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Abducted as She Rode Home: The Murder of Michaela Shunick
Mickey encountered a vicious predator who stole her from the streets of her home city.
Michaela Shunick — Mickey to all who knew her — was 21 years old in the late spring of 2012. She was looking forward to her upcoming birthday and to attending her younger brother’s graduation ceremony. In short, the bubbly, beautiful senior at the University of Louisiana had everything to live for.
However, she was about to cross paths with a dangerous individual who would take all that away from her and rob Mickey’s family of the promising future the young woman could have enjoyed.
A night out — and then she was gone
It was May 19th 2012 and Mickey Shunick had been visiting a bar in the city of Lafayette, Louisiana with a group of her friends. It would be her birthday in a couple of days and the crowd wanted to enjoy live music from a local band together to mark the occasion.
After they left the nightspot, Mickey and her close friend Brettly rode their bikes together to his house before Mickey left at around 1:45 AM. She was conscious of the time and didn’t want to be late for her brother’s graduation the following morning.
