LA - Mickey Shunick, 21, Lafayette, 19 May 2012 - #5

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I just joined. Am a local. Whiskey Bay is, of course, where two of Derrick Todd Lee's victims were found. There is nothing there but a boat ramp. No gas stations, no buildings, no nothing. It's a jumping off point to take a boat deep into the Atchafalaya Basin, and also the only exit nearby that can be completely deserted at night, due to the lack of any businesses. I have worried about Whiskey Bay because it's so obvious that it's almost not obvious, if that makes any sense. Let's hope this bike rumor is a false alarm, because there are "better" places for the bike to be found, as far as a good outcome.

To help eliminate this sort of outcome, I took my boat on the Vermilion for 7 hours last Tuesday. I put in at the Hwy. 92 bridge at Milton (a few miles downstream of Lafayette). I headed upstream and check every side cut and coulee mouth I found, and went as far up every coulee as I could get until I grounded. Went up past the airport until the Vermilion split into two bayous. Went up those bayous for about half a mile each until they became impassable. Then I came back down through the entire city, past Milton, and went down to Abbeville and back. No sign, no circling birds, no odor.

I was glad to hear that they put boats on the river yesterday, because almost no one uses the Vermilion at all. It's the most unused river going through a largish city I have ever seen. In those 7 hours, covering maybe 30 miles, I saw exactly one boat. The folks hanging out at the Milton Landing said that right before I pulled up again heading south from the city, they had seen a Vermilion Parish Sheriff's boat heading south toward Abbeville, with three officers. During my ride, as I passed some black fishermen on the banks near Hwy. 90, volunteers were going from person to person passing out flyers. I was impressed at the blanket coverage.

The main reason I signed up is that I wanted to help ID the car in the photos. I'm an old car buff and have studied the photo for awhile. In my opinion, that car is either a 1979-'86 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham, or an '87-'89 Cadillac Brougham.

There are two points that inform my conclusion:

1. The back windshield is pretty small, due to the overlap of the vinyl top. From the research I did, the back windshield was bigger from '78 on back.

2. In '90, Cadillac extended the vinyl top to encircle the back half of the rear passenger windows. Looking at the photo, you can see the vinyl top reflecting white. Had it been a '90 to '92 Brougham, you would have seen the white reflection on the right-rear passenger window extending forward.

So, that's my opinion. That car should be easy to find, because there looks to be body damage to the right quarter, possibly involving the right taillight.

:welcome:and THANK YOU for searching. That is exactly what Mickey needs right now. She needs people to make a personal effort. So thank you and welcome to W.S.
 
It's been confirmed that it IS HER BIKE THAT WAS FOUND!
 
LE and news crews are there now, they found a bike but it hasn't been confirmed yet that it is Mickey's. They just suspect that it is her bike, as their report says.

Didn't she have a Schwinn? LE and media could at least confirm color and make! That's not rocket science!
 
By in-lane, I mean ON the interstate, not at the truck lanes for the weight station. Every vehicle (and plate) going east bound is caught on camera (if working).



There are cameras in-lane right at the truck stop weight station near Henderson.

If working, they see (record?) every vehicle approaching the bridge.
 
This does make you think that the bike was taken when she was abducted and dumped by the person who abducted her. A random bike thief is probably not going to go to the trouble of taking the bike all the way out there.
 
I feel awful for her family and friends right now. I think the reality is going to quickly set in now. Although it is possible she is still alive somewhere, finding her bike abandoned in that desolate dumping ground is going to be devastating for them, imo.
 
OK, Whiskey Bay is almost the FIRST place that should have been checked. I almost went out there myself a couple days afterward, and I guarantee I would have found the bike, because I recognize the location from the photo. But I assumed that it would have been checked right away. . so I didn't go. So.... either this is a massive law-enforcement cluster, OR, the bike was put there very recently. Makes me wonder if the perp has made a delayed exit from Lafayette, due to the publicity, and dumped the bike in the last day?
 
You're right...likely....Seems like that should have been one of the first places they searched....like on Monday after she went missing or something.

i agree. Hate to say it but I'm afraid they may find more than just her bike in that location now. Not giving up hope that she's still alive and coming home, but should she not be, I think they will find more there. Or at least somewhere along that stretch. Praying I'm very wrong, just seems "likely".
 
I wonder if the bike was recently dropped off there? I would think it would have been seen by now if it had been there since the 19th--there are a lot of fishermen in the Basin, even during the week and especially on weekends (the 20th, yesterday).
 
This does make you think that the bike was taken when she was abducted and dumped by the person who abducted her. A random bike thief is probably not going to go to the trouble of taking the bike all the way out there.

Though pretty unlikely, I'm still hoping that's what happened. Someone came upon her abandoned bike later and took it, got spooked and dropped it here. Although I suppose that still wouldn't give us an area to look for Mickey.
 
I just joined. Am a local. Whiskey Bay is, of course, where two of Derrick Todd Lee's victims were found. There is nothing there but a boat ramp. No gas stations, no buildings, no nothing. It's a jumping off point to take a boat deep into the Atchafalaya Basin, and also the only exit nearby that can be completely deserted at night, due to the lack of any businesses. I have worried about Whiskey Bay because it's so obvious that it's almost not obvious, if that makes any sense. Let's hope this bike rumor is a false alarm, because there are "better" places for the bike to be found, as far as a good outcome.

To help eliminate this sort of outcome, I took my boat on the Vermilion for 7 hours last Tuesday. I put in at the Hwy. 92 bridge at Milton (a few miles downstream of Lafayette). I headed upstream and check every side cut and coulee mouth I found, and went as far up every coulee as I could get until I grounded. Went up past the airport until the Vermilion split into two bayous. Went up those bayous for about half a mile each until they became impassable. Then I came back down through the entire city, past Milton, and went down to Abbeville and back. No sign, no circling birds, no odor.

I was glad to hear that they put boats on the river yesterday, because almost no one uses the Vermilion at all. It's the most unused river going through a largish city I have ever seen. In those 7 hours, covering maybe 30 miles, I saw exactly one boat. The folks hanging out at the Milton Landing said that right before I pulled up again heading south from the city, they had seen a Vermilion Parish Sheriff's boat heading south toward Abbeville, with three officers. During my ride, as I passed some black fishermen on the banks near Hwy. 90, volunteers were going from person to person passing out flyers. I was impressed at the blanket coverage.

The main reason I signed up is that I wanted to help ID the car in the photos. I'm an old car buff and have studied the photo for awhile. In my opinion, that car is either a 1979-'86 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham, or an '87-'89 Cadillac Brougham.

There are two points that inform my conclusion:

1. The back windshield is pretty small, due to the overlap of the vinyl top. From the research I did, the back windshield was bigger from '78 on back.

2. In '90, Cadillac extended the vinyl top to encircle the back half of the rear passenger windows. Looking at the photo, you can see the vinyl top reflecting white. Had it been a '90 to '92 Brougham, you would have seen the white reflection on the right-rear passenger window extending forward.

So, that's my opinion. That car should be easy to find, because there looks to be body damage to the right quarter, possibly involving the right taillight.


Thank you and your local perspective is great.

Do you think all three pics of the white truck are the same white truck?
 
I'm thinking along those same lines too. If they only find the bike that means to me there's a good chance she is alive.

....OR, the bike was put there very recently. Makes me wonder if the perp has made a delayed exit from Lafayette, due to the publicity, and dumped the bike in the last day?
 
This is quite an interesting development. From the way the locals are describing this area, it would be common knowledge to locals that this specific area would be a difficult area to search. She has been missing for over a week now and it somehow feels convenient to find her bike in this place. Very possible this could be a misdirection attempt, can't discount that angle.
 
Makes me wonder if the perp has made a delayed exit from Lafayette, due to the publicity, and dumped the bike in the last day?

That's what I thought. I thought it was a response to the release of the images. How could they not have found it before???
 
OK, Whiskey Bay is almost the FIRST place that should have been checked. I almost went out there myself a couple days afterward, and I guarantee I would have found the bike, because I recognize the location from the photo. But I assumed that it would have been checked right away. . so I didn't go. So.... either this is a massive law-enforcement cluster, OR, the bike was put there very recently. Makes me wonder if the perp has made a delayed exit from Lafayette, due to the publicity, and dumped the bike in the last day?

Or they just now had the opportunity to dispose of the bike....it would be so easy to hitch a boat to the back of a white truck, drive out there under the pretenses of taking your boat out on the basin for the day, and ditch the bike when no one was around?
 
Hopefully the person wasn't wearing gloves and they left fingerprints on the bike.
 
I am curious if the bike was out in the open or was it covered and hidden. If it was out in the open, then I agree that it might have been dumped there late last night instead of the night of the abduction.

Chicken fried, our newest member, a local, went out on his boat last Tuesday to search the lake. If that bike was lying out in the open, alongside the road, wouldn't he have seen it?
 
Which looks like about 36 min. time frame, to get a perspective of what time events could have been happening if this "tip" or whatever pans out:

Map of Directions from Lafayette to the exit:

http://goo.gl/maps/fEBp

Hey guys. This is the first posting in the forum, but I have read up on every post thus far in each thread. Here is my shot at it.

The map you posted above is accurate, but.
http://goo.gl/maps/KWkG

The direction that this person was heading, if it were the white truck seen, takes him directly to the I-10 exit east. I used to live right off of St. Landry, only blocks away from where this happened. Usually, people only take a few routes with their bikes to get to congress. You either go through what the locals call the "St. Streets", you can take St. Landry all the way down, passed Blackham Coliseum to Cajundome Blvd (which is SKETCHY), or you can cut over to Johnston Street from St. Landry. I did the math using Google Maps Directions, and the only way plausible for him to pick her up assuming she is not in the bed of the truck at the time the picture was taken of the white truck making a left onto university, is if he made the left onto University. . and then made another left further down to take him into the St. Streets where he waited for Mickey to pass by. Then, he will still be easily accessible to go towards this exit after abducting her. Those are my two cents, and that is ONLY IF it is her bike in the basin. Also, that basin is common for murders or bodies to be dropped off. It's really sad :(
 
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