Event aims to keep Faith Hedgepeth and cases of other Indigenous women in spotlight

The unsolved murder of UNC-Chapel Hill student Faith Hedgepeth will be back in the spotlight Sunday, during an event designed to keep attention on the case and to remember other missing and murdered Indigenous women in North Carolina.

The event, called “Raising Our Voices,” starts at 3 p.m. in the patio of the Vecino Brewing Co. in Carrboro.

Hedgepeth, a member of the Haliwa-Saponi tribal community in Warren County, was found beaten to death in the off-campus Chapel Hill apartment she shared with her roommate, Karena Rosario, on the morning of Sept. 7, 2012. Rosario and friend Marisol Rangel discovered the body. The night before, Hedgepeth, 19 years old, had gone out to a club with Rosario.

The Chapel Hill Police Department gathered a considerable amount of forensic evidence from the scene, including DNA, a murder weapon and a cryptic note written on a fast food bag. The department has performed hundreds of DNA tests and generated a composite image of the killer based on DNA, yet the case seems no closer to being solved than it did almost eight years ago.

At Sunday’s event, people close to missing and murdered Indigenous women will speak about their “lost ones.” Singer Alexis Raeana will perform throughout the event. After speakers and performances, the group will move to the sidewalk outside Vecino and hold up signs to raise awareness.

Other missing and murdered Native American women remembered during the event:

▪ Sara Nicole Graham of Fairmont, disappeared on February 4, 2015, on her way to work at a Walmart in Pembroke. Her van was found abandoned in a nearby field. Graham, a member of the Lumbee tribe, was 18 years old at the time of her disappearance.

▪ Katina Locklear of the Tuscarora tribe, was found raped and murdered in a patch of woods in Pembroke in December of 2018. Locklear was a 46-year-old mother of four. Her murderer has never been caught.

▪ Rhonda Jones, a member of the Lumbee tribe, was found in April 2017 inside a trash can in Lumberton. She was 36 years old.

Hedgepeth’s case has gotten national media attention, including television shows and a 2019 podcast called “Pursuit,” but the other cases have gotten less attention outside the state. Jones’ story is the exception, as it has been linked to speculation about a serial killer preying on women in Lumberton.

Just last year — on May 5, 2019 — Gov. Roy Cooper declared a day of awareness for crimes against Indigenous women in North Carolina, which is home to roughly 122,000 Native Americans — the largest population east of the Mississippi River.

In his proclamation, Cooper cited studies showing that American Indian women are more than three times as vulnerable to violent crimes and twice as likely to be raped as women of other races. In North Carolina, roughly 90 cases of missing or murdered indigenous women — dating back to 1994 — remain unsolved.

Sunday’s event organizers, which include the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women of NC Coalition and the producers of “The Lost Ones” podcast, ask that all attendees follow local orders and wear face masks and maintain a safe physical distance from others. Hand sanitizer will be provided on-site.

Audio may be recorded at the event for use in a future podcast about Hedgepeth and other missing and murdered women.

Find more details about the event at: facebook.com/TheLostOnesPodcast.

This story was originally published August 13, 2020 at 8:00 AM.

Brooke Cain

The News & Observer

Brooke Cain is a North Carolina native who has worked at The News & Observer and McClatchy for more than 30 years as a researcher, reporter and media writer. She is the National Service Journalism Editor for McClatchy.