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Campus Mourns

Posted on March 13, 2008March 13, 2008 by Staff

Freshmen Julie Ivey (left) and Caitlin Hughes at last week’s candlelight vigil for Eve Carson.Update: Second suspect arrested early Thursday morning.

By Kirk Ross & Emily Burns
Staff Writers

In the recorded history of this community, few stories have been sadder.

With barely a week having passed since the murder of Student Body President Eve Marie Carson, emotions are still raw; and as campus gears up after its spring break, there will be time again on Tuesday to remember a bright and personable student leader whose life ended violently near the intersection of Hillcrest Drive and Hillcrest Circle in the early-morning hours of Wednesday, March 5.

Police said Carson, an Athens, Georgia native who came to Carolina as a Morehead-Cain scholar, was shot multiple times, including at least once in the head. Days into the investigation, police released photos of two “persons of interest” seen using Carson’s ATM card and driving what appears to be her 2005 Toyota Highlander.

Yesterday (Wednesday), Durham police arrested and transferred into Chapel Hill Police custody Demario James Atwater, 21, who was charged with first-degree murder in the case. Police also issued a warrant for Lawrence Alvin Lovett Jr., 17, whom they believe to be the man seen driving Carson’s vehicle in an ATM surveillance video. Lovett, who has also been charged with first-degree murder, had not been apprehended at press time and is the target of an intense manhunt.

He is described as a black male, 5 foot 7 inches tall and weighing 150 pounds. Anyone with information concerning his whereabouts is urged to call 911 or Crime Stoppers at (919) 942-7515. Lovett is considered armed and dangerous.

A rare silence

News of Carson’s death filtered out slowly at first, with initially only a handful of officials informed that the shooting victim found that Wednesday morning was Carson.

But news spread quickly on Thursday, and a rare silence fell across the campus as thousands of students, faculty, staff and members of the community gathered in Polk Place to honor Carson’s memory.

“Eve Carson personified the Carolina spirit,” Chancellor James Moeser said when he addressed those gathered in the quad.
“She did it perhaps more profoundly than anyone I’ve ever known in my whole time here,” he said.

Following Moeser’s address, people laid thousands of flowers at a makeshift memorial behind the Campus Y and wrote memories of Carson and the impact she had on the community on painted cubes nearby.

Carson, 22, was elected student body president in February of last year. In addition to her involvement with Student Government, she was a member of the Board of Trustees, had held a number of leadership positions in other campus organizations and volunteered extensively throughout the Triangle and overseas.

She was buried in her hometown Sunday in a service attended by hundreds, including fellow students and school officials and Chapel Hill Mayor Kevin Foy.

According to those who knew her, Carson had a profound impact on everyone she met.

“She was such a genuine person, and she put her heart into everything she did,” said senior Chris Kearns, a Roberson Scholar from Morris Plains, N.J.

“Every time you talked to her, it just brightened your day.”

Kearns met Carson during the first week of his freshman year, and the two had been close since then.

Kearns and about 20 other UNC students who were close to Carson spent last Thursday evening comforting one another at a makeshift wake they held at one student’s home.

“She would have never wanted her friends to be grieving for too long,” said Kearns, adding that he and his friends even laughed together as they remembered their friend.

“This town, this community, this university has suffered an enormous loss,” he said. “It’s going to heal, but it’s going to be different.

“If you want to remember her and honor her, do things you care about, put your heart into them, and appreciate the people around you as much as you can.”

With the school still on break, the Carolina campus is a quiet place. Quiet enough to hear the flag at Polk Place — now at half-mast — tossed by wind.

School returns to session on Monday. A memorial service to honor Carson will be held Tuesday at 4 p.m. at the Smith Center.

Flowers and notes at the makeshift memorial to Carson behind the Campus Y. Photo by Emily Burns. One of the many messages left on campus last week. Photo by Emily Burns.

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