UNC honors murdered student body president Eve Carson on 40th birthday

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (WTVD) -- Eve Carson is frozen in time as the bubbly, beloved UNC student body President.

A bright future was cut short in 2008, when she was kidnapped, robbed, and murdered, shocking the UNC community.

On campus Wednesday, she was remembered on what would have been her 40th birthday.

"I think that in the few years after Eve's passing, that was a really a large priority for the alumni and for the current students that were on campus, was turning all of their feelings of grief and missing Eve into action, of how can we honor her, how can we carry on her legacy? How can we support these students on campus?" said Isabelle Murphy, executive director of the Eve Carson Scholarship.

Wednesday became a day of service as students packed meals for those in need.

Carson's leadership inspired a new generation of students. The latest group of Eve Carson scholars never knew her personally, but say they still feel a connection.

"She also took time to really talk to everyone. I interviewed my professors who had her in her class before I had applied to the scholarship. And all they said was she would always stay after classes to talk with struggling students, try to find resources, connect others," said Eve Carson scholar Kathryn Chao. "I mean, make everyone's life easier when it even when it wasn't her responsibility."

"I think is the way her legacy is around just serving others, and that's something that we all as scholars embody and hope to continue going into the future as well in our own different ways. But having that model and that aspiration is something that we can all stick on, and it's something that brings us all together," another Eve Carson scholar, Tyler Coffee, said.

It's a birthday gift, continuing to give back to the UNC community she loved.