GREEN BAY - A 21-year-old University of Wisconsin-Green Bay student who disappeared two weeks ago was inside her car that plunged into the Fox River near downtown Green Bay, police said Friday. An autopsy positively identified Mahalia Xiong, Capt. Karl Fleury said at a news conference. The Brown County medical examiner said Thursday he believed the body was Xiong's. The car was found Thursday in the Fox River. Aurora Hernandez was a high school friend of Mahalia. She laid flowers on Friday near the Fox River in memory of a girl so many people loved. “It touched the whole community. It’s hard to come to terms with it. I don’t want to believe it,” said Hernandez. After the recovery of the body, Brown County Medical Examiner Al Klimek said the preliminary indications suggested an accidental death with no sign of foul play, pending results of the autopsy and toxicology tests. The body's condition was "consistent with being submerged for 13 days," he said. Xiong's vehicle has been taken to be processed for evidence, Fleury said. "We'll have to wait for things to dry out. It's a time-consuming ordeal," he said. Fleury declined comment on possible other evidence already found inside the vehicle. "We don't want to jump to conclusions. This is like a puzzle," he said. Crews pulled a sunken, upside-down car from the river around 1:50 p.m. Thursday. The car was found at the bottom of 25 feet of water. As the tires emerged from the surface, it was clear the car was a white Mercury Sable, matching the make and model Xiong was last seen driving when she vanished - a rented 1996 Mercury with the license plates TFD-715. Watch video of the car being pulled from the river Hundreds of onlookers had lined up along the riverbanks. Nearby residents said they saw police activity along the banks Wednesday in what appeared to be a preliminary investigation. “My body was shaking, tears were coming,” Vaugn Vang, Xiong’s former school counselor, said. Nicole Sinnaeve had been following the Xiong case. Once she heard police discovered a body in the Fox River, she showed up to pray it was not Xiong. After learning police found Xiong’s car and a woman’s body inside, Sinnaeve said she feels for Xiong’s family. “My heart goes out to them, goes out to the family," she said. The scene was located at Bridge and Pearl St. in Green Bay in an industrial area. Authorities said they found tire tracks in the grass leading into the river and sent dive teams in to locate the vehicle. Red buoys marked the spot where a crane had been set to lift the vehicle up. Divers say the water was so murky that visibility was nonexistent. About ten members of the Xiong family sat anxiously on the riverbank, some holding hands, staring intently at the water before the car came up. Shortly after the car was raised from the water, Police Chief Jim Arts escorted members of Xiong's family into a building and spoke to them privately. "There's lots of tears being shed, lots of tissue," Arts told the Green Bay Press-Gazette. "They want answers. They want to see their family member." Friend Davee Hang was with Xiong the night she disappeared. He still wonders how she drove several hundred feet across a grass-covered field. "I can't see how anyone could make it all the way through this field here and all the way to the river," Hang said. Mahalia Xiong disappeared early July 13 after a night out with friends at a bowling alley and a sports bar. She was last seen about 2 a.m. driving off alone, authorities said. Her parents live in Green Bay and she has an apartment in the city. Watch raw dive search video The Associated Press contributed to this report.