Two men charged in death of UNC-Charlotte student

MOUNT HOLLY, N.C. — Police have charged two North Carolina men with first-degree murder in the death of a 20-year-old college student whose body was found at the edge of a river.

Mount Holly police said Friday that 40-year-old Mark Bradley Carver of Gastonia and 54-year-old Neal Leon Cassada Jr. of Mount Holly are also charged with felony conspiracy.

The men are accused in the death of University of North Carolina at Charlotte student Irina Yarmolenko. The Chapel Hill woman was found dead May 5 on the riverbank of the Catawba River in Mount Holly, west of Charlotte.

Police haven’t released details about a possible motive or what led to the arrests.

Yarmolenko’s body was found beside her 1998 Saturn, which had gone down a steep embankment and hit a stump at the water’s edge.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)