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Hedgepeth alternate-suspect ruling

True crime · Heat 1.2 / 10 · 4 shows · 2h 24m airtime

A North Carolina judge ruled on September 21 that defense evidence naming Karina Rosario as an alternate suspect in the Faith Hedgepeth murder case is inadmissible. Testimony has since moved to forensic gaps: a bathroom door-frame swab was lost, the Bacardi bottle was not photographed in place, and a captain acknowledged the gas cap of Faith's car was never tested. The rectal swab held DNA from at least two people, with the partially predominant profile from an unknown individual, and that profile could not be excluded from DNA on the pen found near the note. The state wants investigative genetic genealogy kept out, and the defense disputes the partial thumbprints on the rum bottle.

How 4 podcasts covered it

  1. Dateline NBC, 2026-09-24 (31:33 to 34:00)
    Reports the ruling excluding the alternate-suspect evidence
    Reports a Monday pretrial ruling in the Faith Hedgepeth case: the judge sided with the state and excluded defense evidence that roommate Karina Rosario should be considered an alternate suspect. The defense had played Rosario's police interviews and cited a note reading 'I'm not stupid, jealous.'
    New angle: The judge blocked defense evidence naming Karina Rosario as an alternate suspect; trial starts next week.
  2. Surviving the Survivor, 2026-10-08 (1:59 to 4:25)
    Reports from the Durham opening statements
    Day-one dispatch from the Durham courtroom: the state's opening ran shorter than expected and told jurors to listen to the evidence, not the noise, while the defense argued the DNA will not show what the state claims and drew a state objection for comments about Karina Rosario.
    New angle: The state objected to the defense's opening-statement comments about Karina Rosario.
  3. Surviving the Survivor, 2026-10-08 (5:51 to 10:38)
    Builds the case for an alternate suspect
    Goes back to the 2012 investigation and the case for Karina Rosario as an alternate suspect: the notes calling her unemotional, the investigator who wrote she was close to confessing, her abortion a week before the murder, and the neighbor Joy's account of thumps between 3 and 4 a.m. while Rosario says she left at 4:15.
    New angle: A neighbor, Joy, told police she heard three or four loud thumps between 3 and 4 a.m., while Rosario says she left at 4:15.
  4. Surviving the Survivor, 2026-10-08 (18:47 to 22:55)
    Disputes the thumbprint evidence
    The defense panel disputes the print evidence: the state says the palm print on the rum bottle is Miguel's, while the defense says the partial thumbprints are not his and has alluded to stipulating only that his DNA was on the bottle.
    New angle: The defense says the partial thumbprints on the rum bottle are not Miguel's.
  5. Murder Sheet, 2026-10-10 (4:21 to 43:14)
    Walks the evidence technician's testimony item by item
    Day three of trial coverage: walks through evidence technician Tamika Price's testimony item by item, including the note in the white bag and the Bacardi bottle, and flags the defense's coming attack on a lost bathroom-door swab and a bottle never photographed in place.
    New angle: A swab from the bathroom door frame was lost, and the Bacardi bottle was not photographed in situ.
  6. Murder Sheet, 2026-10-10 (43:14 to 44:10)
    Adds the supervisor and the missing swab
    Adds the testimony of Shalia Quick, Price's former supervisor, and the defense's cross-examination about the missing swab, plus the North Carolina Bureau of Investigation's role in the search for it.
    New angle: The North Carolina Bureau of Investigation was brought in to help Chapel Hill PD search for the lost swab.
  7. Murder Sheet, 2026-10-10 (44:10 to 53:12)
    Recaps the medical examiner's autopsy testimony
    Day three of trial: the medical examiner, Dr. Lauren Scott, testifies to the autopsy findings - blunt force injuries consistent with a thick glass bottle, a fractured right skull, and no lacerations or contusions in the uterine area. The defense cross-examines on how fast blunt force trauma kills.
    New angle: The medical examiner found no lacerations or contusions in the uterine area and could not pinpoint a time of death.
  8. Murder Sheet, 2026-10-13 (6:16 to 16:54)
    Notes the gas cap never tested
    Day five of the trial: the defense cross-examines Captain Johnny Britt, an original 2012 investigator, on the timeline and the neighbor's thumps, and Britt acknowledges the gas cap of Faith's car was never tested.
    New angle: Captain Britt acknowledged investigators never tested the gas cap of Faith's car.
  9. Murder Sheet, 2026-10-14 (5:49 to 30:23)
    Goes to the fingerprint analyst's testimony
    Goes to the fingerprint analyst's testimony: no recoverable prints on the Bacardi bottle, but a palm print and a left thumbprint on a blue Riesling bottle from the bedroom floor were identified as Salguero-Olivares in 2021 and 2023, and Rosario was excluded from all three prints.
    New angle: A palm print and a left thumbprint on a blue Riesling bottle were identified as Salguero-Olivares in 2021 and 2023.
  10. Murder Sheet, 2026-10-14 (30:23 to 44:55)
    Walks through the DNA analyst's findings
    Walks through the state's DNA analyst: the rectal swab held a mixture from at least two people with a partially predominant unknown profile, the mouth swab was negative, and Rosario's shorts carried her own blood from post-abortion spotting.
    New angle: The rectal swab held DNA from at least two people, with the partially predominant profile from an unknown individual.
  11. Murder Sheet, 2026-10-15 (11:42 to 16:27)
    Retells the DNA testimony and exclusions
    Walks through Erin Ermish's DNA testimony: the rectal swab mixture and the unknown profile, the exclusions of Rosario, McCrary and a man named Darvin, the Bacardi bottle swabs, and the boxer shorts that showed no blood, semen or saliva. A detailed retelling that stays inside the forensic-gap thread already on the record.
  12. Murder Sheet, 2026-10-15 (21:14 to 25:12)
    Adds the pen and clothing DNA results
    Walks through the rest of Erin Ermish's DNA work: the fingernail mixture that cannot exclude Karina Rosario, the boxer-short waistband mixture that cannot exclude the rectal-swab profile, and the pen from the note matching that same unknown profile.
    New angle: The unknown rectal-swab profile could not be excluded from DNA on the pen found near the note.
  13. Murder Sheet, 2026-10-15 (35:47 to 37:56)
    Recaps the DNA evidence against the alternate suspect
    Recaps the DNA evidence against Salguero-Olivares - the vaginal swab match, his inclusion on the rectal swab, his DNA on the Bacardi bottle top, and the partial male profile on the blue Riesling bottle matching the rectal swab. Argues the evidence is damning absent a consensual explanation, and previews the defense cross.
  14. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, 2026-10-17 (0:00 to 2:49)
    Recaps the trial's second week and the DNA break
    Two-minute news alert recapping the trial's second week: the family's testimony, Rosario finding the body, the 2021 traffic-stop DNA break, the biscuit bag and the rum bottle. It stays inside the lost-swab and untested-bottle ground already on the record.
  15. Murder Sheet, 2026-10-19 (5:59 to 9:14)
    Adds the state's move to bar IGG talk
    Notes Erin Ermish's three days on the stand and the stranger-homicide framing, then goes to a point not yet on the record: the state asked the judge to bar any discussion of the investigative genetic genealogy that identified the defendant.
    New angle: The state asked the judge to exclude any discussion of the investigative genetic genealogy that identified Salguero-Olivares.
  16. Murder Sheet, 2026-10-19 (9:01 to 12:31)
    Compares the IGG fight to the Idaho case
    Explains why the state may want IGG kept out, compares it to the Idaho murders fight over the same technique, and recaps that a DWI stop supplied the confirming DNA. Stays inside the ruling and the trial's already-covered ground.
  17. Murder Sheet, 2026-10-19 (12:31 to 17:08)
    Reads a juror's question as trial fatigue
    Covers Erin Ermish's return to the stand and the DNA dead ends, then reads a juror's written question about trial length as a sign of fatigue. The jury question is a new on-the-record development; the rest is retelling of testimony already logged.
    New angle: A juror asked the judge how long the trial would run; the original estimate was five to six weeks.
  18. Murder Sheet, 2026-10-19 (21:53 to 26:17)
    Explains the lab's 2014 cap on testing items
    Walks through the defense's cross of Erin Ermish on DNA storage and the state's redirect, then notes the lab capped how many items it would test starting in 2014 to keep resources for other cases. Explains why the unknown profile made further testing a diminishing return.
    New angle: The state crime lab capped the number of items it would test starting in 2014 to preserve resources for other cases.
  19. Murder Sheet, 2026-10-24 (12:18 to 14:16)
    Predicts an appeal of the alternate-suspect ruling
    Revisits the ruling barring Karina Rosario as an alternate suspect, agrees with it, and predicts an appeal. The substance is the hosts' own view of online suspicion of Rosario, not a development in the case.

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