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CHAPEL HILL (AP) — Thousands of stunned students gathered silently Thursday on a quad at the University of North Carolina to mourn their student body president, just hours after police said she was the young woman found shot to death on a city street the day before.

Eve Marie Carson, a 22-year-old senior from Athens, Ga., had been shot several times, including at least once in the head, police said. Officials said there are no suspects and no arrests have been made.

"We have lost someone whom we cherish and love," university Chancellor James Moeser told a massive crowd on the school's Polk Place quad. "We're all in a state of shock."

Police found Carson's vehicle, a blue 2005 Toyota Highlander with Georgia plates, after receiving a tip Thursday afternoon from a witness who spotted it near Franklin Street, the main drag though the popular college town about 45 minutes west of Raleigh.

"We saw it on the news and we heard the woman is the president of the student body, and she (his wife) goes, 'Oh my God, I just found the car,'" Toby Rice, of Chapel Hill, told The Associated Press. "She called 911. She took pictures of it with her Blackberry."

Lt. Kevin Gunter, spokesman for the Chapel Hill Police Department, declined to comment when asked if police had found the car. Authorities planned to provide an update later Thursday on the status of their investigation.

Officers found the body of a young woman about a mile from campus, on the street at the intersection of Hillcrest Road and Hillcrest Circle, after neighbors reported hearing shots about 5 a.m. Wednesday. Moeser said he got a call about a half hour later informing him that Carson was the apparent victim.

"It was shocking," he said. "I sat down and said 'Oh my God.' I couldn't believe this."

Police publicly identified the shooting victim as Carson on Thursday, and police Chief Brian Curran said her death appeared to be a random act. The neighborhood where her body was found, about a mile from the North Carolina campus, is an upscale residential area and is not home to student housing.

"There is nothing to link this to anyone on this campus," Moeser said. "We don't want to overreact."

A huge crowd of students, staff and faculty gathered on the North Carolina campus Thursday afternoon to remember Carson. Students passed out daisies and carnations, and large boards were erected for students to leave written memories.

"The strange thing, how the last time I saw her we made the types of plans where you know you're going to run into someone," said Keegan DeLancie, a senior from Los Angeles and fellow Morehead scholar "I'd like to think somehow we will again."

A campus candlelight vigil was planned for 7 p.m., and dozens of counselors from both North Carolina and nearby Duke University were available to talk to students.

"She touched us all," Moeser told students. "And now she's been taken from us suddenly, in a terrible, terrible act of violence."

Carson was a prestigious Morehead-Cain scholar and a North Carolina Fellow, taking part in a four-year leadership development program for undergraduates. A premed student, she majored in political science and biology, taught science at a Chapel Hill elementary schools, studied abroad in Cuba, and spent summers volunteering in Ecuador, Egypt and Ghana as part of a school program.

In her position as student body president, she was a member of the university's Board of Trustees. Moeser said he last saw Carson on Tuesday, at the Tar Heels men's basketball game against Florida State.

"This is a tragedy magnified and multiplied by the number and depth of relationships, many relationships that Eve Carson had on this campus," Moeser told the students. "This enormous throng is a testament to the many and deep relationships.

"Eve Carson personified the Carolina spirit."

Carson is the daughter of Bob Carson and Teresa Bethke. A man answering the phone at Bob Carson's business, Carson Advisory Inc. in Athens, said the family has no comment.

Maxine Easom, the principal of Clarke Central High School in Athens, where Carson graduated as valedictorian in 2004 and was also elected student body president, said she and staff members learned of her death Thursday morning.

"We're devastated," Easom said. "Eve was just the most wonderful young woman you would ever want to know. She was brilliant. She was absolutely beautiful. Everything she did was aimed at helping other people. It's one of the greatest tragedies I've ever known. Eve was one of the young women who could change the world."

Associated Press writers Estes Thompson in Raleigh, and Daniel Yee in Atlanta, Ga., contributed to this report.