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While police continue an investigation they say has been hampered by Young's silence, Michelle's loved ones struggle to cope with a staggering loss. She was raised in Sayville, N.Y., by her mother, Linda, 56, coach of her daughter's JV cheerleading squad, and her father, Alan, 55, an automobile dealer (they divorced in 1996). Although Linda is still too distraught to talk to the press about her daughter's death, she did correspond by e-mail with PEOPLE. "Even as a child," she wrote, "you could see how nurturing she was, with her Cabbage Patch Kids and with her younger sister Meredith. She had lots of friends and we always had pool parties and sleepovers." Close friend Jennifer Powers says of Michelle, "She was incredibly smart, very focused, a real joiner. I hate to use the word popular, but she was – in every sense of the word." At North Carolina State University, Michelle scored straight A's before earning a master's in accounting and passing her CPA exams on her first try. "She was good at everything" says lifelong friend Marybeth Loughlin. "She cheered at the opening ceremonies of the Olympics in Atlanta; who can say that? That was so Michelle. She was really someone to look up to."
Friends say the same about Jason Young. A former Boy Scout who loved the outdoors and once hiked the 2,050-mile Appalachian Trail, "he's one of those guys who made friends with everyone," says Layton Parker, who went to the same Brevard high school as Young. "He never said anything negative. He had a magnetic personality." His mother, Patricia, a fifth-grade teacher, raised him after his father died when Jason was a child. He met Michelle when both were students at North Carolina State University; they married in 2003 and later settled in Enchanted Oaks, living what seemed like a busy, ordinary life. "Michelle had a huge network of friends," says Loughlin, "and there were always parties, barbecues, football games, baby showers and birthdays."
