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Fourteen years after Faith Hedgepeth was found dead, the central question in her murder trial has shifted to whether forensic evidence can withstand scrutiny of a flawed investigation.
Miguel Enrique Salguero-Olivares, 33, is standing trial in Durham County Superior Court on charges of first-degree murder, rape, sexual offense, and burglary for the 2012 killing of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill biology major.
The proceedings, now in their second week, have exposed tensions between the state's DNA evidence and defense claims that critical physical items were mishandled or lost.
Prosecutors identified a 1.75-liter Bacardi rum bottle as the murder weapon used to strike Hedgepeth's head.
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