FAITH DANIELLE HEDGEPETH - 19 yo - Chapel Hill NC

UNC student's death treated as a homicide

Published Fri, Sep 07, 2012 08:24 PM
Modified Sat, Sep 08, 2012 06:44 PM
By Jeanna Smialek

CHAPEL HILL -- A UNC-Chapel Hill student was discovered dead in her apartment Friday morning, and police are treating her death as a homicide.

Faith Danielle Hedgepeth, 19, was found by friends in her apartment at 5639 Old Chapel Hill Road at 11 a.m., according to the Chapel Hill Police Department.

Hedgepeth was a biology major from Warrenton, according to UNC-CH’s directory.

Police were still investigating late Friday but said they do not think her death was a random act. Police said they had not determined how she died.

Hedgepeth lived at Hawthorne on the View apartments, formerly called Willow Brook apartments, a complex about four miles from the campus. Police were still at the apartment Friday evening, restricting access to the building in the rear of the complex.

Chancellor Holden Thorp released a statement to students, faculty and staff Friday evening alerting them to Hedgepeth’s death.

“In this time of grief, our thoughts are with Faith’s family and all the people whose lives she touched here on campus,” Thorp wrote.

Hedgepeth came to UNC-CH as a Gates Millennium scholar after graduating from Warren County High School in 2010, according to the high school’s website. The Gates Millennium Foundation awards 1,000 scholars each year with full scholarships to four-year colleges or universities. The program focuses on minority students with high academic and leadership promise, according to the program’s website.

Hedgepeth was a member of the Haliwa-Saponi Tribe of Hollister and at the time of her high school graduation planned to one day go to medical school and study to be a physician, according to an “Indian Time” newsletter published by the state Commission of Indian Affairs.

Staff and students plan to gather from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the American Indian Center in UNC-CH’s Abernethy Hall to talk about Hedgepeth and her impact on campus, according to Leslie Locklear, a friend and fellow UNC-CH student. Locklear also created a Facebook group that plans a candlelight vigil in honor of Hedgepeth for 9 p.m. Monday in the school common area known as the Pit.

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/09/07/2324697/unc-students-death-considered.html#storylink=cpy

Faith Danielle Hedgepeth homicide records sealed

By Chelsey Dulaney, The Daily Tar Heel
Updated: 9 hours ago

Chapel Hill police have ruled out a self-inflicted or accidental death in the case of UNC student Faith Danielle Hedgepeth — though they have yet to release new details about the homicide investigation.

Hedgepeth, 19, was found by friends in her apartment off Old Chapel Hill Road on Friday morning.

On Monday, a Durham County Superior Court judge sealed several documents pertaining to the case at the request of Chapel Hill police.

Sgt. Josh Mecimore, spokesman for the Chapel Hill Police Department, said the judge sealed multiple search warrants and the 911 call alerting police that Hedgepeth’s body had been found.

As of Tuesday, an autopsy had not been completed. But Mecimore said the preliminary autopsy results — which would likely determine a cause of death in the case — are not public under state law.

Mecimore said police requested the documents be sealed to protect the integrity of the investigation.

“There are a lot of details that only someone involved would know, outside of our investigators,” he said.

“It’s useful in interviewing folks to not have the general public know those details,” he said. “It could compromise our investigation.”

Frank LoMonte, executive director of the Student Press Law Center, said sealing several entire documents — especially 911 calls — is unusual in most cases.

“The law recognizes in very narrow circumstances that it’s OK to seal records,” LoMonte said. “That doesn’t justify a blanket sealing.”

Chapel Hill police have said they don’t believe the slaying was random or that the community faces a threat.

But as of Tuesday night, no arrests or suspects had been announced in the case. A cause of death also has not been released.

Chapel Hill police set up a tip line for people to provide information related to Hedgepeth’s death, and Mecimore said they are investigating leads.

LoMonte said police often benefit from releasing information about investigations.

“When you have an unsolved murder, there’s definitely a duty for either the police to either warn people or reassure people,” LoMonte said.

“You don’t want people to dangle in uncertainty.”

Raleigh attorney Hugh Stevens, of the firm Stevens Martin Vaughn and Tadych, which has represented The Daily Tar Heel in court, said sealing documents in cases like these is not unusual.

“We’ve seen it with some regularity in high profile homicide cases,” Stevens said.

“Generally speaking, the justification is that releasing information impedes investigation into finding the perpetrator.”

Chapel Hill police and Orange County District Attorney Jim Woodall also had several documents — including search warrants and an autopsy report — sealed after the murder of Student Body President Eve Carson in 2008.

“Sometimes it’s very much justified depending on the facts, but you don’t know the facts because it’s sealed,” Stevens said.

Contact the desk editor at city@dailytarheel.com.

http://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2012/09/records-sealed-in-hedgepeth-homicide

UNC trustees offer $25K reward in student's slaying

Posted: 3:44 p.m. yesterday
Updated: 17 minutes ago

Chapel Hill, N.C. — The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Board of Trustees is pledging $25,000 for information leading to an arrest or arrests in the slaying of 19-year-old Faith Danielle Hedgepeth.

The UNC junior was found dead last week in her off-campus apartment. Investigators are waiting on a preliminary autopsy to determine how she died.

The $25,000 will be added to a reward offered through the Chapel Hill-Carrboro-UNC Crime Stoppers program. The Haliwa-Saponi Native American tribe, of which Hedgepeth was a member, and Hawthorne at the View Apartments, where she lived, have each pledged $1,000 toward that reward fund.

Hedgepeth's father, Roland Hedgepeth, said Wednesday that the reward brings some relief to the family.

"I'm excited, really overjoyed about it. I think it will help turn the tide and really make a difference because surely there's someone out there who saw something," he said. "I know it will probably bring about a bunch of false leads, but at the same time, hopefully it will bring about the right lead."

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call police at 919-614-6363 or Crime Stoppers at 942-7515.

The biology major from Warrenton was found dead inside her apartment around 11 a.m. Friday. Investigators say they haven't developed any suspects in her slaying, but don't believe it was a random act.

Thousands of mourners attended her funeral Wednesday at Mouth Bethel Baptist Church in Warrenton.

"I was just totally amazed at the number of people who showed up to show their love and support for Faith," Roland Hedgepeth said.

He said family and friends are grappling with unanswered questions about what happened to his daughter.

"We all wonder why. That's the biggest question. Of course, knowing why won't bring Faith back, but at least if the person is caught, (then) justice is brought to bear," he said.

Asked if he had a message for Faith Hedgepeth's killer, Roland Hedgepeth said, "You took the love of our life away."

Jeff Anstead, who lives next door to the family, said he has known Faith Hedgepeth since birth. His daughter was one of her dear friends.

"To take somebody so special, it's just not right," Anstead said. "Every parent out here can feel the hurt that her mother and father are going through."

Deandra Bellamy worked with Faith Hedgepeth at Red Robin restaurant in Durham. She last spoke with her friend Thursday night.

"We were supposed to go out on the weekend, all of us. We were supposed to be together," Bellamy said. "Now she's not here."

Funeral goers urged anyone with information about the slaying to come forward.

A candlelight vigil for Faith Hedgepeth was held Monday evening at UNC. Another vigil is planned for 6 p.m. Friday at Warren County High School.

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/11537970/

Durham, N.C. — A University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill student who was found dead in her off-campus apartment on Sept. 7 had been helping a friend deal with an abusive relationship a few months before her death, according to the slain student's sister.

Faith Danielle Hedgepeth, 19, was found dead in her Hawthorne View apartment. No suspects have been named, and police have said little other than that they don't believe the crime was random.

Rolanda Hedgepeth told WRAL News on Monday that her sister had taken a friend to a Durham County courthouse in July to get a restraining order against the woman's ex-boyfriend.

In the application, the woman noted two occasions on which the man in question broke down doors in her apartment.

"I just wanted both of them to be safe," Rolanda Hedgepeth said. Her sister moved in with the friend, and it was in their shared apartment that her body was found.

Of the move, Rolanda Hedgepeth said, "I wasn't worried about Faith at the time, but I wanted them to be safe."

The family met Friday with investigators but got few answers to their many questions.

"All they have said to us and to the public, to the media, to everybody (is) that this wasn't random. How do they know that?" asked Hedgepeth's brother, Chad Hedgepeth.

The family met with Durham County District Attorney Leon Stanback and three other prosecutors to discuss the case.

"Do they have a suspect? Do they have any suspects? How many do they have? Do they have more than one?" Chad Hedgepeth said. "Tell us something, because being in the dark on any and everything these past four weeks has been brutal."

http://www.wral.com/slain-UNC-student-helped-roommate-in-abusive-relationship/11638921/