NC NC - Faith Hedgepeth, 19, UNC student, Chapel Hill, 7 Sep 2012 #2

[kemo]

I've been following this off and on for a while and I find it baffling that it hasn't been solved.

Obviously, the roommate's 911 call, and her whole behavior has been, shall we say, hinkey. Still, what really stands out to me is her claim that she left the apartment door unlocked when she left. She didn't say she MAY have left it unlocked; she said she left it unlocked.

You just don't do that in an apartment unit in an urban area and if for some reason you do, you offer up an explanation. If a murder appears to have resulted from the "oversight", you do not offer up that information because it would make you appear responsible. You may fess up under heavy interrogation. The only reason I can see her volunteering that information is that she wanted to send the investigation in the direction of a probable attack by a stranger who entered the apartment rather than someone who had a key.

She knows what happened and is covering for someone.

Law Enforcement is pretty sure they have collected DNA from every male in their immediate social circle and eliminated all of them so,the theory goes, it must be someone more indirectly connected. It seems to me that anyone the roommate would be willing to cover for in a murder would have a very close connection. It would be interesting to know where, exactly, seamen traces were found. Did it really come from her murderer?

 

[Ibiz]

I've been following this off and on for a while and I find it baffling that it hasn't been solved.

Obviously, the roommate's 911 call, and her whole behavior has been, shall we say, hinkey. Still, what really stands out to me is her claim that she left the apartment door unlocked when she left. She didn't say she MAY have left it unlocked; she said she left it unlocked.

You just don't do that in an apartment unit in an urban area and if for some reason you do, you offer up an explanation. If a murder appears to have resulted from the "oversight", you do not offer up that information because it would make you appear responsible. You may fess up under heavy interrogation. The only reason I can see her volunteering that information is that she wanted to send the investigation in the direction of a probable attack by a stranger who entered the apartment rather than someone who had a key.

She knows what happened and is covering for someone.

Law Enforcement is pretty sure they have collected DNA from every male in their immediate social circle and eliminated all of them so,the theory goes, it must be someone more indirectly connected. It seems to me that anyone the roommate would be willing to cover for in a murder would have a very close connection. It would be interesting to know where, exactly, seamen traces were found. Did it really come from her murderer?

I have my doubts as to whether semen traces were found. The medical examiner who looked at FH's autopsy report on Breaking Homicide has personally performed over 20,000 autopsies, and has supervised over 40,000 of them. According to him, there was no sexual assault of any kind.

According to the lady from CHIPs, they have a DNA profile of a suspect, but she did not rule out anyone else as a suspect just because their DNA did not match the one particular suspect. According to her words, just because someone's DNA doesn't match, it doesn't mean they didn't participate or have knowledge of the crime.

If you have seen the entire first season of Breaking Homicide, you will find that Kris and Derrick are absolutely incredible detectives.

 

[kemo]

There are lot of questions about the semen. There can be a sexual assault without penetration and there are ways semen can be present without penetration. If there is no evidence of penetration or injuries to the genitalia, there are other ways that a determination of sexual assault can be made including the removal of clothing, the display of the body and the presence of semen. There is a claim that the semen from which the DNA analysis was made came from a “rape kit”. Still, we do not know where the semen came from.

It has been speculated that Faith’s murder was planned and motivated by jealousy, revenge or some other personal motive. You would not expect such a murder to include sexual assault but it is certainly possible. Sexual Assault could also be staged with the use of semen. There are a lot of possibilities.

There was “ touch DNA” recovered from the pen and the paper used to write the “Jealous” note that is a match to the semen DNA. As there was apparently blood splatter under the note but not on the note, it had to have been placed there after the murder. That is all pretty suggestive of the note writer being involved in the murder.

The note, incidentally, is very strange. Leaving a message for the police that discloses the motive seems crazy. More likely it is some kind of a red herring. Still, this would tend to negate any attempt to make the appear to be a random stranger sexual assault. Very Strange.


The Analysis of the DNA revealed the donor was probably of Meso-American and Iberian Peninsula descent. That is very consistent with someone who’s origin was Mexico, Central America or parts of South America; but not Puerto Rico, Cuba or Dominican, regions where most Latino people on the East Coast originate. That should somewhat narrow down who the donor might be.

 

[Ibiz]

There are lot of questions about the semen. There can be a sexual assault without penetration and there are ways semen can be present without penetration. If there is no evidence of penetration or injuries to the genitalia, there are other ways that a determination of sexual assault can be made including the removal of clothing, the display of the body and the presence of semen. There is a claim that the semen from which the DNA analysis was made came from a “rape kit”. Still, we do not know where the semen came from.

It has been speculated that Faith’s murder was planned and motivated by jealousy, revenge or some other personal motive. You would not expect such a murder to include sexual assault but it is certainly possible. Sexual Assault could also be staged with the use of semen. There are a lot of possibilities.

There was “ touch DNA” recovered from the pen and the paper used to write the “Jealous” note that is a match to the semen DNA. As there was apparently blood splatter under the note but not on the note, it had to have been placed there after the murder. That is all pretty suggestive of the note writer being involved in the murder.

The note, incidentally, is very strange. Leaving a message for the police that discloses the motive seems crazy. More likely it is some kind of a red herring. Still, this would tend to negate any attempt to make the appear to be a random stranger sexual assault. Very Strange.


The Analysis of the DNA revealed the donor was probably of Meso-American and Iberian Peninsula descent. That is very consistent with someone who’s origin was Mexico, Central America or parts of South America; but not Puerto Rico, Cuba or Dominican, regions where most Latino people on the East Coast originate. That should somewhat narrow down who the donor might be.

You know something kemo, you are probably the first poster on this thread to point out how important it is to lock the door when living in one of these appartments.

Years ago, I lived in a very similar apartment complex. It was very large with a mixture of college students and regular working people. The doors were all outside with stairs, and because they all looked the same; day or night, it would not of been unusual to have people banging on your door, or even in some cases try to enter. Often times, it was because they were looking for someone, and just simply had the wrong appartment. So keeping your door locked day or night was pretty much mandatory. Most importantly, YOU WOULD NEVER HAVE WENT TO SLEEP WITH YOUR DOOR UNLOCKED!

The mere thought of it would have been unthinkable.

Jumping around here. At about 5:00am, if someone was walking around the appartment above yours, you would have definitely heard it. You would even of known if it was a heavy or light framed person.

Any type of commotion coming from the bedroom above yours; would have been heard very loudly.

As far as the DNA is concerned. I too have to wonder if it could have in some way been planted at the crime scene.

 

[Lamima]

A 1998 unsolved murder of an un-identified 10 year old boy, who's body was found under a billboard in NC, was recently solved by using DNA to look for family matches. He was identified as the son of a murdered women who's body had been found in SC in 1998. Why can't they do this with the DNA from this case?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...d-truth/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.36d50c1a32ee

 

[Webthrush]

A 1998 unsolved murder of an un-identified 10 year old boy, who's body was found under a billboard in NC, was recently solved by using DNA to look for family matches. He was identified as the son of a murdered women who's body had been found in SC in 1998. Why can't they do this with the DNA from this case?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...d-truth/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.36d50c1a32ee

...pretty certain they're working on it, but they're working on 100's of cases, most of which seem to be 10 yrs. or more old. Not sure when they're likely to finish FH's case. Won't be surprised if there's a match within 4 weeks, but also won't be surprised if it takes 3-4+ more months. The DNA is the easy part (looking for relatives); the manual genealogical search, narrowing down to a specific likely suspect that best fits criteria, is time-consuming.

 

[tarheelslim]

You know something kemo, you are probably the first poster on this thread to point out how important it is to lock the door when living in one of these appartments.

Years ago, I lived in a very similar apartment complex. It was very large with a mixture of college students and regular working people. The doors were all outside with stairs, and because they all looked the same; day or night, it would not of been unusual to have people banging on your door, or even in some cases try to enter. Often times, it was because they were looking for someone, and just simply had the wrong appartment. So keeping your door locked day or night was pretty much mandatory. Most importantly, YOU WOULD NEVER HAVE WENT TO SLEEP WITH YOUR DOOR UNLOCKED!

The mere thought of it would have been unthinkable.

If you read through the threads on this case you will find a few women who say that when they were college-aged they did not lock their doors all the time.

There's a feeling of invincibility that people often have at that age that most of us can't relate to.

 

[mocity]

They are only "working on it" if the police department pushes for it.

 

[BullCityLab]

Native Hoop Magazine Special Edition Volume 1 Issue 2

I have been following this case since 2012, I am local to the case and have mutual friends with some of those who were named as people of interest. This article was written by an author from Faith’s tribe- she mentions that Faiths hair had been cut. This is very interesting to me, I also found another blog post that says the police did not check Faiths car for fingerprints the day she was found. The neighbor also states that the door to her gas tank was open? Seems very strange. I have been trying to go back and read articles from right when it happened to see if there is any information that was missed.

 

[Webthrush]

They are only "working on it" if the police department pushes for it.

True, but since CHPD had already worked with Parabon to get the initial suspect profile done it makes sense (Parabon already has the DNA on file) that they would request the further step of running genetic genealogy -- this case has become an embarrassment to CHPD, and given the little chance that public input will solve it, seems likely to be put on Parabon's agenda -- but with so many 10-30 yr.-old unsolved cases, not sure how they might prioritize it.

 

[mocity]

I sure hope they are. My sisters case is a 30 year old unsolved double homicide. There is DNA and that DNA was matched to a rape victim. Solving this would solve at least 3 crimes. Although I suspect more. It is still listed on the HPD cold case page yet they have yet to engage Parabon Labs. We have asked and offered to pay for it. It's unbelievable. My hope is that they are doing something behind the scenes and not being forthcoming with us.

 

[Ibiz]

The neighbor also states that the door to her gas tank was open? Seems very strange. I have been trying to go back and read articles from right when it happened to see if there is any information that was missed.

Thank you for stopping by BullCityLab. If I could ask you? What is your opinion as to why Faith's gas tank door would be open on her car?

 

[BullCityLab]

Thank you for stopping by BullCityLab. If I could ask you? What is your opinion as to why Faith's gas tank door would be open on her car?

Hi! The only thing I can think of (that would be nefarious) would be to mark which apartment building she was in? Or a signal that she was alone? What do you think?

I’m sure the answer is Occam’s razor (LE left it open when checking out her car) but reading articles from closer to Sept. 2012 has been interesting!!

 

[Lamima]

Hmmm, interesting. Maybe marking that she was alone.

 

[Ibiz]

Hmmm, interesting. Maybe marking that she was alone.

Or possibly looking for a key?

 

[kemo]

I asked an acquaintance of my who had been a 911 operator what she though was she thought of the 911 call. The only thing she thought was really strange was the reluctance of the caller to give their name. She said that callers, particularly when they are allegedly calling from their own apartment will volunteer that information very early in the call. It took the operator five request before the caller gave their name. My friend suggested that caller was thinking about just abandoning the call (which happens a lot) and was thinking that she wasn’t committed to any information she was giving so long as she didn’t provide her name. Something wasn’t right.

 

[CoWithJournBD]

First post. I live in the area of Faith's death currently (was out of town in 2012 working). Due to this, I've only in the last few year's came across her tragic case. I was researching some other cases and came across a DNA Snapshot from a 2004 murder in Virginia. I thought it appeared similar enough to the one generated from Faith's case to ask for opinions . Here's a photo I took a photo of them side by side. Could be nothing and it probably is.

 

[Ibiz]

First post. I've live in the area of Faith's death (was out of start in 2012 working) so I only in the last few year's came across her tragic case. I was researching some other cases and came across a DNA Snapshot from a 2004 murder in Virginia. I thought it appeared similar enough to the one generated from Faith's case to ask for opinions . Here's a photo I took a photo of them side by side. Could be nothing and it probably is.

Interesting, two different DNA's, but yet they look like twins.

 

[CoWithJournBD]

Interesting, two different DNA's, but yet they look like twins.

Yeah I'm not as well versed in DNA as I should be. I'm more on an expert in the corrections side of the criminal justice system. I am very knowledgeable on the the area of the crime and Durham/ Chapel Hill in general.

 

[Webthrush]

First post. I live in the area of Faith's death currently (was out of town in 2012 working). Due to this, I've only in the last few year's came across her tragic case. I was researching some other cases and came across a DNA Snapshot from a 2004 murder in Virginia. I thought it appeared similar enough to the one generated from Faith's case to ask for opinions . Here's a photo I took a photo of them side by side. Could be nothing and it probably is.

Nice catch!... though the generated picture isn't as important as the actual DNA profile and I'm not sure how much variability might be expected there (there certainly can be some though) -- one would think that Parabon would have some sort of 'alert' built into their system if 2 separate cases pointed to the same individual.
Anyway, the crime you're referencing is the Carrie Singer murder which has had wide coverage (lots on the Web, though I haven't followed it much; victim beaten & half-naked, like FH; and I assume it's on Websleuths but haven't looked yet). At one point there was a suspect who was now in his 50s (older than we think of for Faith's case, but still possible).