CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — The University of North Carolina student body president was found shot to death on a city street in what police said yesterday appeared to be a random crime, stunning the campus community who knew her well.

Thousands of students gathered silently on campus to mourn Eve Marie Carson, whose body was discovered about a mile away early Wednesday. The 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,” the chancellor of the university, James Moeser, told a massive crowd on the school’s Polk Place quad. “We’re all in a state of shock.”

A witness reported finding Carson’s vehicle, a blue 2005 Toyota Highlander with Georgia plates, near the main drag through the college town about 45 minutes west of Raleigh.

Toby Rice, of Chapel Hill, told the Associated Press his wife discovered the car and called 911.

“We saw it on the news and we heard the woman is the president of the student body, and she goes, ‘Oh my God, I just found the car,'” Mr. Rice said.

A spokesman for the Chapel Hill Police Department, Lt. Kevin Gunter, declined to confirm whether police had found the car. Carson’s body was found on the street at an intersection after neighbors reported hearing shots about 5 a.m. Wednesday in an upscale residential area. It was not clear why she was in the area, which does not have student housing.

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 school, studied abroad in Cuba, and spent summers volunteering in Ecuador, Egypt, and Ghana as part of a school program.