Posted: May. 8, 2008 4:23 p.m.
Updated: May. 8, 2008 5:20 p.m.

A Chapel Hill woman who was found dead Monday on the banks of the Catawba River had been suffocated, authorities said Thursday.

Irina Sergeyevna Yarmolenko, 20, a student at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, was found next to a blue Saturn at the edge of the river Monday afternoon, police said.

Police were treating the case as a homicide.

Yarmolenko was last seen at about 9:45 a.m. Monday. Anyone with knowledge about her activities Monday is asked to call the Mount Holly Police Department at 704-827-4343.