ATHENS, GA. - Hundreds of heartbroken mourners searched soul and Scripture on Sunday to understand why someone would fatally shoot Eve Carson and cut short a life with such promise.

For the hundreds gathered at Athens, Ga., First United Methodist Church, Carson should still be at school, studying political science and biology, teaching science to grade schoolers and planning her next trip abroad.

"We should not be here this afternoon," senior minister Bill Britt said. "It is too soon to be remembering the life of Eve Marie Carson," he told the mourners who gathered in her hometown. Many wore Carolina blue ribbons in her honor.

During the nearly two-hour service, there were just as many references to her beauty, intelligence and leadership as to her kindness, dedication to service and concern for others.

"Eve Carson was truly a gift to Chapel Hill," UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor James Moeser said.

Carson was in a leadership development program, taught science at Chapel Hill elementary schools and spent summers volunteering in such places as Ecuador, Egypt and Ghana.

Carson was found Wednesday morning lying on a street about a mile from campus. She had been shot several times.

A SECOND FUNERAL: In Marietta, Ga., the hometown of slain Auburn University freshman Lauren Burk, a rabbi asked hundreds of people gathered at her funeral Sunday to turn their anger into something positive and let the justice system handle her killer.

Rabbi Steven Lebow said Sunday at Temple Kol Emeth that mourners should give blood or donate to charity in her memory.

"It would be easy to give way to our emotions this afternoon because there is a spectrum of feelings broiling and unsettling our souls," Lebow said. "The right thing isn't vengeance. The right thing is justice.

Burk, 18, was found shot on the side of an off-campus road Tuesday night. Iraq war veteran Courtney Lockhart has been charged in her death.

Lebow said the person who took Burk's life committed two unpardonable sins -- murder and theft.

"He stole from Lauren's family the trust that all of us have that this is a good world," Lebow said.

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