Crime Junkie - MURDERED: Faith Hedgepeth

Episode Date: October 12, 2020

When 19-year-old college student Faith Hedgepeth is horrifically slain in her apartment after a night out clubbing, the local police are shockingly tight-lipped...until information starts flooding out and raising so many new questions.For current Fan Club membership options and policies, please visit https://crimejunkieapp.com/library/. Sources for this episode cannot be listed here due to character limitations. For a full list of sources, please visit https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/murdered-faith-hedgepeth/ 

Hi crime junkies, I'm your host Ashley Flowers, and I'm Brett and the story I have for you today honestly feels like a roller coaster ride because after a young woman was found murdered in her apartment the investigation would lead to almost a decade crammed full of twists and turns and ups and downs all With a mission to find justice once and for all This is the story of Faith Hedgepath On Friday September 7th 2012 news hits the University of North Carolina community that a student named Faith Hedgepath has died off campus in the town of Durham Details are scarce all police will tell the public is that her body was found in her apartment by some friends and that her death was not Accidental faith had been murdered now police won't elaborate on how exactly faith died or give any details about the crime scene

But even without a lot of details though both Durham and the whole campus are totally rocked by the news of her murder Everyone is brimming with questions because Durham is honestly like at this point a pretty safe place They don't see a lot of crime like this certainly not at the campus and certainly not murder But while the public is waiting on pins and needles to learn more about what happened to Faith the police start acting I mean I don't want to say strange just different from how everyone expects them to Like for us I mean we're kind of used to seeing police keep certain information pretty close to the vest right during like an open investigation Yeah definitely So this community isn't really used to that at all

Even those people in the area who do pay more attention to local police like crime junkies and local media They're all kind of taken aback by how tight-lipped the Chapel Hill police are right from the get-go According to WRAL news all law enforcement will say is that yes Faith's death is a homicide and they don't believe that her death was random Which to me kind of sounds like they're implying that she knew the person who killed her Or at the very least it was maybe planned and she had been targeted for some reason Right but they don't say anything about why someone would have wanted to kill her And no one in the first few days can think of a reason

Like WRAL that same news station had video up with this unnamed guy who said that he used to live with Faith back when he was dating her roommate And even he can't think of any reason for her murder Do the police at least release how Faith had died? Nope nothing publicly Faith's mom Connie eventually tells the Daily Tar Heel that Faith's death certificate says that she was beaten to death But police don't confirm or deny that at the time leaving her friends and family I mean honestly at this point with so many questions Now little by little the press would get bits and pieces of information

And interview here a little article there and a picture was starting to form a faith and her life in the time leading up to her death In October 2012 Mandy Locke reported for the news and observer that when she died Faith was living with a girl named Karina Rosario Sharing this one bedroom apartment while Faith waited for her financial aid money to come in But that's not like the really interesting part According to this article Karina used to date this guy named Eric DeCoy Jones He's 21 years old and Karina has a restraining order out against him after the relationship got really violent Now per this order he's supposed to stay away from Karina He's supposed to stay away from the apartment I mean honestly even like the university for the whole year

But I'm not so sure he stayed away because remember that random person who was interviewed by WRAL Yeah It was Eric and get this the public learned that Faith is actually the person who drove Karina to the courthouse to get this restraining order in July of 2012 So Eric wasn't a huge fan of Faith I mean please tell me that police are looking into this guy at this point Well so this is the thing they won't say All anyone knows at this point is his name his age and that maybe he should be considered a person of interest because of how he was connected to Faith But no one's willing to confirm that he actually is and he's definitely not being called a suspect

Like that's how tight-lipped all of this information is there's not sharing anything And so with so little about a possible suspect to focus on the public looks closer at Faith to try and understand Who would want to do this to her and learning more about her just kind of amplifies this sense of loss Because really she did have such a bright future You see Faith was on track to be the first person in her family to graduate from college And she was studying to be a pediatrician to help this very specific group of kids Native American kids who came from the Holowa Suponi tribe just like she did Now even though Faith didn't die on a reserve or in a super rural area

I think it's important to mention that indigenous women like her are ten times as likely to be murdered than white women And four out of five will face violence in their lifetime Now you know when I was researching Faith's case I could really see all these different groups of people whose lives that she had touched And how they all found themselves united by this tragedy as they just kind of waited for answers And they had to do a lot of waiting It took four more months before anything new came out But in January of 2013 the public gets their first look at the details of the investigation as police start releasing little bits of information The Daily Tar Heel reported that in the hours before she died

Faith was out clubbing with Karina at this under 21 nightclub called The Thrill And that's where she was last known to be alive at 3 a.m. on the morning of September 7 At this time in the winter of 2013 the Chapel Hill police also announced they've been working with the FBI's behavioral analysis unit to create a profile of Faith's killer According to another WRL news piece the FBI believed that Faith knew the person who killed her That person may have lived nearby and the killer's behavior might have changed after she died Like for example they said that this person might be a little too interested in the investigation So you'd think finding someone who knew her finding somebody that lived near her and who was inserting themselves into the investigation would be pretty easy I mean with this profile but days and weeks go by with like no arrests

There aren't even any updates from the police like hey FYI we're still working on this like nothing's happening You know what I mean like there's just nothing You'd think that you'd have something yeah no press conferences no announcements so the public is still left totally in the dark I mean what about her family I could see not announcing you know what they're working on to the public but you kind of hope that the family is being kept in a loop right No so again this is the thing even they are kept in the dark like Faith's family gets kind of the bare minimum from police about what might have happened to her and what's going on But basically like she was murdered we're investigating it we're working on it and that's it like nothing Yeah I mean so they're not giving the family much they're not giving the public much and the police even go one step further to keep information away from the media too As Chelsea Delaney wrote for Synapse's website the Chapel Hill police go to court and they basically get all the documents related to Faith's death put under seal

What? Yeah these seals usually last anywhere from like 45 to 60 days and so instead of like letting it come up and then giving access to the records or to anything to the public or whatever They basically keep getting this renewed over and over and over fighting all attempts from the media to get access to any information Now I saw some speculation in that same Synapse article that the Chapel Hill police like may have mishandled like the investigation in those crucial early days and they were using these seals as a way to cover their tracks And honestly that was probably in a lot of people's conversations in the area at the time like why are they going to this extent to make sure no one knows anything about what happened to this girl But that Synapse article goes on to allege that the police didn't search the other apartments in Faith and Karina's building or the woods behind the building Which if that's real I mean I can see why you don't want that out there that's just honestly straight up incompetent Now the police haven't confirmed or denied any of what's theorized so I can't say for sure but it is odd Though it's not unheard of like we've talked about other cases where files are sealed to maintain the integrity of the investigation

But what I find so weird I guess what I can't get over is not keeping the family up to date seems just really off to me Yeah or even like explaining to the family why they're putting the seals in place I know it doesn't look great but like we're doing this like you said to preserve the integrity of the investigation Which I'm sure they said that but that's not like you know to a grieving family That's still not information Right but whatever reason they sealed it they do And so for many months and honestly even more than that for almost two years everyone is just in the dark But then things start to change in July of 2014 almost two years after Faith was murdered

As ABC News 11 reported law enforcement slowly start changing their tune and they start releasing bits of information And the first thing they released to the public is actually Karina's 911 call She was the person who had found Faith that morning and when the public hears it It turns this ice cold case hot with speculation and rumors Here I want to play you part of this 911 call so there are actually clips of this all over the internet But the only full length that I could find is actually posted over on the murder squads website which we have linked over to on our website But here you go take a listen 11 01 a.m. 44 2nd September 7 2012

Ndara 911 where is your emergency? I just want to tell you something my friend just wants to be unconscious Okay, what's your address ma'am? I live at Hawkeye, I miss you Give me the address I just moved here I'm about to get it Oh my God It's 639 Old Capitol Hill Road in Durham

Okay repeat it to me son make sure I've got it correct Okay fine it's 639 Old Capitol Hill Road 1602 Yes What's the phone number you're calling from? Okay you say your friend is unconscious? He's unconscious I just locked him in the apartment and there's just like this one Okay listen to me

Somebody's already sending me an ambulance Okay, I need to get some information from you and I'm gonna I'm gonna help I'm gonna tell you how to help her, okay? Okay, how old is your how old is she? She's 19 Okay I don't know I don't have a touch here but Listen to me is she breathing? I don't know

You need to check and see is she breathing? I don't think so I don't think so Okay listen to me There's blood everywhere There's what? There's blood everywhere Okay

I don't know what happened Okay is she on her back or is she on her laying on her stomach? She's on her back but like I think she fell off the bed because she's like off the bed There's blood all over the pillow like in the comfort area I just don't know what happened Okay Alright listen to me alright It's someone coming

Yes I've got somebody coming I've got somebody coming I need for you to help her I need for you to go up to her We need to see if she's breathing or not Okay Okay Listen to me go up to the paramedic on their way I want you to stay on the line I'm gonna tell you what to do next alright Are you right by her now?

Yes Okay Listen carefully Listen she's not moving Okay Touch her arm tell me how does she feel Okay ma'am we need to find out if we can help her or not You've got to you know do as I'm asking so we can help her

Alright Okay if you can lay her flat on her back Flat on her back remove any pillow Lay her flat on her back Flat on her back remove any pillow Okay Okay Neal next we're looking her mouth for food or vomit

Okay Neal next we're looking her mouth for food or vomit Tell me something What is your name? Tanya I'm sorry I'm really sorry It's okay honey it's okay honey listen to me Alright alright alright listen to me when you touch her how does she feel? Does she feel warm? No she feels cold

She feels cold okay Okay alright don't touch anything else okay Don't touch anything else Okay they're on their way I've got fleece on the way to you and I've got meds on the way Okay I can't believe this Okay What room is she in?

She's in my bedroom Okay I want you to go back into the living room okay I don't know what's going on like this Listen to me Listen to me Okay listen to me Okay okay It really does

Okay Ashley I know I say this every time we listen to a 911 call But you can never know how you're going to respond walking into a scene like this But to me so much of this call just doesn't feel right to me And when I first listened to it when you told me we were gonna cover this case I went straight to the statement analysis blog because I figured yep I knew they'd have something to say about this call and of course they came through And again a lot of what felt weird to me felt weird to them too

So a few things that stuck out to me were the fact that Karina never actually says Faith's name Like she keeps referring to her as her friend which is not only like distancing herself from Faith But it's for me at least kind of confusing because there's no establishment that Faith even is living at the apartment Like it's not even like my roommate Well to play devil's advocate for like a second again going back to you don't know how you're going to react The only thing I can think and I don't even know if you're thinking this rationally in the time is that The operator doesn't know who Faith is like I can see being so freaked out that I'm like my friend my friend Because I just to me that makes sense to tell somebody who doesn't know but I again like I did I did find it weird

I just feel like it's worth mentioning And I'll give you that and like I guess for me I would think that I would want to say like my roommate to establish like she was supposed to be here in the first place And on top of that Karina continues to say it's her apartment not their apartment That was weird right? I came to home to my apartment I just walked into my apartment And so we have not only distancing Faith away from roommate to friend We're distancing her possession or her right to the apartment to a certain extent

And then when I was listening to the call at least I couldn't figure out which room Faith was in Like Karina initially says Faith is in Karina's bedroom But then she says there's stuff in my room that wasn't here before it looks like someone came in here And with that statement like if my roommate was dead on my bed It would definitely confirm that someone else had been there right like so this is the thing Let me tell you about researching this case that this is actually something that I spiraled on for a long time Because I couldn't figure out was Faith in Faith's room was Faith in Karina's room The best thing that I came to is I actually think it was a one bedroom apartment

Which is actually something I said at the top of the episode So I think because again this wasn't supposed to be a permanent situation Which also is maybe why she kept saying my apartment again like Faith was waiting for her financial aid money to come in So again, this could be wrong. This is based on the source material that I found but it was so confusing No one just says it outright. I kind of had to infer things But I I believe they were temporarily sharing a one bedroom apartment So the room that she found her in and the room that when she says stuff is is weird in her room It is all the same room or potentially could be as far as we know

Right, exactly. Okay. Okay, so that helps clear that up a little bit But then the operator asks for the address which we've heard how many of these it's a totally routine question Yeah asking the situation and you know where to go right and if you are making that call I would expect to like have the address ready But Karina kind of stumbles over the address and actually pauses to tell the operator that she has to like look it up or find it And I mean I moved last year and there are still days where I stumble over my address versus my old address So I I kind of get it especially if they had just moved in Right, okay

So here's another thing that I again kind of went in circles with Because everyone like when I read online or I'll read like blogs or whatever on this Everyone's like oh they just moved in that's why she doesn't remember But in a lot of the interviews the actual source material we use which is on our website A lot of it says that she had at least been there for a couple of months already And from one source I found at least Eric to Coy Jones her like ex-boyfriend had they had lived together in this complex Or maybe even in that specific apartment so I don't think it was like she got there a couple of days ago Based on what I have she was at least there for a couple of months from what I can find

So to your point I understand stumbling a little bit But you would at least have a general enough idea that you could get paramedics there I would feel like Right, like looking it up just seems like she has no idea where she is You could at least say you know the apartment complex Name, right, yeah, yeah Door number like they're especially in a complex there are so many different markers that you could use If you don't have the exact address at least to get you know someone some sort of help dispatched out there But I guess that makes me call into question why Karina feels the need to lie because she says

You know I just moved in here What's the point of saying something like that it has nothing to do with the task at hand And yeah, I mean but again devil's advocate everyone's like definition of something could be different So you know if you lived in your parents house your whole life and you've been in the department a couple months You might have just moved in like again. I don't love it It feels fuzzy, but you know, it's not she is saying an outright lie where she's saying like I moved in yesterday She's just giving a vague statement that I think everyone can interpret differently It's a generalization essentially yeah, but speaking of like generalizations versus pinpointing something

Something that statement analysis pointed out was you know, she really emphasizes that she had just walked in Like she says it a handful of times and according to a statement analysis blog It kind of indicates that she wants to drive home the point that there was no way that she could know anything that happened Because she was not here before this very moment Yeah, so I think what I find strange about that I mean as many times as you want to say it whatever but there isn't if you truly did walk in and you come across this horrific scene There doesn't seem to be any urgency on her part to get out of there like you don't know that the guy isn't still there right Yeah, and even the operator asks her a couple of times like can you go sit in the living room?

Can you leave the room where you are and Karina just kind of continues to recount how the room looks different That there's things missing someone's move stuff and on one hand like the crime junkie in me is like I would want myself to stay there and like assess the crime scene to be able to give like the best recounting if I needed to But the human in me I would just want to get the heck out of the watch and I'd be bolt Yeah, like you said like you have no idea if there's not still somebody in the house looking for you Right, right So this call being made public is just the start of all of this new information about Faith's murder being unsealed And the call is literally the tip of the iceberg because on September 5th 2014

Almost exactly two years to the day after Faith was murdered the police do a total 180 And they release over a hundred pages worth of records They say that it's their way to try and get more media attention on the case and see if someone decides to come forward with new information Wait that seems so strange to me they have had these records sealed for like two years you said Yeah, yeah two years at this point And that's like the beginning of the investigation when things are the hottest when people's memories are the most accurate You seal them for two years and then say actually we want the public's help Yeah, we want to put all this out here

Well so the fact that they did this kind of makes me think that there wasn't some big cover up Like you know whether the records got released back then whether they get released now like you still see what happened in the investigation So you know if that was the case like I don't know why waiting two years would help and there was nothing like uncovered Like oh my god this was you know the big awful thing that the police did So you know my gut is kind of saying that maybe they're being honest maybe they really just didn't want things to get out that would harm the investigation But you know when two years go by and there's no arrest and nothing's happening that maybe then they're willing to open up a little bit Like again I'm not privy to their decision making I couldn't tell you why they did the things that they did in the order that they did them But anyway so for the first time the public gets a much clearer picture of Faith's last movements the night that she died

So we know Karina said that she and Faith went out clubbing at the thrill And now the public can see from the police records that there's video evidence that seems to confirm at least part of her story The security footage shows them going into thrill at about 12.30 in the morning They dance until about two when Karina says that she doesn't feel good and wants to go home And according to ABC News they're on video again leaving at 2.06 a.m. right in line with the time frame Karina gave police like back in the early days of the investigation The records also shed some light on what they did after they got home So according to these records both Karina and Faith were texting this guy named Brandon Who Karina hooked up with some times and who was actually at the thrill with them

So later that night around 3.40 in the morning there is this text from Faith's phone asking this Brandon guy to come over and see Karina So Brett will you read me this text really quick because we have the transcripts from the police record Sure, the text says quote, Hey B can you come over here please? Karina needs you more, aha You know please let her know you care End quote The general line of thinking is that aha you know was a typo because Faith followed that up just a minute later with the word than So I think what she's trying to say is Karina needs you more than you know So Faith texts this to Brandon but according to police records he doesn't answer until 4.16 a.m.

And do you want to read his response? His response is quote, Who is this? End quote Oh that is not a great response Yeah it's weird and I really don't know what to make of it because from what I read like I said Karina and Brandon used to maybe hook up But they weren't together at this time and there's no real context for why Karina would need him and why these messages were coming from Faith Since it clearly seems like maybe Brandon didn't even have Faith's number Right it's not like it would be completely normal for Faith to text Brandon on Karina's behalf or even reach out for anything Right because he didn't even have her number saved but that's not all that we learn

The records show that Karina was texting a different person around this time this guy named Jordan And from what I can tell it was like a little like hey you up text so he comes and picks her up around 4.30 or so in the morning And she wound up spending the night at his place for like the rest of the night According to everything she said at the time Faith was alive and well when she left And it wasn't until the next morning that Karina even knew anything was up Because apparently she had tried calling Faith to get a ride home from Jordan but she wasn't getting a reply So she ends up calling another friend this girl named Marisol And Marisol was actually with her in the apartment when she got home and found Faith's body

Wait Karina didn't say anything about anyone else being there let alone Marisol on that 911 call did she? No that's the thing she doesn't and that doesn't go unnoticed by people either Like again we keep seeing it with this case it's just like layer after layer of things that don't add up And really I have zero answers about why Marisol wasn't mentioned or why you can't even hear her on the call Because honestly Marisol has stayed really far out of the public eye as possible while all of this is unfolding And even after and if there's a reason for this like she hasn't said Karina hasn't said So you know we're kind of to assume that like you know again crazy time you don't know how you're going to actually I didn't think to say that her other friend was there but it's one of those things that if you look up this case online

People kind of pick apart if someone was with you like why don't you say that? So back to these two guys the ones that they were texting with and the one that Karina left with Do the police records have anything about these two guys? Yeah so there's not a huge amount out there about them just that they were UNC students and that they did know the girls I do know that police looked into Brandon because there is a copy of this search warrant for a car connected to him And investigation discoveries special who killed the co-ed reported that he's actually cleared by DNA testing So Brandon's a no-go for sure Wait wait wait back up DNA?

Yeah yes so that is the really big bombshell that we learned from these police records The reports give a ton of information about how faith was found and the specific evidence that police have So let me lay it out for you Faith's body was found half hanging off a bed naked from the waist down with her t-shirt pulled up over her head And this was a brutal scene I mean blood was everywhere blood was pooled underneath faith spattered all over the room Even the blanket that partly wrapped around her body didn't conceal all of the whore According to the police record and investigation discovery faith suffered blunt force trauma to the head Along with cuts and bruises on her arms and legs

Now the records also say that police found a bloody rum bottle in the room that they think could be the murder weapon So again you can imagine this was a savage attack But here is where things get less clear to me and it revolves around that DNA And I think you know this is the most important piece of evidence that we have Per investigation discovery there was semen next to faith's body But People magazine and NBC News say that semen was collected in a sexual assault exam that was done on faith's body So it's a little unclear to me where exactly the semen is found or if it could be in multiple places But it's kind of safe to assume that whoever killed her also sexually assaulted her right?

I don't know maybe probably I mean it's a real gray area because I have not seen a definitive yes or no anywhere But I think the general belief is that yes she was either raped or someone attempted to rape her And again when I look at the evidence based on what's in the police reports I'm pretty inclined to agree I mean again she's found naked from the waist down police also noted finding a bloody tampon and semen at the scene So that to me points to some kind of assault or at least an attempted one Just give me a second I'm still piecing a lot of this together The public finds out about the DNA when the police reports are released Right

That means that all these years they had that specimen to compare to suspects and they still don't have anyone Yeah but buckle up because it gets weirder As these documents show the semen sample isn't the only thing police found next to faith's body The police records show that someone also left a note next to faith's body scrawled on a biscuit bag from this fast food place But I'm going to show you a picture so you can see exactly the note and the bag that I'm talking about Okay so this note says I'm not stupid, jealous But before we even get to that where's the blood? I said this was a gruesome bloody crime scene and this white paper bag is kind of pristine

We're on the same page because that is exactly what I noticed too Like I feel at the very least the bag should have some kind of splatter on it Like granted we just see one side of it I don't know what the other side looks like But in what we see I don't see any blood which to me has to mean that it was placed there after faith was killed right? I mean I guess but everything about this note is just such a massive I'm sorry what to me And then it's so much to unpack in just those five words Well I mean even before we get into what it means I think it's important to talk a little more about how it's written Because here's the thing I've heard about faith story a ton before

I knew about this bag before I started researching this case on my own But actually seeing it because I never saw it before This is a whole nother thing if you're listening you have to go to our Instagram Which is at crimejunkiepodcast or our website crimejunkiepodcast.com to check this out Because you have to see it with your own eyes to understand I think why it's important Yeah so it's just this white paper sack that's kind of all crumbled up and then maybe smoothed out again for the handwriting And then the handwriting is kind of big and scrolling it reminds me of how I would write on moving boxes Like all caps kind of rushed kitchen stuff if that makes sense

Yeah I always pictured it like in someone's handwriting But honestly like I think my moving boxes are better written than this because this is like I don't know if they're going fast or somebody's trying to write with their non-dominant hand Or like on an uneven surface like they're writing on the bed so it's not really straight or clear Or maybe even like holding it up with like nothing to write like nothing holding the back you know what I mean Like nothing's bracing it because it just looks like chicken scratch really Yeah like you said it's almost undissernable but I'm assuming that they attempted to match it to Faith and Karina and it didn't match So I don't know like I don't know exactly if they tried to match it or not but without knowing who wrote the note

I mean you could speculate on what it means for dates and like what the motive was behind it And I mean really if you keep an open mind it could be anything Uh I guess but Devil's Advocate that note sounds angry and personal On top of that it's not just found in the kitchen or on the sidewalk it's found next to a dead No I mean I get it and if you're looking at it and assuming that it's part of this case I'm not stupid Jealous like the first place my mind goes is some kind of love triangle like I'm not stupid I know what's going on But if that's the case I guess I don't understand the jealous word then like who is supposed to be jealous of who Again I feel like we could talk this note to death but I don't want this whole episode just to be about this note

But here's the one thing I will say I think it was put there after she was already dead because of the lack of blood on there If the note does have meaning it's definitely from someone who's angry at faith And what I do know about killings that are motivated by anger is that the act is never over until the anger subsides So even after she's dead if the killer is still mad they could scrawl this angry note as this like in your face One more way to just like have the last word Okay but what if someone wrote this note intentionally trying to throw off the investigation like a complete red herring Okay well that's been theorized too again I could spend a whole 40 minutes talking about this thing But I just need everyone to go look at it and tell us your thoughts

But when you do keep this in mind there's no way that it's completely unconnected Because Jeff Truesdale reported for People Magazine that police find the pen that was used to write this note inside the apartment And the pen also had DNA on it and when they tested the DNA and compared it to their DNA sample from the semen It was a match So we know that it has something to do with it To your point could it be a red herring yes could it actually be a message about someone's true motives Yes now again this was like no big secret to say that they had DNA like this is years later they're releasing all these records to the public But we know that there's no DNA match to this point

But just because police haven't named a suspect or a person of interest that doesn't keep the public from weeding through the details And finding a prime suspect of their own someone whose actions fit right into the FBI's profile of a killer When calming through the police records we learn that right at the beginning of the investigation police actually did have their sights set on someone Someone who might actually have been jealous of faith like that note said And it was Karina's ex-boyfriend Eric to Koi Jones Eric's name was originally redacted in the reports but it didn't take long for multiple media outlets from local newspapers to national publications to confirm his identity The reports paint a pretty bleak picture of Eric and Karina's relationship They mentioned how Karina was allegedly seen more than once with injuries that she said came from Eric and how police got called out to Karina and Faith's apartment

Back in July of 2012 after Eric showed up and like kicked a couple of doors off their hinges Oh my god and we know that property damage is a big red flag of an abusive relationship Totally Kind of like an intimidation thing Totally I mean it's a control mechanism so Faith seeing her best friend suffering in this like really toxic relationship that was now spilling over into her life too Did what I think any of us would do in that situation she encouraged Karina to go to court to get this restraining order which Karina did actually get So as you can imagine Eric did not appreciate it Suzanne Blake reported for the Daily Tar Heel that Eric actually threatened Faith after this saying that he'd kill her if Karina didn't get back together with him

To him Faith was standing in the way of their relationship and using her influence over Karina to poison her against him And we know like an abuser face with losing control over their victim could fit with that angry misogynistic tone of the note right Definitely And the police reports go on to give even more information about Eric's behavior right before and right after Faith's murder And what's interesting about his behavior I mean it's sketchy to say the least especially the ominous things that he wrote on social media the day before Faith was killed So on the day before Eric posted on his Twitter asking to be forgiven for something that he was about to do Now clearly this is all mentioned in the reports because it was as concerning for police as it is for anyone listening Additionally he exhibited other strange behavior that caught their attention like showing up the crime scene while police were processing it

Which in fairness he actually did live at the same complex just a few buildings down from them But still he just like walked up while police were there and actually jumps on camera to tell the media like again how shocked he is about Faith's murder Remember he gets interviewed and he's like I have no idea who would want to do this Okay but if he was living at the same apartment complex I can kind of understand seeing some ruck is happening especially at an apartment that you're familiar with And walking over there to have a look just to see what was going on So I can understand that too but here's the thing Eric wound up leaving the scene and going down to the police station for questioning like that very same day And when he was done he went back to the crime scene and they know he went back because he walked right up to the crime scene tape And they told him he actually had to leave so that Karina could come back because remember she has this restraining order out against him

Right and didn't you say that the FBI profile said that the killer might be a little bit too interested in the investigation and show some noticeable behavior changes Because that sounds like it to me Right and remember that same profile says that they would likely know her and that they would live close by Oh my god yeah As all these documents show the police is scrutiny on Eric only intensified in the days right after Faith's murder They got warrants to search his car his Facebook account and they even get some to get DNA samples and Eric agreed to let them search his phone without a warrant And right there on his phone police found a text from September 6th that matches Eric's tweet He's basically asking a friend to forgive him for something that he's about to do

And honestly it doesn't seem to me like he did himself any favors during this time because three days after Faith died Eric changed his Facebook photo to this weird like text cryptic message And here read this for everyone It says quote, Dear Lord forgive me for all of my sins and the sins I may commit today Protect me from the girls who don't deserve me and the ones who wish me dead End quote I don't even know how to unpack that So I have to imagine that with all of this police were probably feeling pretty confident that this could be an open and shut case As soon as they got some physical evidence back and like you know basically they're piling up this circumstantial stuff against Eric

But the thing we learn from the reports is when police test Eric's DNA against what was found at the crime scene it's not a match Which is probably part of why Eric didn't get more attention in the press until after these police files came out Like the police didn't want to publicly drag this guy through the mud if they knew that his DNA wasn't a match which again they probably knew very early on Yeah As it turns out Eric wasn't the only person ruled out by DNA though Remember Brandon was cleared and also according to investigation discovery Faith's ex-boyfriend was also cleared by DNA And that article I mentioned earlier from the Daily Tar Heel says that hundreds of other samples had turned up no matches But here is the weird thing about this case

Usually that's where we would see a lot of suspects just kind of drop off the radar like not a DNA match you look fishy you might not be a great guy But everyone kind of moves on like looking for the real perp Right But after this huge info dump from the police department the internet blows up with these rumors with every theory under the sun And even with DNA saying he is not a match the public is still siding the heck out of Eric Despite him never being arrested despite him never being charged and despite him never being called an official suspect in Faith's murder It's basically just the rumor mill churning and it starts to die down a little bit Only really in your face if you're looking for info about Faith's case

That is until some shocking new evidence comes to light in early 2016 that changes everything In February of 2016 police make another unusual decision to release another piece of audio related to the case Just like with the 911 call there are snippets of this all over the internet but this guy named Tom Gasparoli's Pursuit Podcast has the whole clip on his website So I'm going to link out to that but here before I give you any context just listen and then I'll explain Okay am I missing something I can't understand a word of that it honestly kind of sounds like a butt dial Right okay so here is the story behind what sounds like just a butt dial and I got to take you back to the morning that Faith was found murder So on that morning September 7th 2012 another UNC student named Yuna checked her phone and found that she had a late night voicemail from her friend Faith Hedgepath At first Yuna wasn't too surprised because she knew Faith had this rep for pocket dialing people from time to time

Like my sister's phone does this to me all the time almost to the point where I don't answer her anymore And sure enough when Yuna listens to this message it was like this three minute garbled mess and it's like literally what I played for you times three minutes And there's no like hey girl what's up I'm calling you about XYZ there's nothing even at the end where she realizes she's calling someone it's just garbled noise So Yuna deleted the voicemail without really thinking too hard about it But as soon as she learns that Faith had been murdered Yuna managed to get a hold of her cell phone provider and actually get the deleted voicemail back So that she could turn it over to police in case it was important Wait so police had this butt dial voicemail the entire time Yeah and that is where it stayed for four long years out of the public sphere just kind of chilling with the rest of the evidence in this case until the police decided to release it in 2016

Okay but what's the significance of voicemail if you can't hear anything of it or tell anything about it like do we know what time the call came in There has to be a reason for releasing this garbled voicemail Million dollar question that right there is where things around this call start to get really tangled because the answer is we don't have an answer That's not fair what do you mean like there has to be some sort of time stamp at least right So it does have a time stamp the time stamp that we have is at 123am on September 7th 2012 but not everyone agrees that that time stamp is accurate Okay but why not trust the time stamp at that time Karina and Faith would have still been at thrill right So it could totally sound like a butt dial from a nightclub Well according to Mark Schultz is reporting in the news and observer a forensic audio expert named Arlo West got brought in by true crime daily for a special on this case

And he claims that a software glitch from the phone company could have messed with that time frame So I watched Arlo's segment and even though he says the glitch was a pretty well known thing at the time He doesn't offer an alternate time of when he thinks the call could have been made And like I kind of wonder too like if you know maybe deleting the message and then recovering it could have like like made the time stamp funky But basically like the meat of this is that Arlo says that he analyzed the call and he thinks he knows exactly what's being said And according to him it paints a completely different picture He says that he can hear four separate voices in the message two men and two women one of whom he thinks is Faith He says that if the call really came from the nightclub like police think and you know if it's really at 123 and like you said it sounds like a butt dial from a club

But he says that there would be more background noises like glasses clinking more music playing But to me that doesn't really mean much of anything if the phone was in Faith's pocket or purse the sound is going to be muffled and weird Well and that's what police think too and they also point out that the thrill was a college bar So it's the type of place that you're going to find like red solo cups not like fancy martini glasses like clinking in the air And you know a lot of people do hear music in the background I did some sleuthing on Reddit and there was one commenter who said that they can hear a certain T-Pain song And I checked the date on the song and it actually matches the song came out in 2011 I feel like you didn't need to check the date you probably knew all the T-Pain songs yes But it totally is possible that the song was T-Pain it was in the background it really could be taking place at 123 in the morning at the thrill

But Arlo says that his analysis discovered these four people arguing and according to his transcript he even thinks that he can pick out the name of a person So here's the thing according to his transcript this is what the first female voice is saying at the beginning of the call Quote you want to mess with my boyfriend? End quote and then a second voice says quote I said I don't want to Rosie End quote Who is Rosie? Well he poses it may be a nickname for Carina Rosario Okay and wouldn't be the first time that college students called their friends or people they know by their last names or a version of that

Well and even more than that according to the investigation discovery episode Rosie is one of Carina's nicknames Now I'm not going to go through every single line of this call because you guys can watch the whole thing for yourself we'll link to this video on our website But if Arlo's analysis is right there's an argument going on and in this argument at one point the first unidentified woman says quote I'm going to kick your face Then there's like a lot of exchange but then the second woman is saying stuff like ow my head let me go help me there's some more ow some screaming You know what he calls verbal abuse from other people a lot of swearing and then finally he says that one of the men says quote I think she's dead I can't believe you really did it Rosie Then another unidentified woman says go help Eric Wait Eric like Eric decoy Jones Carina's ex

That's instantly where Arlo's mind goes when he hears that to him if the timestamp was wrong and the call really came in later than 123 Then this voicemail could very well be a recording of faith fighting for her life and Arlo thinks Carina and Eric could potentially be two of the voices on the call But Carina had that no contact or restraining order against Eric would it even make sense for them to be together Well I mean like we've talked about so many times before you know we talked about intimate partner violence Something like a breakup or even filing a restraining order like Carina did doesn't necessarily mean the end of a relationship or breaking off all contact with the other person Like getting out of an abusive relationship an abusive situation isn't like this clean one and done break like you know like we might want to think But listen I want to be clear because it is super easy to see this video with the text and get super caught up in this narrative that has been created for us But when you hear the call with a transcript overlaid sometimes you can kind of hear what Arlo says he hears

But even as I'm reading it and listening along it's not super clear I mean you guys heard at the beginning my mind had to stretch to make it fit And then listening without it it's just like this jumbled mess so I think it's important that we understand our minds don't like chaos We try to make nonsensical things make sense and so if you're looking for certain words you're more likely to find them There is no concrete proof of who was on this call or what was said or even when the call was placed All we know for sure is that it came from Faith's phone at some point in the hours before she died And the police reports did say that they found her phone in her apartment and that was one of the things they collected as evidence So like I feel confident saying it definitely was with her all night And again we still know that Eric's DNA was not a match for what was at the scene

Since we know it was male DNA it wasn't Karina's either so as bad as this could look to me it just leaves more questions than answers And it left everyone else in the public with questions too and it gets people talking about this case again But not really talking about my biggest question because my biggest question is even if the call is legit Who left their semen in Faith's apartment? Because all anyone can seem to talk about are Arlo's accusations that it could be Faith, Karina, Eric and this mystery person So a lot of eyes in this time turned right back to Karina and Eric And this new theory takes hold in the public opinion that perhaps they work together as a pair And among the people who are deeply suspicious of them is Faith's family They actually listen to the voicemail and they say they're convinced that the voice or at least one of the voices in the voicemail is in fact Faith

Her dad Roland told the news and observer that he is 100% sure it's his baby girl Which isn't a big stretch to get to because it did come from her phone I'm willing to jump to that conclusion with you for sure Right but here's what's so weird, the police records talk about like imaging Faith's phone to get information about her texts But they don't say anything about trying to get information on her outgoing calls Which is like we're like spiraling about when this call came in because the records are funky on Uniside But like But we could have access to it on Faith's side

Isn't that weird? And I wish I knew why, I don't know if they left this out, I don't know if that's something they didn't do Because we still have this huge issue of the time stamp And here's the thing, police hold firm with their own findings They say that the time stamp of 1.23 a.m. is accurate And from what I read the Chapel Hill police don't fully disown Arlo's analysis I guess But they don't ever like put out a public statement saying that they actually agree with it either They basically say that they're just continuing their own analysis But they have to think that the call is significant in some way because if it's not why release it

I honestly don't know, I kind of spiraled thinking about this And I either think that maybe they agree with Arlo to some extent but can't come right out and say it Or maybe they really just wanted the public interest in this again Like maybe it was dying off and this was a piece of evidence they could release Because maybe they really believe it has nothing to do with it but it would at least get people talking It's kind of like a juicy piece of evidence that people can latch onto and talk about and keep it in the public eye Yeah, but despite police holding firm saying that it doesn't really change much for them The public gets again more suspicious of Karina

Especially after ABC News reports that she actually didn't lock the apartment door when she left the night that Faith died Okay people, this is not a crime-junkie life rule. This is an everybody life rule Lock your doors, please A hundred percent And like none of this feels good but as shady as it all looks the physical evidence is not matching up Again, they know it's a male who killed Faith or at least a male that was been there Not that like a male couldn't have had an accomplice If someone wanted to theorize that it was Karina and Eric that were somehow involved

In Faith's death, like I don't care there had to be another male And you know maybe there are four people, maybe there's one stranger The truth is an unlocked door means anybody could have walked into the apartment Yeah, and I guess I'm just trying to understand the motive behind Karina potentially being involved Or how this mystery fourth person fits into it Like the best theory I've heard is that Eric was mad that Faith was trying to pull Karina away from him So I can see there being something messy between you know the ex-boyfriend, ex-girlfriend and her best friend But who is this mystery fourth person if there even was one?

Well there has to be one, right? I mean I guess and again Karina and Faith were best friends I just don't see it being like something that makes sense that she would help kill her Eric was mad at Faith not Karina taking care of Faith put them together again Well so here is a little bit of information that police learned later They learned that Karina and Faith's relationship wasn't perfect They actually learned this from Yuna that there was some tension between Faith and Karina So much so that in the weeks before she died apparently Faith actually asked Yuna if she could move in with her

So did Karina know that Faith was thinking of moving out? Because to me that might explain like we talked about in the call that Karina kept saying My apartment and my friend versus our apartment and my roommate Right so that's a really good question but one I don't know the answer to I mean I seriously have so many questions about Faith and Karina's relationship right before she died I want to know what could have gone so wrong between them that Faith felt she needed to go live somewhere else But also not wrong enough that like they were fine hanging out together You know what I mean? Like again they went out that night together the very night that she died

Like even that doesn't add up to me So yeah if they had had this major falling out why would they go to the club together? Right but I just don't know and I have to imagine that police questioned Karina about all of this And what I've read is that she was pretty cooperative with police I mean like she went in for questioning multiple times but whatever answers she may or may not have given police about their relationship We don't have any documentation on it and she's never been named as a suspect or a person of interest Or charged with anything related to Faith's murder Despite how promising this seemed at first the voicemail doesn't lead to any arrests or new suspects

And once again the case despite all the evidence looks like it's going cold Like can you even imagine how much of a roller coaster like this would have been Especially because it's still not over When everything seems to be dipping this case takes another huge upswing Because in September of 2016 ABC News releases some new information never before heard by the public First they report that Faith and Karina's downstairs neighbor this woman named Joy heard some noises in the early morning that Faith had died What kind of noises? Well she describes them as thumps three separate noises around 3 a.m.

And she said it kind of sounded like furniture getting flipped over or something like really heavy dropping But ABC News still has more in addition to releasing this like information about the neighbor Joy They also have a DNA composite sketch of the man that they believe killed Faith And it goes out on national TV on 2020 And Brett I'm going to send you the image right now and you can tell me what you see Okay it's a lot like the DNA composites we've seen before It basically gives you generalizations as to what this guy might look like based on the DNA profile Yeah it's actually from Parabon

Right our friends So it basically determines that he may have dark to light olive skin There's a really high likelihood that his eyes are brown or hazel He has dark hair and probably doesn't have freckles And they are kind of assigning his potential ancestry to be Latino So yeah you're totally right Mark Schultz's article in the News and Observer said that this snapshot Basically shows a man who's either Native American or Latino

And whoever this is they're over 85% sure that he has dark or light olive skin And almost 94% sure that he's got brown eyes And what I want to know is if anyone who lived near Faith at the time of her death Fits this description But if Chelsea Delaney's allegations about the police not searching Faith's neighbors, her apartments, the woods We might never actually know the answer to that Because I'm sure the people who lived there back then probably are long gone by now

Especially in a college town Right So do we know how long police have had this composite? They're a little bit cagey about that The Chapel Hill PD won't get any more specific than saying late 2015 or early 2016 But 2020 is the first time that the public gets any wind of it And this show is also the first time that police release a photo of the empty rum bottle That they believe was used as the murder weapon

Now just like police hoped it would The composite brings in hundreds of tips after the 2020 episode airs But it doesn't bring in any new suspects or leads And just like before with the 911 call with the voicemail With releasing all of the police records This case just stalls out I did try and find out if the Chapel Hill police are still working with Parabon to do genealogy testing I mean again, season of justice

And while I wasn't able to get a clear yes or no They at least have this sample And we know they are connected with Parabon So it might be a possibility down the line As of 2020 though, faith's murder remains unsolved And the internet is bursting with theories Obviously no investigation is ever as easy as it seems on TV But I just can't shake the feeling that there's something here

Something in this huge pile of physical evidence that everyone is missing I keep going back to the apartments and the woods that allegedly didn't get searched after faith's body was found And I keep wondering if they hold the key Like I feel in my gut there's still something waiting to be discovered That will finally shine a light into the darkness and give faith's family and her community The answers that they've so desperately longed for They deserve answers and she deserves to be seen as more than another murdered indigenous woman If you have any information about the murder of Faith Hedgepeth

Please call the Chapel Hill Crime Stoppers at 919-942-7515 Or visit Crimestoppers-CHCUNC.org To see pictures and all of our source material for this case Go to our website crimejunkiepodcast.com And be sure to follow us on Instagram at crimejunkiepodcast We'll be back next week with a brand new episode Crimejunkie is an audio check production So what do you think Chuck? Do you approve?