Found Deceased - Michaela "Mickey" Schunick, 21, 7 August, 2012

[LAFtoSPRING]

i looked closely before posting to be sure that it was the same location as what katc has on their website. look at this picture below. it has the same two bare branches on the right hand side of the cop car. the two bare branches are more obvious in the photobucket pics due to the morning sunlight

http://www.katc.com/full-coverage/searching-for-mickey-shunick/#

You are absolutely right. I had to print out the pics and hold them side by side to see it.

Thanks.

 

[hollyblue]

What I found most interesting about all of this is on page 7 where LE is using a statement BSL made on April 20th against him -- a month before the kidnapping and murder of MS.

Maybe he did notice or talk to her before May 19 and had talked to someone about her?

 

[GulfCoastKAT]

They do much more than just identification. When only a skeleton remains it is sent there so they can try to determine cause and time of death along with identification.

What do forensic anthropologists do?

They use techniques employed by physical anthropologists to identify human skeletal remains. They analyze skeletal remains to build a profile consisting of age, race, sex, height, presence or absence of trauma, and time since death. The purpose of the profile is to aid law enforcement in positive identification of an individual when no other means are available. Sometimes it is not possible to gather all of the pertinent information because the remains may be badly damaged or fragmented. Whenever possible, however, forensic anthropologists create a detailed profile of the remains, with the ultimate goal of positive identification.

What is the difference between forensic anthropology and forensic pathology?

A forensic anthropologist is a physical anthropologist with specialized training in osteology and/or skeletal biology. Forensic pathologists are medical doctors that specialize in forensic pathology. They perform autopsies in order to establish the cause of death. Forensic anthropologists concentrate mainly on bony anatomy, whereas, forensic pathologists concentrate on soft tissue anatomy, internal organs, bodily fluids, etc.

An anthropologist identifying Mickey, the anthropology major.

 

[bessie]

I'm not understanding why the Faces Lab is handling identification. DNA would certainly be available, considering the time that has elapsed. Something strange here. I don't think the Faces Lab can complete their work in 24 to 48 hours either.

By Jason brown
Advocate staff writer
August 08, 2012




The Lafayette Parish Coroner’s Office has turned over the body believed to be that of 22-year-old Michaela “Mickey” Shunick to the LSU FACES Lab for identification, according to Keith Talamo, chief medicolegal investigator at the coroner’s office.


Talamo said the body was turned over Wednesday morning “because of her advanced stages of decomposition.”


“The FACES Lab will also try to determine the cause and manner of death for us,” Talamo said.

http://theadvocate.com/home/3577265-77/lsu-faces-lab-has-body

I don't think there's anything irregular about sending a body from the southwest parishes the lab at LSU (FACES) to determine ID and COD/MOD. From what I understand, it's standard procedure, just as with Lisa Pate's body.

 

[leighmarker]

This is just my opinion, but I'm not sure whether all the statements indicated were related directly to Mickey. He may have mentioned some other type of incriminating detail (for example, lying about his RSO status, lying about his whereabouts on another occasion, a statement made about other victims, comment made to a co-worker that seemed harmless at the time... who knows?).

IMO I don't think so. The documents have Lisa and Mickey listed and how each charged is relative to what he has said (to whom) and what he did (didn't do)
to EACH poor girl.

 

[MamaRoux]

Last night I went downtown to Jefferson St. to sing, about the time the coroner's van was bringing someone home. I brought a tall, white glass candle. News of the discovery was playing silently on a big screen while the music played. When I got on stage I said a few words about Mickey, placed the candle on a speaker and began to sing Train's "Calling All Angels." It's been making me think of Mickey for months now.

As the powerful last chorus came, "calling all you angels," I hit the high note on the word "angels" and held it steady for a few extra measures. Amid the sustained note, the glass candle suddenly crashed four feet to the cement floor, bounced, and disappeared.

When the song finished, I and a couple other folks looked for the candle but it couldn't be found. Finally, a fellow decided to lift the wooden stage. There was the candle, unbroken and burning bright. Somehow it had not broken, and had somehow bounced into a small slot and had rolled all the way back against the brick wall. I placed it back upright for the rest of the night and carried it through downtown as I walked back to my car.

Though it obviously was just a freak occurrence, the timing of what had happened and the fact that the candle was lost from view and hidden and we had to lift the stage and improbably bring it back out from the dark, still shining, reminded me of Mickey lost and found. Her light will be with so many people, always.

R.I.P., you angel. :star2:

I believe that was Mickey telling you that yes, she was lost to us for a while, BUT NOW, she is shining and whole again. I know it was Mickey.

 

[Steph85]

If Mickey's body is in such an advanced state of decomp, wouldn't that suggest that her body hadn't been buried underground the entire time? I didn't think it would be unrecognizable so soon if underground the entire time.

 

[Kitty Stiletto]

I think all statements in this document are clearly related to the Mickey Shunick case. (Someone said perhaps not?)

-- snipped by me

I was theorizing that -- while obviously related to the case -- I'm not necessarily convinced that BSL mentioned Mickey on April 20. It's possible he may have met her, stalked her, whatever. However, I wonder whether he made a remark to A.D. (the initials in the doc) that wasn't about Mickey per se, but something else that might be pertinent to his mindset, said something that he passed off as a joke, perhaps made a statement to someone that ultimately turned out not to be true. Do we know the date he tried to bribe the DMV employee for a non-RSO driver's license? Something like that. Again, just thinking out loud.

 

[GulfCoastKAT]

-- snipped by me

I was theorizing that -- while obviously related to the case -- I'm not necessarily convinced that BSL mentioned Mickey on April 20. It's possible he may have met her, stalked her, whatever. However, I wonder whether he made a remark to A.D. (the initials in the doc) that wasn't about Mickey per se, but something else that might be pertinent to his mindset, said something that he passed off as a joke, perhaps made a statement to someone that ultimately turned out not to be true. Do we know the date he tried to bribe the DMV employee for a non-RSO driver's license? Something like that. Again, just thinking out loud.

Also, didn't Chief Craft say at the press conference 7/6/12 that Mickey was a random target for BSL and that he was out trolling for a victim that night? They believed he didn't know her before 5/19

 

[LarkBunting]

If he was checked out of prison for 8.5-9 hours, I wonder if BS was leading LE to multiple victims. ??? Or, maybe it just took that long to drive there and back, have BS find the location, and start digging to ensure BS wasn't leading LE on a wild goose chase just to get out of a cell and into the sunshine for a few hours. I felt yesterday that BS had buried more victims near Mickey, but I'm doubting myself today because if there were more graves to excavate, wouldn't the cemetery still be swarming with LE? Maybe it is...I'm not there, so I have no idea. JMO

I keep thinking about how Mickey's brother will always have to remember that his sister was murdered on his high school graduation day. Also, it was just two days until Mickey's birthday...just adds to the tragedy of it all.

I hope it was Mickey who gave BS his injuries. It's the least he deserved.

 

[justwannahelp]

If Mickey's body is in such an advanced state of decomp, wouldn't that suggest that her body hadn't been buried underground the entire time? I didn't think it would be unrecognizable so soon if underground the entire time.

if out in the open (not buried) a body in this humidity and heat would be mostly bones in ABOUT a month according to a site that i read that studied 11 donor bodies and their decomp rates. none of the bodies were buried, however. so i'm not sure how burying affects the rate of decomposition.

i would post a link to the site, but i can't remember the name of it. it was last week. the bodies studied were in Texas.

 

[JustyThoughts]

I googled. LSU FACES LAB is - Forensic Anthropology and Computer Enhancement Services Laboratory at Louisiana State University. Provides identification services for law enforcement.

Sounds like a comprehensive forensic center for LE.

 

[LAFtoSPRING]

What I found most interesting about all of this is on page 7 where LE is using a statement BSL made on April 20th against him -- a month before the kidnapping and murder of MS.

The statement was made to AD, so IMO it was probably related to his RSO status and not directly related to Mickey or possible crime scenarios. IMO he did not know Mickey prior to May 19th.

 

[justwannahelp]

I googled. LSU FACES LAB is - Forensic Anthropology and Computer Enhancement Services Laboratory at Louisiana State University. Provides identification services for law enforcement.

Sounds like a comprehensive forensic center for LE.

yes. they are the "real deal". i am glad that she is with them. i hope that they can determine much more than just whether or not it's MS

http://www.lsu.edu/faceslab/Law/Lab_Services.htm

 

[LouisianaNYCgirl]

-- snipped by me

I was theorizing that -- while obviously related to the case -- I'm not necessarily convinced that BSL mentioned Mickey on April 20. It's possible he may have met her, stalked her, whatever. However, I wonder whether he made a remark to A.D. (the initials in the doc) that wasn't about Mickey per se, but something else that might be pertinent to his mindset, said something that he passed off as a joke, perhaps made a statement to someone that ultimately turned out not to be true. Do we know the date he tried to bribe the DMV employee for a non-RSO driver's license? Something like that. Again, just thinking out loud.

I agree. I don't think he was stalking her. But it is very interesting that he said something a month in advance that they are using against him. Wonder who A.D. is? I bet you are right about the DMV employee. On their disclosure timeline (pgs 9-11) they said on June 4th he had already tried to bribe DMV employee.

Pg. 7... Looks like BSL spilled the beans of his murder of Pate to other inmates. Probably why they tried to indict him before he got out of jail.

Pg. 10 Clarification for me... Apparently any hiding of a body once murder is committed is considered tampering with evidence. So he may have only disposed of the bodies once and not moved them.

Also, last piece of my discussion in the Aug 2 Disclosure filings to the 15th Judicial District Court ;-) if you look at pages 16 - 20, you get an overwhelming sense of how many LE peeps worked really hard on this case.

 

[CajunTattooer]

Best idea ever!

We have a fairly new bike path by the cajundome. Since The whole reward was going on I've said that if anything is left over they should install cameras on the path and rename it for Mickey. I'm sure she has ridden it a lot, most of us in the biking community have.. It was like a new toy to a kid.

 

[De2385]

I agree, kind of overkill. Unless BSL pulled her teeth.

Or broke them fighting with her.

 

[CajunTattooer]

What does it mean when a person uses all capital letters to write their name?

That they were in the military. Not to stray from handwriting analysis, but every person I've known who has been in the military(my stepdad and all his friends, and my ex of 5 years and all the people in his unit[i volunteered at an event, they all had to sign in]) writes in all caps. They have to do it, and just get used to it. In my experience the women switch back to their normal writing, but the men don't.

 

[LafayetteMom]

That they were in the military. Not to stray from handwriting analysis, but every person I've known who has been in the military(my stepdad and all his friends, and my ex of 5 years and all the people in his unit[i volunteered at an event, they all had to sign in]) writes in all caps. They have to do it, and just get used to it. In my experience the women switch back to their normal writing, but the men don't.

My father is retired law enforcement and he writes in all caps as well. He was used to doing that on paperwork.

 

[hollyblue]

I googled. LSU FACES LAB is - Forensic Anthropology and Computer Enhancement Services Laboratory at Louisiana State University. Provides identification services for law enforcement.

Sounds like a comprehensive forensic center for LE.

They take a picture of the skull and digitally compare the facial structure to the lastest picture(s) of her face and head...overlaying them on the computer. Remember the overlayed photos of Caylee? It does bother me tho that they haven't mentioned dental records.