Mickey Shunick, murdered. 22, La. vanished riding her bike

[OceanMetTheSky]

Hi JsMom, thanks for the welcome

Im not sure if thats the case, but if you know that area, its known for plenty of drunk driving, because bars let out around the exact time she was riding.

But since she was a frequent cyclist, someone might have learned her bike route.
Her phones been off since Saturday though.

Since its already been past 72 hours, they better search and search as much as they can, because time is dwindling.

If the K-9s dont pick up on a scent, that's going to be pretty bad for the entire case, since its almost the final step.

I live around a lot of fields, around 25 minutes from where she was taken.
A serial killer who was here a few years ago came down my road, the girl jumped out, ran through the fields, and luckily found people to save her and call the police. I forgot how many girls he raped/killed. His name was Derrick Todd Lee.

Another instance, a drug deal gone bad, a victim was shot and the body was put into the field down the street.

These fields at night are so quiet, that I guess it seems like an ideal place to bring someone.

I plan to search around these fields today for anything. Hope NOT to find anything.

I also hope she is not one of the thousands of cases in which NOTHING is ever found about what happened to her.

Please keep wishing, praying, whatever any of you do guys.
I dont know the girl, but it seems like through this case, even strangers feel like they know her.

[Lady Cop]

SS: LC please confirm this, Bretty would have been extensively interviewed by the police, already.


yes of course he has.

all i can say is i would not let my petite pretty friend ride her bike home alone at 0200.

[Jezreel]

Welcome Ocean and thanks for sharing your thoughts on Brettly, it's always good to hear from frIends and get a good insight on the people around Mickey.

[Cheyne]

Welcome Ocean!

I am not casting aspersions on your former friend, but his use of the word "inertia" in the video plea is interesting. Inertia isn't what I would call a "big word" as most people have at least a vague idea of what it means from their high school science classes. But his use of that word is incorrect in the context of his message. Does he frequently misuse words when he speaks?

As for body size, Dru Sjodin was murdered by Alfonso Rodriguez in 2003. Rodriguez is a very small man. He was able to overpower Dru with a knife.

Brettly has lead every part of this investigation.
I dont know this girl, but i do know Brettly.
Brettly is active like this when anyone goes missing, a complete stranger. However, this was one of his best friends.
He refers to her as young woman because he is speaking out to everyone that did not know her...
He is REMINDING them that she needs everyones help.

I am sure LE is leading the investigation, do you mean that Brettly is in charge of the civilian efforts to find Mickey?

Does Brettly help in many missing persons cases? Does he go out of town to help search and put up flyers? Unless there are numerous missing persons in your area?

Referring to Mickey as a young woman does not personalize her to random strangers like me. Referring to her by name several times might make me pay attention to her name and then take a good look at her and remember her.

I can't be reminded of something I didn't know. He shouldn't be reminding me, he should be alerting me to the fact that Mickey is missing. If I lived in the area I would help, but I doubt she's anywhere near the "Big Empty" where I live. However, I will be on the look-out for her and others who are missing. (Isabel Celis, Hailey Dunn et al.)

I am not trying to pick on you, Ocean. I am picking on the language used because that is a habit of mine. Feel free to ignore!

LC I agree with you, I would never allow any of my friends (petite blondes or not) to ride their bike home at 2 am.

[shitstorm]

Hi, Ocean, so glad you're here and weighed in.

For the record, my take on your friend (sorry, I thought it was Bretty without an 'L") was that of a young kid (compared to me) trying to seem professional (for lack of a better word). That he misused a word isn't indicative of anything other than he's developing his vocabulary and got a definition wrong.

I would not want to be in the shoes of anyone who was the last person to see someone who is missing. That puts that person immediately under suspicion and everyone picks apart everything about them. It's both necessary (on the part of detectives) and unfair! You do the right thing and put yourself out there and the public, who does not know you, puts you under a microscope. I did read that your friend has been tight with Mickey for years. He must be beside himself.

LC, don't you remember being that age and feeling, for the most part, invincible? Her friends and family say she makes that ride on a regular basis. In a busy college town, she probably felt safe with so much activity around. I'll bet lots of students ride at all hours.

[OceanMetTheSky]

Thanks for the welcome everyone!

Cheyne,
I wouldn't call inertia a big word either. I'm just saying Brettly usually speaks in a not so casual way, using big words and such.
No, he doesn't usually get the meanings of the words wrong. But he was reading from a board, and I'm sure he was just a little nervous to begin with.
I don't think it had anything to do with the case. I misuse and fumble words all the time. I can only imagine what I'd do if I lost my best friend.

Yes, sure, a small person can overpower someone using a knife. But of course, I'm sure they searched his property since that is where everything is currently held anyway. I also don't think it was just Mickey and Brettly... Pretty sure their other friends were there as well. Brettly really would not harm a fly.

I don't know how many times Brettly has helped with things. I just know that when things go wrong, Brettly always tries to help. It's how he is.
He always forms organizations and awareness groups for various things. He's a good guy.

I understand that referring to her as young woman instead of by name might not increase peoples wants to help out with the case
But he makes sure to refer to her as a friend, and by name in the conclusion of the video. I really don't think they were analyzing their words forever.
They just wanted the overall message to be out there, and it is. Hopefully it will make some kind of difference.

Its okay, no offense taken

Shitstorm, you're right. Brettly does seem to give off that attempt at trying to be professional haha, but despite his misuse of inertia, he's a really smart guy.

It seems more people are pointing fingers at him. Their accusations have no proof though, and i think people are just desperate to pinpoint someone.

I did read on a local article via facebook that a girl around the area was planning to attend the Candle light vigil held for Mickey tonight. She wandered a few streets down, just searching the area. She noticed a run down house that looked abandoned almost. She said she looked in the back, and there were a lot of broken down trees, and something that "glared" but she couldn't tell if it was a bike. Her story was a little hard to understand, but basically, i think some guy came around the corner. They made eye contact, and she said he gave her a look like he had known her his entire life, and he took off running, and so did she.

She could be full of bull, but you never know. Since there has been absolutely no leads, many people told her to report this to the tip line anyway.
I hope she does.

Brettly was tight with her it seems. He is cool with a lot of people though. When you're friends with Brettly, it's a tight friendship. Like almost a brotherly thing. I'm sure this has felt like losing a sister. At least he has a girl friend who is helping him through this, along with many friends and complete strangers.

Her sister is torn up.
If you guys would like to see a recent interview of her sister, check here.
http://1079ishot.com/mickey-shunick-sist...elp-video/

Mickey's birthday was the other day. Sad that she spent it missing, but hopefully alive.

And shitstorm, stories like this usually effect more, as in I'm empathetic towards any sad story.
But I don't know if it's because of her being a local or old friends being close with her, but this story hit me hard.
I can't quit thinking about the entire thing, and wondering the outcome.

[OceanMetTheSky]

*Usually effect me.
Sorry about that.

[Lady Cop]

sorry these photos are so large. i wanted them very clear.

reward is now up to $20,000.

i don't feel she is alive. a random snatch would just grab her and leave the bike in the street. who has a vested interest in hiding the bike?

i could of course be wrong.

and i don't have enough info to suspect Brettly, but you always MUST look at last person to see her alive.

this is bad:
"None of the video cameras got checked over the weekend because the managers weren't in and waited two days to check the video cameras," he told Lafayette newspaper The Advertiser. "If somebody has abducted her and taken her on the Interstate or something, they got a two-day head start."



Mickey Shunick's siblings, Charlie, right, and Zack Shunick







Mickey Shunick with her brother Zack, her sister, Charlene, her father Mckey and her mom Nancy.

[OceanMetTheSky]

I feel differently. I feel she is alive for some reason, which is not usually a feeling I have when someone goes missing.
However, that could the massive amount of positive support coming in surrounding her case that makes me feel like that.... Hope not though.

I don't know for how long she will be alive. But the fact that there has not been anything found to actually lead to the idea that she was killed makes me believe she might be alive.

I still find it really weird how it's going to be coming up on a week of her disappearing in a few days, and there is still nothing really as far as leads.

Yeah, it's bad that they waited so long to view security tapes. And AFTER it rained horribly to bring in the K-9s.

[shitstorm]

The best reason that I can think of that her abductor took her bike is that he clipped her with a vehicle and didn't want the paint from his own left as evidence. I highly doubt that she could have been lured into getting off her bike.

When I looked at Brettly's photos, and his girlfriend's, these kids resonated with me. Looks like they're into vegetarian cooking and animals, caring about others, riding to raise money for affordable housing, and just lots of highly conscious, good things for kids to be doing. Even Mickey's major, anthropology, shows a passion for people and life. The Lafayette community looks amazing with so many people volunteering and helping in this awful search. Her friends have done such a good job with organizing searches and color coding maps with what's been searched, her possible routes. They couldn't have their shit together more and still nothing. It's a sickening, sinking feeling that these efforts have proved fruitless. I think this was a stranger abduction and that LC is probably right :( Such a nice family with great girls. Just the kind of girls that anyone would be so pleased to have for daughters. Mickey is not the common victim type - a prostitute or street person. I would not be surprised if this is a serial killer.

[shitstorm]

I feel differently. I feel she is alive for some reason, which is not usually a feeling I have when someone goes missing.
However, that could the massive amount of positive support coming in surrounding her case that makes me feel like that.... Hope not though.

I don't know for how long she will be alive. But the fact that there has not been anything found to actually lead to the idea that she was killed makes me believe she might be alive.

I still find it really weird how it's going to be coming up on a week of her disappearing in a few days, and there is still nothing really as far as leads.

Yeah, it's bad that they waited so long to view security tapes. And AFTER it rained horribly to bring in the K-9s.

Ocean, I hope you're right and I had that same feeling when I first read about her. I, too, don't usually get a feeling like that. I felt a real sense of urgency. With this amount of time having passed, I'm not too hopeful. However, I hope the search remains aggressive with the goal that she can still be found alive.

[Lady Cop]

like you both and all her friends, i hope she's alive.

here's the jaded cop's view:

someone saw the pretty little alone & vulnerable girl. it's 0200. (they had been out at a club earlier.)

she didn't run away and put her family though this torture, a nice girl. it was her brother's graduation and her own birthday. not a voluntary absence.

so what does that leave?

a kidnapper won't keep someone too long, too risky. Elizabeth Smart notwithstanding.

best case scenario she's a prisoner in a vehicle and will find a moment to escape. doubtful.

i WISH to be wrong.

[shitstorm]

A lot of good her mace did her. Do we all need to carry in this day and age? Seems like it.

[shitstorm]

So, LC, should girls be armed? That sounds extreme but a gun greatly increases the chances of being able to defend ones self in such a scenario. Why not a .22 instead of mace? I would rather struggle with my gun and take the risk of getting shot than to be killed by an abductor.

[shitstorm]

Wow, that's weird. I posted a video (post number 34) and then made my post to LC asking about guns and that overrode the video post!

[Lady Cop]

my admonition is this...don't carry anything that can be taken away from you and used against you. be SURE of your ability.
don't appear to be victim material.
sorry, but women need to use common sense about when and where to be out and about. whether it's fair or not.

commercial mace/pepper spray is probably useless. sometimes if you get a shot of it off you just piss off the assailant even more.

i don't mean any of this to indicate women need to be passive victims. but they do need to be proactive and sensible. to use reasonable caution.

i do say scream, bite, kick, gouge, scratch, whatever it takes to break away. if you are armed be ready to shoot to kill.

no, i deleted your post 34 that was blank. no video.


i am bothered LE has had no presser.

vigil in the park last night

[shitstorm]

my admonition is this...don't carry anything that can be taken away from you and used against you. be SURE of your ability.
don't appear to be victim material.
sorry, but women need to use common sense about when and where to be out and about. whether it's fair or not.

commercial mace/pepper spray is probably useless. sometimes if you get a shot of it off you just piss off the assailant even more.

i don't mean any of this to indicate women need to be passive victims. but they do need to be proactive and sensible. to use reasonable caution.

i do say scream, bite, kick, gouge, scratch, whatever it takes to break away. if you are armed be ready to shoot to kill.

no, i deleted your post 34 that was blank. no video.

It seems almost crazy to think that a young woman needs to pack but I think it's prudent (stand your ground becoming all the more important!). Even living life cautiously, women can find themselves in vulnerable situations (parking lots and ramps, for instance). Thing is, I don't know how feasible that is because if you carry a gun it needs to be on your person at all times. In a case like Mickey, a college kid could go into a bar, spend the night with friends, ect, and then what do you with your gun? You can't just stick it in your backpack.

[Lady Cop]

ok this will seem farfetched...

i just listened to Brettly on JVM. JVM asked him if they were romantic. he said he used to date a friend of hers. it didn't work out. and he and Mickey got "closer" but it was "platonic which was OK"... so my mind went right away to she rejected him romantically. fill in the rest.

reward is capped at 25 K

[Jimbone]

Hmmm, i wonder if that little squirrel did it.

It's astonishing to me how people can simply vanish without a findable trace.

[Lady Cop]

well my fevered cop brain works overtime!
i look at all the possibilities, nomatter how out there they may seem. mostly because i am suspicious of everyone. has this kid taken a poly? we don't know.

it was reported they are now searching a lake for "clues". probably looking for bike, purse, phone. and a body.