MOUNT HOLLY, N.C. -- A young woman whose body was found next to her car on the banks of the Catawba River was slain, police said Thursday.

A jet skier spotted the car and 20-year-old Irinia Yarmolenko’s body in a remote area on Monday. The driver’s side door of the car was wide open and it appeared the car had crashed into a stump dozens of feet down an embankment behind the new YMCA North of Caldwell Drive.

"There's a car that's run off an embankment and there's a body laying there. I don't know if they're alive or not," the 911 caller said.

Mount Holly police said an autopsy revealed Yarmolenko died from asphyxiation. They would not say if she had been strangled.

Investigators from Mount Holly and Belmont are now trying to find out what happened Monday between the time Yarmolenko was last seen and when her body was found. They said that morning she went to a credit union near the University of North Carolina at Charlotte campus and then to Jackson’s Java on University City Boulevard, where she worked, for a quick visit. She left around 10:50 a.m., and about two and a half hours later, around 1:18 p.m., she was found dead.

She was found miles from campus in an area she had no known connection to.

Police revealed few details from the investigation, but said people should watch their surroundings, even though they don’t believe someone is stalking and killing people.

Authorities are speaking with family, friends and co-workers and distributing fliers to local businesses, trying to gather any information about Yarmolenko’s whereabouts on Monday. Anyone with information is asked to call the Mount Holly Police Department at (704) 827-4343, UNCC police at (704) 687-2200 or Gaston County CrimeStoppers at (704) 861-8000.

“This is a sad day for us,” said Marlene Hall, director of UNCC police. “Please give us a call. Even if it is a small thing. It may not have looked like much, (but) any detail is very important.”

Fellow students at UNCC plan to remember Yarmolenko on campus late Thursday. A candlelight vigil is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Belk Tower.

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