Fundraiser marks Hedgepeth’s birthday

If things were different, Euna Chavis probably would have spent today planning a birthday celebration for her best friend Faith Hedgepeth.

Instead, Chavis will spend today preparing for a fundraiser held for a scholarship named in Hedgepeth’s honor.

Hedgepeth was a UNC junior when she was found dead in her off-campus apartment on Sept. 7, 2012.

She would have turned 21 today.

And to mark her birthday, all of the six Red Robin Gourmet Burgers restaurant locations near the Triangle will donate 15 percent of their proceeds to the Faith Hedgepeth Memorial Fund as part of the Faith’s Smile Scholarship Fundraiser.

Hedgepeth worked at the Red Robin Gourmet Burgers in Durham. The fundraiser is being held by the Carolina Indian Circle, Alpha Pi Omega sorority and the 2010 Summer Bridge Class.

Chavis said she hopes the fundraiser will help people remember Hedgepeth as the great person she was.

“We don’t ever want anyone to forget her,” Chavis said. “What happened to her didn’t deserve to be done to her.”

Chavis said she and Hedgepeth used to spend their birthdays going out to dinner before going home and baking cupcakes together.

She said the scholarship in Hedgepeth’s name was designed to help Native American women attend college.

Two Native American women, Cheyenna Francis and Taylor Locklear, were each awarded a $500 scholarship last week from Hedgepeth’s memorial fund. The two are the first recipients of the scholarship.

Sealed records

Durham County Judge Orlando Hudson resealed records for Hedgepeth’s case for another 60 days on Sept. 13. The 911 call alerting police that Hedgepeth’s body had been found and multiple search warrants for the case were first sealed three days after Hedgepeth was killed.

Durham County District Attorney Leon Stanback said he met with the Chapel Hill Police Department earlier this month as part of a regular update on Hedgepeth’s case.

Stanback said the group decided to “keep the investigation on the same plane,” but would not comment further on what that meant.

He said he did not want to compromise the investigation, either through discussing the logistics of the case or through unsealing the records.

In the months following her death, police analyzed DNA evidence left at the scene by a male.

In January, Chapel Hill police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Behavioral Analysis Unit released a profile of a suspect. The statement said the person may have been familiar with Hedgepeth.

The person would have been unaccounted for in the early hours of Sept. 7, 2012.

Police haven’t released any new information about a suspect since January.

“I wish I was closer to naming a killer,” Stanback said.

city@dailytarheel.com