The school will hold a memorial service for Carson on Tuesday afternoon at the Dean Smith Center. Doors open at 3 p.m., and the service starts an hour later.
CHAPEL HILL -- As students at UNC-Chapel Hill returned to campus Monday after a week-long Spring Break, they returned to a campus in mourning.
Students are mourning the death of 22-year-old student body president Eve Carson. Her body was found March 5 at a neighborhood intersection near campus. Investigators believe she was shot multiple times.
While students were on Spring Break last week, police arrested and charged two suspects with first-degree murder in connection with her death. Some students said the arrests bring a sense of relief, but the mood on campus remains somber.
"It's kind of a little bit subdued I guess would be the best word for it," said sophomore Robert Whitney. "I mean, it was kind of the mood before Spring Break too, there's usually a lot of excitement because everyone's going somewhere, or at the very least getting a break from class, but it was a lot more subdued just given the news."
Sophomore Brian Schuster agreed.
"People are talking about it, but fortunately they caught the [suspects] and everybody's kind of just starting to get back into the usual melody," he said.
Students said news of the arrests spread quickly even among students who left the area for Spring Break.
News about the investigation into Carson's death followed students throughout Spring Break, from the hunt triggered by the release of surveillance photos, to the arrest of two suspects: 21-year-old Demario James Atwater, and 17-year-old Lawrence Alvin Lovette. Both suspects face first-degree murder charges.
"It was just shocking to see just how young the guy was, 17-years old," Schuster said. "That was pretty interesting. I just really didn't know what to think about it."
Students said news of the arrests spread quickly even among students who left the area for Spring Break.
"It was shocking and little unsettling that this has happened because I go out on a lot of late-night walks and it could have just as easily been someone I cared about," Schuster said.
Though the campus fell quiet during Spring Break, many students let messages scrawled on a temporary memorial to Carson speak for them. Students said the memorial, which is covered with students' memories of Carson and words of inspiration, is a fitting tribute to a student whose power to touch lives survived her death.
"It's surreal almost," Whitney said. "It's really unsettling that something like that happened here."
The school will hold a memorial service for Carson on Tuesday afternoon at the Dean Smith Center. Doors open at 3 p.m., and the service starts an hour later.