LA - Mickey Shunick, 21, Lafayette 19 May 2012 - #25

[chicken fried]

I've heard a few people state that they believe ATV's (4-wheelers) would not make it down to the bike disposal site. Why?! I have seen the pictures and I still think there would be a way for one to make it down there...somehow.

We have many places, where I live, that look like you would never ride on in a million years, yet those are the most popular places for kids and young adults b/c the "older" folk wouldn't take those chances to get there. Especially w/ the artwork down there, it's obviously a place where kids would hang out (at night most likely b/c they wouldn't have the "cojones" to destroy property during the day in front of people). I don't know---we do stupid stuff here in Illinois and I have been thrown from 4wheelers, dirtbikes, and snowmobiles more than once and mudding is a past-time. You would be surprised at how skilled young drivers really can be...especially when that's all there is to do! We also party anywhere along water's edge...and most places are not accessible by a regular vehicle, but we always found a way in. I used to ride my car down the railroad tracks to get to a certain party spot...you'd be surprised at what the young know about and what the adults have NO CLUE on. I think it's very plausible that someone could of taken her and her bike or just her bike to that area via atv---they have racks on the back, storage, lights, it's easy to kill the motor and lights if a vehicle were coming so they'd never even know you were around. Nothing is Impossible.

There were no marks on the rim of the drop-off to indicate an ATV. There would have been crush marks on the rim.

The slope is a lot steeper than the pictures indicate, as I noted.

The woods around are too thick along the shore.

And the path is way too narrow for an ATV, IMO.

And there really is no reason at all to go there by ATV, when one can just walk down a short path unobserved. An ATV would absolutely be the hardest way to go about it. And there's just no reason at all to use one. I could have driven my car up there, walked down the path, tossed the bike, and been back in my car in under 2 minutes.

 

[chicken fried]

Not Steve's fault. Not mac or pc.

Reducing your picture size does not reduce the quality. 640 is recommended because the forum margins are 680. If you make your picture bigger the whole forum becomes bigger.

Large pictures can be put in the post as an attachment. Keeps everyone happy.

A mod told me to size them at 800, and so I just followed directions.

I'm not understanding this. When I view my post with pictures, the text on my screen goes waay beyond the right end of the picture - I'm talking I have 1/3 of a screen blank space remaining.

I will do future pictures at 680 to try your suggestion, but I'm not going to resize all my photos a second time. With my old system I'm using, it's very, very labor intensive, I've already done it once, and my hands are in a bad way.

I may be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure that the number of pixels directly affects picture quality, and the ability to zoom in, being that the file being posted is now small. Since resizing my photos I have had only one blown-marging report, instead of several; when I was posting them at 1100... so it did make some difference it seems.

 

[chicken fried]

The whole impact of my visit to Whiskey Bay is that I now believe it was very unlikely that the bike got there dropped from the bridge or by boat - e.g. Mickey is not there. She's somewhere else.

 

[Mrs. B]

Chicken Fried, Thank you for posting the photos near the river. Above and beyond the call of duty. I must say!

 

[Woe.be.gone]

Targeted because she's a white girl, I suppose. I really doubt it. If it turned out to be that, it would get hushed up because 'hate crime' was only meant to be applied to certain victims.

People really out to research where 'hate crime' and 'hate speech' laws originated, who cooked them up and for whose benefit. The agenda behind it is sheer evil and that's all I'll say.

Okay, I'll look into the 'original' meaning. Can you give me a hint? When people hate something they don't want that something to 'invade' their space and are threatened by whatever it is that they hate. My understanding of the term 'hate crime' is when somebody or a group of people attack another person or a group of persons because they are different from what the hater/s think is right/decent/acceptable. Hate crimes are committed by small minded, superior thinking people/groups who think they have all the answers to life and try to control others by using forceful tactics and fear tactics.

Hate has been around forever so I don't know when the original hate crime was committed. The term to me implies, hurting someone because they REPRESENT something that you don't agree with, approve of or like. These crimes can be racially motivated or philosophically motivated or, worst of all, religiously motivated.

 

[Foxfire]

The whole impact of my visit to Whiskey Bay is that I now believe it was very unlikely that the bike got there dropped from the bridge or by boat - e.g. Mickey is not there. She's somewhere else.

So, where do you go from here, ChickenFried? Any hunches or theories?

 

[chicken fried]

I have thought further about the bike's being tossed from the ledge behind the bridge support pillar, vs. its being tossed from the bottom of the path to the shore. Last night I checked the river stage and thought it would have been too deep if tossed from the pillar. But now I think again, and the floation factor comes into play. there was some air in at least one of the tires, presumably, and definitely in the frame. It could been thrown from the pillar and the current moved it a bit closer in before it fully sank.

Not that it really matters. The key is that I think the perp(s) did drive down the Whiskey Bay exit, did turn onto Hwy. 975, did park in the lot. That means I don't see how they could have dropped Mickey at the same time/place. This helps carve off a couple lines of inquiry, in my book.

 

[mahmoo]

The whole impact of my visit to Whiskey Bay is that I now believe it was very unlikely that the bike got there dropped from the bridge or by boat - e.g. Mickey is not there. She's somewhere else.

I agree with you. Thanks for the great photos by the way.

 

[Isabelle]

So today is the last of the volunteer ground searches. The Family has had the distraction (if that is the correct word) of being involved with the active search to help them through their difficult days. Tomorrow a new day will dawn, and I'm afraid with it will come a pain so deep to be almost unbearable. I'll pray for them. Only time and a lot of it (years and years) will dull the pain. So sorry they have to live through this.

 

[radiator]

I've been musing over what "items thought to have been with Shunick the night she vanished" were given to Mr. Abdella.

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/arti...0323/-Encouraged-by-findings?odyssey=nav|head

And somehow I've come back to thinking that the bicycle and her belongings may have been taken by someone (or ones) that didn't have anything to do with her disappearance.

Oddly in trying to find a link for the "items" it took some doing. Other MSM only talks about the tip(s) describing a suspect(s).

eta: chicken fried's photos of where the bike was found contributed to my sense that its disposal may be separate from whatever happened to Mickey.

 

[CHEL]

I keep thinking about the father. When will he return to work? & Charlie left her whole life in Texas. I wouldn't know what to do. Where do you go from here? So sad to imagine.

 

[chicken fried]

So, where do you go from here, ChickenFried? Any hunches or theories?

If a local perp dropped the bike that early, it likely was as a distraction, and maybe she's closer to home.

If the perp was on the way to Baton Rouge or NOLA, then it was done in transit, and maybe it was not intended to be found, and was, anyway. But I ask.... why take the time to do this, in transit, when you've got a kidnapped woman in your car? You're increasing your risk just by driving down there - especially if a cop happens to cruise by to check the area and you've got her in your car. I don't think Mickey was with the perps when they dropped the bike.

So either they kept her in Lafayette and took the bike out there to draw attention away from Lafayette, or they took her to NOLA or Baton Rouge and wanted to distract. There are lots of places around those places to dump a bikes w/o drawing predators, etc. By picking WB, it was a known serial-killer dumping spot, and the perp probably knew the search would be intense there.

It gave the perp some time to do what he wanted to do, while LE was distracted.

This all makes me discount a panicked departure from Lafayette, and stopping to dump the bike. It would make more sense, since having Mickey is already a bust, to take the bike with you.

I don't see the bike being put there in a panic. it was planned.

I still think local perp(s)... but have no sense of where they may have taken her

 

[concernedformickey]

So today is the last of the volunteer ground searches. The Family has had the distraction (if that is the correct word) of being involved with the active search to help them through their difficult days. Tomorrow a new day will dawn, and I'm afraid with it will come a pain so deep to be almost unbearable. I'll pray for them. Only time and a lot of it (years and years) will dull the pain. So sorry they have to live through this.

Heartbreaking

 

[MLE]

I live a couple hours south of chicago and there isn't a night I turn on the news that there isn't gang violence. One thing about gangs---they DO NOT clean up their mess. They would of killed her and left her there and went about their business :-/ Sad, but true.

In the biggest case in my area, there were five gang members who carjacked a young couple and took them to a house where a gang member lived. Both victims were murdered, but the female was held alive in the house for days before they killed her.

During the trial of the gang members, her father was asked how he knew it was his daughter's SUV when it was found abandoned in a field. He testified, "You could tell it had been wiped down."

Her best friend testified, "When we first pulled up we could see the stickers on the back were gone. There were also stickers on the side gone. But we knew it was hers because she had a Texas longhorn sticker on the front, which was still there."

[ame="http://www.vnnforum.com/showthread.php?t=99313"]403 Forbidden[/ame]

 

[chicken fried]

I keep thinking about the father. When will he return to work? & Charlie left her whole life in Texas. I wouldn't know what to do. Where do you go from here? So sad to imagine.

Charlie had to delay starting an internship in her area of study... so it's impacting her education.... but at this point, they're not thinking of that. it's too soon. They're not yet ready to consider not bringing her home at all, I wouldn't think. They've got to still hope.

 

[chicken fried]

Whoever did this better hope he lives a long time... because that's the last chance of any kind of enjoyment he will experience, for eternity.

 

[Woe.be.gone]

Speaking of the place I don't want to go for eternity, the place I hope exists for people intent on making earth Hell for some people, is there a way to follow up on the final results of the suspicious fire from June 6? If authorities determine the fire was caused by arson, will an update be published in the newspaper?

Is it possible for a local to follow that case?

 

[MLE]

So you think someone might have killed her because she was heterosexual....?

I know very little about Mickey Shunick and I certainly don't know or really care about her sexuality, but a lot of Websleuths posters have speculated she's a lesbian. What if some homophobe(s) riding around that night came to the same conclusion as these Websleuths about Mickey? A hate crime wouldn't be entirely unprecedented.

I think it's most likely she was hit by a vehicle operator impaired by alcohol and/or drugs.

However, we know so little about her abduction. We don't know if the motive was to cover up a drunken accident or if it was sexually motivated, racially motivated, commercially motivated, motivated out of revenge or jealousy, or some other reason entirely. We don't know if it was premediated or sudden. One theory is as valid as the next and all theories are merely speculation at this point.

 

[A.C.I]

I know very little about Mickey Shunick and I certainly don't know or really care about her sexuality, but a lot of Websleuths posters have speculated she's a lesbian. What if some homophobe(s) riding around that night came to the same conclusion as these Websleuths about Mickey? A hate crime wouldn't be entirely unprecedented.

I think it's most likely she was hit by a vehicle operator impaired by alcohol and/or drugs.

However, we know so little about her abduction. We don't know if the motive was to cover up a drunken accident or if it was sexually motivated, racially motivated, commercially motivated, motivated out of revenge or jealousy, or some other reason entirely. We don't know if it was premediated or sudden. One theory is as valid as the next and all theories are merely speculation at this point.

I think when hate crime was mentioned, it was more intended as a racial hate crime, not that she was a lesbian. Lots of white people being jumped and beaten by groups of thugged out black dudes around here in the recent months. Random acts of violence that have been growing in number.

 

[yorick]

Can somebody summarize what plan of action has been published for the following groups going forward, now that the volunteer efforts are being called off?

1) Local LE
2) State LE
3) FBI
4) Private investigators
5) Other

Do any or all of these groups start classifying this is a cold case or something else? Do they only assign one or a few individuals to loosely monitor the case?

I'm disappointed in the lack of nationwide coverage regarding missing persons cases. I can't help but to feel if more of an effort were made to get every freaking citizen in the US to keep their eyes peeled, a lot more of these cases would be solved, or solved quicker.

Here in IL, I've seen very little regarding Mickey's case beyond the first day or so. If you check any national news website, you get to find out what celebrity did something stupid, but you don't get these important stories popping up.