Campus, community mourn loss of AU student

Auburn University students gathered Wednesday evening to remember a young woman, who one friend described as a “free spirit” and “well-liked.”

Auburn freshman Lauren A. Burk, of Marietta, Ga., died Tuesday night after being shot. While investigators tried to piece together the events that lead to her death, family, friends and peers gathered to pay their respects.

Nearly 100 students, including her sisters in the Delta Gamma sorority, gathered for a prayer vigil in the parking lot where her torched car had been discovered the night before.

Just after 9 p.m. Tuesday, Auburn police responded to a call of an “injured female,” later identified as Burk, on U.S. Highway 147 who suffered a gunshot wound, according to police reports. Less than half an hour later, the Auburn Fire Division responded to a car fire in a campus parking lot. That vehicle was later determined to belong to Burk.

During the vigil, the Delta Gamma sisters gathered in a semi-circle around the parking space where fragments and glass from her charred car remained Wednesday afternoon.

The news of Burk’s death sent shockwaves through the Marietta, Ga., and Auburn communities.

“She (Lauren) was a great student, a great kid and a great leader just like so many of the other kids we send to Auburn University,” said Dr. Tom Higgins, principal of Walton High School in Marietta where Burk graduated last year. “We notified our staff and faculty about the incident this morning and will make counselors available to assist grieving students.”

One of Burk’s former high school colleagues and current AU student, Elizabeth Chandler, 18, remembers Burk as a person everyone liked.

“I know when someone dies everyone talks about how good they were, but Lauren really was a gorgeous person,” said Chandler who recalls Burk being a very outgoing and active student who played lacrosse and was part of the homecoming court at Walton High.

Chandler learned of Burk’s death this morning when she checked her cell phone and found several messages from current Walton High students.

From what Chandler said she understands thus far, Burk may have been killed some time after she left Sasnett Hall after visiting her boyfriend, Sean McQuade, also a former Walton High student and current AU student.

“They ( Lauren and Sean) were the cutest couple,” said Chandler, a Marietta native.

Jay Seyfried, a junior at Auburn University and also a graduate of Walton High where Burk attended, was a mutual friend of Burk and McQuade.

The junior International Business student learned that Lauren had gone missing around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday night after dropping of an item on campus.

The idea that Burk’s killer was someone she knew is one Seyfried finds difficult to accept.

“Lauren was such a good judge of character,” Seyfried said. “She would never have been with someone she didn’t feel comfortable with.”

While he personally feels safe on the Auburn University campus, Seyfried said he’ll be more concerned about his girlfriend and other young women he knows as they travel on campus.

Chandler expressed similar concerns , but her thoughts and prayers are still with her fallen friend Lauren.

One of her (Lauren) favorite songs was Coldplay’s ‘(Don’t Panic)Beautiful World,’” said Chandler. “Today the world doesn’t look so beautiful.”