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Lafayette Police Department via AP
Police confirmed they have found the remains of Mickey Shunick after the college student had been missing since May.
Police in Louisiana confirmed Thursday that human remains found earlier this week are those of missing college student Mickey Shunick, NBC station NBC33 in Baton Rouge reported.
Shunick's decomposed remains were found buried in a graveyard in Evangeline Parish in central Louisiana on Tuesday after Lafayette police received a tip from a credible witness about the location.
Because of the level of decomposition, the Lafayette Parish Coroner required the help forensic experts from Louisiana State University, according to a press release.
Shunick's family released a statement thanking supporters and requesting privacy.
The University of Louisiana at Lafayette student was last seen in the early morning hours of May 19 -- days before her 22nd birthday -- riding a bicycle on her way to her parents' home after leaving a friend's house.
Her family reported the anthropology student missing after she failed to show for her younger brother's high school graduation the next day.
A few days later, Shunick's bike was found submerged in a local bay about 25 miles from where she was last seen.
Police arrest sex offender in connection with missing college student
Brandon Scott Lavergne, 33, a registered sex offender, has been charged with Shunick's murder and disappearance. He is also facing a murder charge for the 1999 murder of another woman.
He has pleaded not guilty to all counts and is being held without bond.
Lavergne's conviction stemmed from the sexual assault of an 18-year-old girl while he was stationed in nearby Fort Polk and serving in the Army. He served eight years of a 10-year sentence, and was released from prison in August 2008.
He has been classified as a Tier 3-level sex offender, the highest level there is.
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Police are not releasing the name of the witness who led them to Shunick's remains.
The burial ground is about 35 miles from Lavergne's home in Swords, La.
The Associated Press reported Lavergne was taken from the Lafayette Parish Correctional Center on Tuesday and taken across the street to the sheriff's office and checked back in the correctional center a few hours later.
If convicted he could face life in prison or the death penalty.
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Leave a Comment:
So A guy in the military violently sexually assaults a girl and gets 8 years in prison? Oh, and he manages to kill 2 other women since then?!?
The military should have used him for target practice back in 98.
Actually, the military probably helped him become the animal that he eventually became....that, and our animalistic American culture.
Our Military trains sex offenders? That's a pretty impressive leap of logic you have there.
Sounds like you have an agenda against the Military.
They probably knew who they were dealing with when they discharged him. Fry this a-hole!
So, why is he not still in prison for life? This justice system sucks!
I vote bullet in the head.
And American Pauper...FU.
Just spend eighty five cents on a round of about 240 grains of lead. Let him die of lead poisoning between the eyes.
I was going to say ... if he is a level 3 sex offender, what the heck is this animal (refuse to call him a man) doing with any freedom to roam around? He needs to be locked up in a cage and either spayed or neutered.
a cage costs too much... a bullet is about a nickle or up depending or caliber...or even better, a rope as it can easily be reused......
Animals should not be placed in the same category as this monster. He is not a human, and not an animal either, because carnivores have to kill their prey/food in order to survive. This waste of space kills for pleasure and that is a cold blooded monster. He should have been put six feet under when he assaulted the first victim. I am tired of these monsters who hurt humans and animals for pleasure or because something in their head told them to do it and then practically get off scot-free, just to then go out and do again and again. My heart goes out to the victims. Our justice system seems to really fail us sometimes.
He was a successful breeder....he adapted to his environment and through sheer physical power was able to mate with a blonde, white female (or I guess he would have been if he'd thought to hold her captive a few months before killing her). Sounds very state of nature-ish!
There shouldn't be any such thing as "registered sex offenders." Only castrated sex offenders. With a tattoo on the forehead. Target shaped.
You can not rehabilitate a sex offender. Therefore they must be eliminated.
If only that were true these cases would be much easier to try. The fact is Lavergne committed an assault first and rape second. Violent individuals such as this should never be let out of prison, yet men who commit non-forced sex acts are treated the same as Lavergne! Sex offender laws simply don't work because even if 90% of offenders don't commit violent rape, the law helps hide the violent offenders by treating them all the same.
I get sick to my stomach when someone says "They should all..." - YOU ARE JUST ENABLING the violent offenders!
Why do we keep letting these guys out of prison? Once is enough!
Hope he gets the death penalty. You know---the same penalty he gave his victims!!!!!
I'd have to agree. What this man did shouldn't allow him to live, he took life away from his victims now he shouldn't have one. What in the world is a level 3 sex offender....the highest level there is....doing out and about in society? My sincere condolences to her family, it's a horrible ending but to have closure makes it only the slightest bit better.
And they wonder why we don't encourage out children to ride bikes and get outside more. They aren't safe in their own neighborhoods!
Need to put this animal out of his misery!
lock him in.... effen sex offender should be held without bonds. court system should go back to the good old days, hang them bastards just any criminal who takes the lives of other human beings.
This lowlife sicko should never have been unleashed on society after his first offense.
We simply don't have a punishment horrible enough for these perverts, and the liberal justice system unleashes him on society after just 8 years.
Why didn't you show it's picture, so the world can see this, it. Put it, in a deep dark place. it, is lower than whale excrement.
google "Brandon Scott Lavergne" then click on the images link. There's lots of pics of him.
Very sad ending but at least there is closure for the family.
This lowlife sicko should never have been unleashed on society after his first offense.
...but he has rights!
(sarcasm intended)
the only right he ever should have been granted was weather or not he wanted a blindfold at the fireing squad.
And yet was released ........thank you, ACLU, as well as the P.C. crowd and anti death sentence pukes.
RIP Mickey, you like too many others deserved better.
After the first offense the guilty party should have mandatory castration, if there are any more problems,the death sentence. I would bet these sort of crimes would be less of a problem.
justice system has failed again
This guy gets paroled 2 years early and is the highest level of sex offender scum, but Bernie Madoff (while what he did was wrong) gets what, 250 years just for taking money from people who already have tons of it? Yeah, that makes tons of sense. So ridiculous. Gotta love our justice system.
Money always takes priority over a life in our justice system.
Annihilate this subanimal!
I was really saddened to hear what happened to Mickey. So young and full of promise to be taken away by someone so worthless. I hope her friends and family can find some peace at some point in their lives with this.
Yes, so very sad. Deepest sympathies to her family and loved ones!
I have heard the refrain when a loved one has died, "Well at least they are out of the pain and suffering life gives us." I don't believe in the death penalty, not because I am a bleeding heart, but because I want to see these murderous people suffer in the extreme. I worked At Pelican Bay Prison, at maximum security 5 when it was built, and I can tell you I would rather be dead then be in there for the rest of my life. There were no bars, cell fronts were big plates of stainless steal with 1/4 inch holes in them. They are in their cell twenty three hours, in an 8x10 cell, 1 hour a day for exercise. They see no outside only a small hole in the ceiling covered by a white plastic to let in a small amount of light in the exercise room. and 1 shower a week if they desire. Plenty go insane. This is where this 'it' belongs for the rest of its life, I don't mind paying nickles on my dollar to see it pay for its crime.
I agree, and if this depraved piece of human garbage manages to "rehabilitate" himself, then let him do his good works in prison. He should never under any circumstances be let out, not even in chains to attend the funeral of a dead relative. He has given up any right to be a free citizen ever again. My prayers for the wronged victims and their families.
so sad...a young person with hopes for a future killed by a moron....let him suffer a painful slow death...
This Nation has got to come up with a way to either Track these slugs or permanently incarcerate them in a Labor Camp. I don't believe we will ever be able to keep these pieces of trash permanently incarcerated. Too many People believe in rehabilitation and if someone has served their time they should be Free. While we have mandatory registration for this type of Life Form, it only serves as a means of rounding them up after a crime has been committed.
How can the Public be convinced that both longer sentences and Labor Camps are the only thing first time Sex offenders deserve? Second timers should be executed within one year of sentencing. This allows for the Appeals process, which needs to be sped up. How many more Victims? How much more Heartbreak? Before we will force this issue to be dealt with?
Exactly. I am a believer in rehabilitation for some crimes but sexual predators can not be rehabilitated. Time and again we hear accounts like this — some deviant gets out of prison after serving half a sentence for a sex crime, only to repeat or escalate their vile behavior. There should be a mandatory and nationwide one-strike law for EVERY sex offender.
The courts and appeals process get dragged out for one reason. Money. The longer the greedy lawyers can keep a case going the more billable hours they accumulate. Take that incentive away and we could get back to dispensing justice, instead of the surrent state of fleecing clients.
How did this guy only get 10 years in prison? And he get out early on top of that? Highest level sex offenders should get life with no parole at minimum. Totally preventable crime. Tragic!
Because rape is not considered to be that bad of a crime (I'm not agreeing, but that's the logic of the justice system). He didn't kill the last victim in the crime for which he was imprisoned, he "only" sexually assaulted her.
death penalty not in 20 years but 30 days after conviction
don't seem you can let the sex offenders out...let them out in the world where no one is watching them...there has been to many repeat offenders...the laws need to be changed so they stay in jail for life...kept in a mental ward for the sick...
Its too bad they don't hold accountable the idiots who released this POS back into society in the first place.
That would never happen; in fact they love it. they justify the cushy jobs they have, just like all beuracrats.
GPS chips buried deep inside, not little removable boxes strapped around their leg.
Profound sympathy for this dear girl's family.
This will solve the whole problem! The people who Parole these kind of people should be required to serveout the parolees term when parolee violates his or her's Parole. Then the Parolee should be castrated put into general population, with his crime passed around to the other inmates.
A "Tier 3" sex offender, sentenced to ONLY 10 years for assaulting an 18 year old woman!
He then serves ONLY 8 of those years and...
During the time when he should have been finishing his original sentence, is suspected of murdering a 19 year old woman.
AND now he is a "person of interest"/"prime suspect" in the murder of a 22 year old woman.
In our urge to show our "humanity", have we, perhaps, missed the point? Three women assaulted, two dead and a "highest level" sexual predator free to roam, having, I guess, "paid his debt to society"? Or did some prison pshrink pronounce him "cured"? Or was it just too overcrowded to keep him locked up? Which of those considerations do we charge these crimes to?
We know the sorry history of recidivism (and escalation) among sex offenders. Isn't it time that we made "protection of society"/"defense of the innocent" the priority in our prosecution and sentencing policies? Is that too much to ask?