Irina Yarmolenko
CHARLOTTE -- UNC Charlotte is offering a $10,000 reward in the hopes of finding more information related to the death of Irina Yarmolenko, a 20-year-old sophomore at the school.
Chancellor Philip L. Dubois announced the reward Thursday, and it will be given out by Crime Stoppers of Gaston County.
Yarmolenko’s body was found last week next to her car on the bank of the Catawba River. Police said suffocation was the cause of death but they are not sure of the circumstances surrounding her disappearance and death.
Mount Holly Police have released a surveillance tape of Yarmolenko visiting a Goodwill near campus to drop off some donations hours before she was found dead.
Yarmolenko was last seen leaving Jackson’s Java on University City Boulevard on May 5 just before 11 a.m. Her body was found a few short hours later at 1:15 p.m.
Yarmolenko was a graduate of Chapel Hill High School in Orange County.
The reward will be funded with private donations. No state funds or tuition dollars will be used.
Anyone with information is urged to call the Mount Holly Police Department at (704) 827-4343.
Stay tuned to News 14 Carolina for another update to this story later Friday.