-of-faith-hedgepeth


https://crimewatchdaily.com/2016/02/16/crime-watch-daily-investigates-the-murder-of-faith-hedgepeth/


https://www.investigationdiscovery.com/tv-shows/breaking-homicide/full-episodes/who-killed-faith (2018 episode)


ALSO, because of the heavy suspicion usually directed toward Karena Rosario, I'll leave a permanent link to this longish "Defense" of Karena that has been offered by a reader:

https://faithhedgepeth.blogspot.com/p/on-september-7-2012-faith-danielle.html


==> [Finally, I have moved the long introductory material to the bottom so newest posts will now appear closer to the top (but you can click as needed if you want to review, or read for the first time, the basics about this crime).]
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Thursday, March 14, 2019

Halfway Through March


Had really hoped that Parabon NanoLabs might have a solution to this crime before the end of March, but seeming less likely now. On the bright side, Parabon continues along a pace of solving about one crime per week, so could easily have another 40+ crimes solved before end-of-year… but, that’s out of 100s they are now investigating… and they still seem to be working heavily (though not exclusively), on crimes that are 10 - 30+ years old (Faith’s murder has a 7th anniversary next Sept.). Also, I suspect those crimes that result in the fewest hits from DNA (and thus require less genealogical ‘footwork’ to complete), take precedence over crimes that may result in many genetic links that then require much longer time to sort through. So patience still required… at least I don’t see how any further police work will solve this case… other than the DNA.

On a separate note, this old listing from the NC State Bureau of Investigation lists the crime as occurring between 2:40am. and 11 am

Seems a bit odd… the women arrived home ~2:40 and the body was found ~11:00… could law enforcement not put at least a slightly narrower range on the crime’s commission than THAT!? I’ve complained before about the baffling lack of an estimated time-of-death for Faith, and this wide range seems equally baffling. Is this law enforcement's way of saying that they don’t necessarily believe Karena’s assertion that Faith was alive at 4:30am., when she (KR) left the apartment? Or, was estimated time-of-death, rather than being withheld from the public, so badly botched by attendees that law enforcement simply has no &%$#*!! idea themselves? So much about this case just doesn't add up other than by assuming a lot of negligence in its investigation. Indeed, some think the unprecedented initial two years of refusal to release vital information on this crime was not about protecting the integrity of the case, but rather about covering up for police ineptitude. I don't know what to believe any longer.  Perhaps when this case is finally solved there will emerge some understanding of why it took this long... or, perhaps, it will simply seem all the more ludicrous that it took so long.