Silence fell across the Virginia Tech campus at noon today and bells tolled in churches across the United States in memory of the 32 people killed in the deadliest shooting rampage in modern US history.
On the campus, much of the shock from Monday's killings by Cho Seung-Hui had given way to grief.
Marlena Librescu, the wife of Romanian-born Engineering Professor Liviu Librescu, who was killed in the Virginia Tech shootings, during his funeral in Raanana, Israel, today. The Holocaust survivor was gunned down trying to save his students. AP
Hundreds of sombre students and local residents, most wearing the school's maroon and orange, stood with heads bowed at a memorial on the large field in front of Norris Hall.
Along with the bouquets and candles was a yellow sign covered in maroon and orange handprints, bearing the words "Never forgotten".
Churches around the US, from California to the National Cathedral in Washington, DC, planned vigils and prayer services. In Denver, as a cathedral's bells pealed, Colorado Governor Bill Ritter and others bowed their heads in memory of the victims at both Virginia Tech and at Littleton's Columbine High School eight years earlier.
Governor Timothy Kaine declared today a state-wide day of mourning for the victims.
As families began burying the victims, investigators worked on the evidence and looked into the warning signs in Cho's past, including two stalking complaints against him and a psychiatric hospital visit in which he was found to be a danger to himself.
Police filed a search warrant for a laptop and mobile phone used by one of the first victims, Emily Hilscher, who was shot in a dormitory. "The computer would be one way the suspect could have communicated with the victim," the warrant said, but it offered no basis for a belief that Cho might have been in contact with her.
Investigators are "making some really great progress" into determining how and why the shootings happened, Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said. She said they hope to have something to tell the public next week. The governor also appointed an independent panel that includes former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge to look into how authorities handled the tragedy.
Mr Ridge said that the group would look into the time lapse and how students were notified of the dangers, and whether privacy laws and the need to communicate for safety conflicted, among other things. "This was out-and-out murder," Mr Ridge said. "This was a horribly, horribly deranged young man."
Private funeral ceremonies were held for Egyptian Waleed Mohammed Shaalan and Partahi Mamora Halomoan Lumbantoruan of Indonesia. Engineering professor Liviu Librescu, a Holocaust survivor whose family says tried to save his students amid the shooting Monday, was buried in Israel.