LAFAYETTE, LA (WAFB) -
KLFY-TV in
Lafayette, LA reports the Lafayette Parish Coroner's Office will release the
body of Mickey Shunick to her family and make its report public Monday.
Brandon
Scott Lavergne, 33, will spend the rest of his life in prison after pleading
guilty to murdering Shunick and Lisa Pate.
Court
documents show Shunick put up a fight against Lavergne. According to Lavergne's
court statement, he hit Shunick with his white pickup truck while she was
riding her bike the last night she was seen alive. She was thrown from the bike
and Lavergne insisted she get into his truck. He put her bike in the bed of the
pickup.
Shunick got
into the truck and grabbed her cell phone to call for help and Lavergne pulled
a knife out. She sprayed mace into Lavergne's face. As he was trying to get the
mace away from her, she grabbed the knife and stabbed Lavergne several times in
what would later be called life-threatening wounds. Lavergne fought and got the
knife back. She was then stabbed multiple times and he believed he had killed
her.
According
to Lavergne's statement, about 40 minutes later, he drove to a sugar cane field
in north Acadia Parish with the intention of dumping her body. Suddenly,
Shunick jumped up and grabbed Lavergne's knife and lunged at him, stabbing him
in the chest. Lavergne pulled out a gun he was carrying and shot her. She died
instantly.
In his
court statement, Lavergne said he drove to his home with Shunick still in the
passenger seat of his truck. After he tended to his wounds, he got rid of his
clothes and other evidence. He drove the body to an area of an old cemetery in
Evangeline Parish where he planned to bury her body. He couldn't dig the hole because
of his injuries, so he left the body in a nearby tree line, covering it with
branches and debris.
The
next day he went to an area off the Whiskey Bay area and threw the bike into
the water. He drove to his friend's home in or around New Orleans. Once there,
he got rid of the handgun and threw the knife in a dumpster.
According
to a police report out of Jefferson Parish, Lavergne was
treated for stab wounds at a hospital around 10 p.m. on May 19. The report
stated Lavergne couldn't remember where he was attacked and he got vaguer as he
was questioned.
Deputies
said Lavergne told them someone at a gas station attacked him with a knife or
sharp weapon when he stopped to ask for directions, but was unable to remember
where the alleged attack occurred. They said he couldn't give street
names, buildings or any details about the area where he claimed he was
attacked.
Investigators
said Lavergne eventually stopped cooperating and that's where the investigation
into the alleged attack stopped. Lavergne was treated at the hospital and
released.
Lavergne
told police he returned from New Orleans on May 20. That day, he went back to
where he left Mickey's body and buried her. He went home and burned other items
of evidence, including Mickey's book bag. He got rid of her iPod and other
evidence.
After
authorities released surveillance images captured of Lavergne's pickup where
Mickey was last seen in Lafayette, he left Louisiana and destroyed his pickup
by setting it on fire. He fraudulently claimed it to have been stolen and made
an insurance claim on it. To further cover up his involvement, he purchased an
almost identical pickup to lessen local suspicion.
Authorities
from St. Landry and Lafayette parishes followed up on a tip on July 12 about
possible grave sites two miles from Lavergne's home in the Lawtell area, which
is located along US 190 just west of Opelousas, but all three sites were ruled
out as graves.
Lavergne,
33, is a convicted sex offender. The Louisiana State Police arrested him during
a traffic stop on July 5 in Lafayette. He was taken into custody because
troopers said he failed to register as a sex offender from a case dating back
to 2000. In that case, he was charged with aggravated sexual battery.
Lafayette
Police Chief Jim Craft said after being arrested by state police Lavergne
was brought to the Lafayette Police Department and, during initial questioning,
Lavergne requested an attorney and refused to answer any further
questions.
Lavergne
is an offshore worker. Police said he had been working offshore for the past
two weeks just prior to his arrest. Investigators spent several hours searching
Lavergne's home on July 5.
Copyright
2012 WAFB. All rights
reserved.
Mickey Shunick
