Mickey Shunick found dead

By Chellie Cervone - Posted: Aug 10, 2012 at 3:25 am

Mickey Shunick found dead

Mickey Shunick (Photo: Family website findmickeynow.com)

There was widespread speculation and dread that the body found in Evangeline Parish was Michel Shunick, the beautiful coed who vanished May 19th.

Sadly the speculation was on target and Mickey Shunick’s body was recovered about 100 yards beyond Highway 10.

Brandon Lavergne (photo: wwltv.com)

Police are not saying where the tip came from about the location of Shunicks’s body.

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It may have come from the 33 year old suspect, Brandon Lavergne.

According to CBS News, the registered sex offender was checked out of the Lafayette Parish Correction Center at 6:40 a.m. Tuesday and was taken across the street to the sheriff’s department. Capt. Kip Judice says Lavergne was checked out by a sheriff’s employee who was assigned to the Shunick task force and was checked back in around 3:30 that day.

Hours later a body was found and although Police could not say for sure if it was Shunick, many just knew that it was.

Today, Lafayette Police officially confirmed it.

Mickey Shunick – RIP – (Photo: Family website findmickeynow.com)

Lavergne, from St Landry Parish, was charged with first-degree murder and aggravated kidnapping on July 5th.

On July 18, he was indicted for the first-degree murder of 33 year old Lisa Ann Pate.

Pate had disappeared from Lafayette Parish in July 1999 and was later found dead near Church Point.

Lavergne has a prior record and spent over eight years in prison after pleading guilty to the April 1999 aggravated oral sexual battery of an 18-year-old woman in Evangeline Parish, the Shreveport Times reports.

He reportedly tied up, blindfolded and sexually assaulted the 18-year-old.

He was released from prison in August 2008.

Lavergne apparently moved Shunicks’s body in a move to confuse authorities.

The Town Tall reports that a court filing says the “continued tampering” with Shunick’s body was meant to hamper the investigation

He has pleaded not guilty in both cases.

The Find Mickey Now website has been updated with a message from the family after the body was found on 8-7,

Also, we ask that you please respect the Shunick family by allowing them the privacy they need at this time. It has been, and still is, a long journey in the search to find Mickey, so we truly feel that they deserve some time alone until they are ready to respond to the current rumor.