College student Mickey Shunick disappeared last May after leaving a friend's house in the early morning hours to ride her bike home. It's one of those cases that gets under your skin. She had everything in the world to look forward to. Now police believe they have finally found her body after nearly three months of searching.
It's hard to imagine the pain her family is going through. The University of Louisiana student was smart, vivacious, talented, and driven, so dedicated to the biking life that she had a tattoo of one. She was on her bike the night she disappeared. Her bike was discovered by some local fishermen.
There are so many disturbing aspects of the case, it's enough to make your head spin. See below:
Police say that Shunick's bike had damage that was consistent with a car hitting her from behind. They also suspect that Brandon Lavergne, the man charged with her murder, was waiting around to victimize someone. Shunick was just unlucky enough to get in his way.
There are some who question her decision to ride her bike late at night, but that is so unfair. Would it have been better if she had walked? What about driving? Or should a woman never be out past midnight?
When Golda Meir, the former prime minister of Israel, was in office, there were a series of violent rapes. When asked if she would impose a curfew on women, Meir responded:
But it is the men who are attacking the women. If there is to be a curfew, let the men stay at home.
It's the truth. Shunick carried mace with her. She was aware of her safety and obviously took that into consideration. If Lavergne is guilty as police allege, then someone was going to be victimized that night. Is it scary? Yes. It's terrifying. We all want to believe we won't be the victim of a violent crime because it's more comforting than feeling like it's all so random.
It could have been anyone. It could have happened in a grocery store in broad daylight as it did to the Petit family of Connecticut who were followed home from the market and tortured in their home. Random things happen and we can't live our lives in fear of them.
If this is Shunick's body then she was in the wrong place at the wrong time and it could have been anyone, anywhere. My heart breaks for her parents and siblings.
Do you judge riding a bike at 2 a.m.?
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Comments 19
When I was her age, I carried mace because I had to walk from the subway to my apartment in a shitty neignborhood.
Why couldn't she call a cab? Or if it was 2am, just stay there? Or have her friend drive her home? Were they drinking? An article from ABC states it was "after a night out." So a potentially drunk girl got on a bike to go home at 2 am?
Unwise.
WELL ITS NOT THAT IT WILL BE TWO DEAD GIRLS INSTEAD OF ONE. Give woman credit its easier for two to fight a man than one
No I judge people who are out to victimize others. Its ALWAYS the perps fault.
No, I don't blame her. In college I rode my bike everywhere, including to work, and would ride the bike home three nights a week close to midnight. This violent creepy man is to blame, of course. Women are people too, and we're always blaming them for the violence enacted upon them. Blaming the victim does no good. It's like the old days during a rape trial when they'd put the woman on the stand and ask what she was wearing when she was raped, and if it was too revealing. My heart goes out to her spirit, her family, friends, and the community where it happened.
@Stacey - If that's your logic, then college girls at house parties should happily accept open drinks of unknown origin, children should take gifts from strangers, and it's okay for parents for parents to leave their children unsupervised in public, because it's someone else's fault?
This is the culture we live in. People need to be responsible for themselves and their own actions because we don't know who or what is out there. We can't live our lives in fear, but we can make responsible, informed decisions. This isn't Europe, this isn't a fantasy world. This is a place where sick people do what they want to who they want and it's up to the individual to be vigilant.