The details that emerged Wednesday — from friends, relatives, fellow students and Huguely’s account of the attack, described in a police affidavit — reveal that the two lacrosse players in the University of Virginia murder case seem as different as his grizzled mug shot and her radiant class picture.

Love, friends and a relative said, was a caring soul who became romantically involved with Huguely, a young man with a temper and at least one alcohol-fueled episode of violence with a police officer. He received a suspended sentence after a drunken scuffle with a Virginia patrolwoman in November 2008.

“She had a great future,” said Granville Swope, Love’s uncle. “And this guy has robbed her.”

In the beginning, they must have seemed twin souls: Children of privilege from the lacrosse fields of affluent suburbia, on the verge of graduating.

Huguely and Love, both 22, had dated for many months when Love called it off in recent weeks, according to several people close to her. But for Huguely, it was not over.

Early Tuesday, Huguely arrived at Love’s apartment, according to a police affidavit filed in support of a search warrant. The front door wasn’t locked, but apparently her bedroom door was. He forced it open, kicking it with his right foot. Police said they found hairs in the hole he left in the door.

Roommates who found her shortly after 2 a.m. thought she might be passed out from drinking and called police. But police found Love dead, facedown in a pool of blood on her pillow. The police documents said she had a bruised face, a swollen eye and scrapes on her chin.

They picked up Huguely at his apartment nearby within a few hours, and after waiving his rights, according to the police affidavit, he told detectives that the couple had been “involved in an altercation” in which “he shook Love and her head repeatedly hit the wall,” according to the affidavit. Huguely admitted taking Love’s computer and discarding it. Police have recovered it and are searching it, according to Charlottesville Police Chief Tim Longo, to determine whether any of Huguely’s final e-mails threatened his former girlfriend’s life.

Longo also said police are investigating witness reports that Huguely was seen drinking throughout the day Monday.

Huguely’s attorney did not dispute Huguely’s late-night visit to Love but told reporters that he did not intend to kill her.

“We are confident that Ms. Love’s death was not intended but an accident with a tragic outcome,” said Charlottesville lawyer Francis Lawrence, who represented Huguely on Wednesday at a scheduled bond hearing, which was delayed. Lawrence said Wednesday, on what would have been Huguely’s last day of classes, that he would withdraw from school.

On the Charlottesville campus, students pleaded for time to absorb the ghastly crime, and the charge that it was committed by one of their own. For the university’s tight-knit community of athletes, the attack hit particularly close.

“We all hang out at the same spots,” said Aaron Clark, a former football team linebacker who knew Huguely and Love. “This situation hits everybody. It’s not just the lacrosse team... We all talk, we all hang out. It’s just so gut-wrenching to know that people you know and have hung out with and are acquaintances with can have this happen.”

Love’s sister and mother arrived here Tuesday and attended a meeting of the women’s lacrosse team, coaching staff, parents and friends. University officials said the family was not ready to speak publicly about Love’s death.

Love was the daughter of an investor, raised on an estate in a suburb north of Baltimore, educated at the private Notre Dame Prep, a girls’ school. She played field hockey and lacrosse, volunteered at a soup kitchen and counseled in a summer camp program for kids from housing projects. She was also a bit of a math nerd.

Her father, John Love, died of prostate cancer in 2003, Love’s sophomore year in high school, leaving Yeardley (pronounced “Yardley”), her older sister, Lexie, and mother Sharon. Love and her classmates attended the funeral in their school uniforms and saddle shoes.

“She handled everything so graciously and was so strong throughout,” said Casey Donohoe, a longtime friend.

Concetta Davis, a neighbor, said she remembered the celebration on the day Love learned she was admitted to U-Va. She said she is in disbelief about the recent turn of events. “If I had a daughter in college today, I would be sick.”