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Nancy Grace
Convicted Sex Offender Arrested in Mickey Shunick Disappearance
Aired July 09, 2012 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
NANCY GRACE, HOST: Breaking news tonight, live, Lafayette. A 21- year-old blond co-ed heads to Taco Bell drive-through on a Friday night, never seen again. Twenty-one-year-old Mickey Shunick and her gold-and- black Schwinn bike seemingly vanish into thin air. And we`ve tried it all, her school, the University of Louisiana, her job, a horse farm, even her pet store, no leads.
Then locals find Mickey`s Schwinn bike 30 miles away. This as surveillance video we ID captures Mickey just after Taco Bell. As police zero in on a white Chevy pickup, bombshell tonight. Is a highest level of registered sex offender linked to Mickey`s sudden disappearance? And tonight, where is she?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He`s a sex offender.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A break in the case.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Lafayette Police Department has arrested Brandon Scott Lavergne and charged him with first-degree murder and aggravated kidnapping.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mickey Shunick.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Disappeared days before her birthday.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She reportedly left a friend`s home in Lafayette on her bicycle, headed home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lavergne is believed to be responsible for the disappearance of Mickey Shunick.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The first pictures of her taken just minutes after she left her friend`s house.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, maybe he was riding around looking for someone to victimize.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lavergne`s truck was found burned only days after Lafayette police released photographs of the truck as a vehicle of interest.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Positively identified the truck that traveled directly behind Mickey in the video as belonging to Brandon Lavergne.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us.
Bombshell tonight. Live to Lafayette, a 21-year-old blond co-ed heads to Taco Bell drive-through on a Friday night. She`s never seen again. Twenty-one-year-old Mickey and her gold-and-black Schwinn bike seemingly vanish into thin air. Local fishermen find the bike 30 miles away. Surveillance video we ID captures her just after Taco Bell.
And tonight, is a highest-level registered sex offender linked to her sudden disappearance? And tonight, where is she? I know where he is, the sex offender, but where is she?
We are taking your calls in the search for Mickey Shunick. Straight out to Ken Romero, co-host on News Talk KPEL, "Mornings With Ken and Bernie." Ken, thanks for being with us.
First of all, I want to find out -- I know that they have ID`d the highest level registered sex offender linked to the disappearance of Mickey Shunick. I want to know who is he. What does it mean in that jurisdiction to be the highest level sex predator? And what is he doing out walking around?
KEN ROMERO, NEWS TALK 96.5 KPEL (via telephone): Well, Nancy, Brandon Scott Lavergne was convicted of a crime in 2000. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, served eight years of that jail time, and he got released two years early. He was supposed to, of course, to carry a card saying that he`s a sex offender, and that`s like on a driver`s license. But when he was discovered, that had been blacked out of his driver`s license to hide the fact that he is a sex offender.
GRACE: Ken...
ROMERO: And every year, he`s got to check in...
GRACE: Ken? Ken Romero?
ROMERO: Yes?
GRACE: Hold! Hold! Hold! Why do I care if he has a mark on his driver`s license? Have you ever really looked at a driver`s license to see if you`re supposed to drive a car or a motorcycle or an 18-wheeler? They`re just little bitty boxes that you check. Who cares if he`s got a mark on his driver`s license?
ROMERO: Absolutely and...
GRACE: What was he convicted of, Ken Romero? Back in 2000, he got 10 years for it. What was he convicted for?
ROMERO: He broke into a woman`s house, tied her up and blindfolded her and had her perform oral sex on him. And later, he, of course, said it was consensual. But he did plead guilty to the charge, wound up spending eight years in prison.
GRACE: So Ellie Jostad, joining me on the story -- Ellie, here`s a guy that breaks into a woman`s house in the middle of the night, ties her up, from all the information that I`ve got, hog-tied her, blindfolded her, made her perform sex, oral sex. That`s sexual battery. He got 10 years behind bars. He got out on eight years.
It`s my understanding in that jurisdiction, you can get life behind bars for that offense.
ELLIE JOSTAD, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: No, Nancy. Actually, the maximum on that offense is 10 years, which is what he got. But he got out two years earlier...
GRACE: So he got the max and got out two years early.
JOSTAD: Right, got out two years early for good time. Nancy, also, he tried the entire time he was in jail to get his conviction overturned. He was one of these jailhouse lawyers, filing page after page of handwritten documents claiming that the cops tricked him into making a statement and that the victim made up the whole story.
GRACE: OK, what do I -- what am I hearing, Ellie, about him putting a pillow over her head or face during the attack?
JOSTAD: Right. What he did was, he took her shirt, used it to blindfold her. This is after he climbed into a window in her house. Tied her hands behind her back, disheveled -- you know, threw all the bedding off the bed, made her perform oral sex. Then later, he claimed -- and by the way, Nancy, this victim was the cousin of a woman that he dated. That`s how he knew her.
He later claimed that this was all consensual, that the victim actually invited him over but didn`t want anybody to see him coming in and out of her house.
GRACE: Invited him over through...
JOSTAD: Through the window.
GRACE: ... the window.
JOSTAD: Yes.
GRACE: OK, so she invites him over through the window. Now, Ellie, that`s also a burglary. And this is...
JOSTAD: Right.
GRACE: ... not a test, Ellie. I know you didn`t go to law school. But what I`m saying is, when you enter a home without permission to commit a felony therein -- be it to steal something, to attack somebody, to rob somebody -- if you commit any crime therein, that is a burglary. That`s another offense. He wasn`t convicted of burglary?
JOSTAD: No, he wasn`t. He actually had that burglary charge dropped when he agreed to plead guilty to the aggravated sexual battery.
GRACE: So that was thrown out?
JOSTAD: Right. Right.
GRACE: So I`m just relying on the statutes with which I`m familiar, typically, you can get 5 to 20 on a burglary. So he could have gotten at least 5 more years to run consecutively on a burglary, but nobody worried about that.
Here`s a guy that tries to blame the victim, the female victim, saying she invited him in through the window. And then she consented to being hog-tied, blindfolded and forced to perform sex acts on this guy? That was consensual, according to him, that he lied about it, and he still got 10 years and got out early, Ellie?
JOSTAD: Right, Nancy. And also, keep in mind, too, that he was in the Army when this happened. So he tried to claim that this whole thing -- he should never even have been prosecuted at all by the state of Louisiana, that it should have been considered a federal crime.
He tried everything. He claimed that his counsel was ineffective. He claims that his arrest was illegal, claimed that he wasn`t read his rights. All this stuff was disputed, of course, by the authorities. And even though he went all the way up to the Louisiana supreme court with his appeals, he was denied on every count.
GRACE: Another thing I want to find out, Ellie -- and with me is Ellie Jostad, Ken Romero, Robyn Walensky. And joining us shortly is Mickey Shunick`s father, joining us exclusively tonight with his knowledge and his reaction to what`s going on in the search for his daughter.
Ellie, what I want to find out, in this jurisdiction, Lafayette, Louisiana -- so you`re a registered sex offender of the highest level. Ken Romero was just telling me about how that gives you a mark on your driver`s license, like I care about a mark on his driver`s license.
What other supervision does the highest level sex offender have in Lafayette, Louisiana? Are they just free to walk around?
JOSTAD: Well, Nancy, he is for the most part free to walk around. He can`t be within 1,000 feet of a school, can`t live within 1,000 feet of a school, has to notify his neighbors when he moves in. And his neighbors say they all did get a written notice, including his picture, when he moved into the neighborhood a few years ago.
But Nancy, for the most part, they say, he had no violations in the sex offender registry, although we know he did something wrong because the way that they were able to pull him over and get him into custody was related to his sex offender registry, but authorities still haven`t told us exactly what that violation was that they were able to at least pull him over and stop him on.
GRACE: Back to Ken Romero, who is joining us there live in Lafayette. Ken, I don`t get it. I know you told me he`s got a mark on his driver`s license. I doubt Mickey Shunick got a chance to look at his driver`s license.
But after this guy sneaks in a woman`s window in the dead of night, hog-ties her, blindfolds her, ties her up, makes her perform oral sex on him, then he tells police it was all consensual and tries every trick in the book before he finally pleads guilty? He`s just walking around free?
What other supervision do the highest level sex predator, registered sex offender, have in Lafayette?
ROMERO: As far as I know, the Louisiana judicial system issues that card, and they`ve got to register with, you know, a sex offender registration, and that`s it. They`ve just got to stay away from high schools or grade schools or can`t hand candy out to children at Halloween, and that`s about it.
GRACE: Well, Ken Romero, what do we know about why he was pulled over? Had he had any type of subsequent offense?
ROMERO: As far as we`ve been told by the police, there was no subsequent sex offense. He was pulled over on a traffic violation, and that`s all they`ve told us at this time.
GRACE: To Robyn Walensky, anchor and reporter with TheBlaze. What more do you know, Robyn?
ROBYN WALENSKY, THEBLAZE: I will tell you this, Nancy. She has not been found. This is one bad guy. As you know, Nancy, you cannot rehabilitate people like this that are repeat sex offenders. And he was out trolling that night in that car, possibly looking for women, and Mickey was just at the wrong place at the wrong time.
GRACE: Well, what I`m trying to find out, Ellie Jostad, is, is there a possibility that at this hour, somewhere, Mickey Shunick is still alive? I know where the registered sex offender is. I know that he`s implicated. But what about her? I don`t have a body. Why do I think she`s dead?
JOSTAD: Right, Nancy, and that`s what cops have been asked repeatedly. He`s charged with murder, so everybody, obviously, is asking, What do we know? Why do they think she is dead?
Police will not reveal that at this point, but they say they do have evidence that indicates she`s dead. But they did admit they have no clue where her body could be.
GRACE: Well, Ellie, that may be true, but this is what I know. If they`ve got DNA or they have blood, that doesn`t mean that Mickey Shunick is dead. For all I know, she is tied up in some basement or some apartment or some outlying shack right now.
The search is still on for 21-year-old college co-ed Mickey Shunick. And tonight, I`m trying to determine why the highest level sex predator, registered sex offender is walking free in Lafayette, Louisiana.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mickey Shunick.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Disappeared days before her birthday.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lavergne is believed to be responsible for the disappearance of Mickey Shunick.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is a beautiful young girl, smart, funny, personable.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She had ridden her bike all the way from home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Connect the dots from the last spot in Lafayette where Mickey was captured on video to here, where her bike was found.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The vehicle in question was registered to Brandon Lavergne.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: After my son`s graduation and Mickey didn`t show up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She did not return home. She missed her brother`s graduation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sign of a case that`s haunted the community.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And charged him with first-degree murder and aggravated kidnapping.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Is Mickey Shunick dead, or is she being held captive somewhere at this hour in some outlying shack, in an apartment, in a basement to a home?
What I know is this. Authorities have absolutely linked a registered sex offender to her disappearance. The last we know of Mickey Shunick, this college co-ed studying anthropology, working on a horse farm, dedicated to her family, her pets -- we know she went through a Taco Bell drive-through on a Friday night with a friend. We know she got on her gold-and-black Schwinn bike and took off. He wave good-bye to her. She`s never seen alive again.
We identify video surveillance from businesses along her path from her friend`s apartment to her place. She`s alive. She`s on that bike. She`s headed home. She never makes it. Then local fishermen find her gold-and- black Schwinn bike 30 miles away.
Now the highest level registered sex offender is linked to Mickey`s disappearance.
We are taking your calls. Where is Mickey Shunick?
Joining me right now is special guest, Mickey`s father, Tom Shunick. He was called out from the home that evening, late in the night, to an oil rig. He gets e-mails and phone calls that Mickey is gone the next morning.
Tom, thank you for being with us.
TOM SHUNICK, MISSING WOMAN`S FATHER (via telephone): That`s fine.
GRACE: Tom, how are they linking this guy up, Brandon Lavergne, to Mickey?
SHUNICK: Well, alls I know really is that, you know, they had the video of the white truck. They found it burned out in Texas, I think, on May the 31st, and it was registered to him. They said that they had evidence that he was in the area where the bike was found.
And they really haven`t told me much more than, you know, what was released on the news conference. But they`re linking him to the white truck that was videoed right after she went through. And also, somehow they can put him in the area of where the bike was found.
GRACE: With me is Mickey Shunick`s dad, Tom Shunick. He, the rest of Mickey`s family, their friends, have been begging for help in the search for his 21-year-old daughter.
Tom, I`m betting -- I`ll put everything I`ve got on it -- that some type of highway surveillance spotted his car in the area where her bike was disposed underneath that bridge.
Let`s see a shot of where her bike was disposed of, Liz. And now the surveillance shows him right there at the location where she disappears. That same white truck shows up where her bike is found disposed by local fishermen. Then they find the truck in Texas burned out.
Now, Tom Shunick, when you say burned out, was it completely destroyed, or were they able to get any evidence out of the truck?
SHUNICK: I have no idea on that. I haven`t seen a picture nor has anybody described that. But apparently, he tried to destroy it. And I have a question (INAUDIBLE) Was he in Texas? How did he get back? You know, somebody else has to be involved, either taking the truck for him or giving him a ride back. Somebody else has to know something about this.
GRACE: You know what, Tom Shunick? You`re absolutely right. He didn`t walk home from Texas, Tom Shunick. You`re darn right about that. Tell me this, Tom. Are you and your family, like me tonight, holding out hope that Mickey is still alive?
SHUNICK: Of course. Until there`s a body found, they`re still -- (INAUDIBLE) you know, the odds of her being alive today are the same as they were, you know, a couple days ago. What those odds are may not be very good. It doesn`t look good, but we`re still holding out. And hopefully, there`s -- you know, the police, there`s a lot of things that they know that they aren`t telling us. So hopefully, you know, there`s still a chance and we`re just praying for that.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Lafayette Police Department has arrested Brandon Scott Lavergne.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two fishermen found Mickey`s bike under the Achafalaya Basin bridge.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Continuously called her cell phone but couldn`t get through.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That captured Mickey on her bike.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She`s just an adorable little girl.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He`s a sex offender.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are back and taking your calls. Tonight, is the single highest level of registered sex offender linked to the disappearance of 21- year-old college co-ed Mickey Shunick? She goes through a Taco Bell drive- through on a Friday night. She`s never seen alive again. Let`s see that Taco Bell video surveillance, Liz.
I want to go out to Marc Klaas, president, founder, Klaas Kids Foundation. Marc weigh in.
MARC KLAAS, KLAAS KIDS FOUNDATION: Well, I`m with Tom here about Mickey still being possibly alive. Here`s what we know. We know that she`s been gone for quite some time. We know that they`ve thoroughly searched the area where she disappeared. We`re sure that there`s been a very thorough search of the area where her bike was found. Yet there is absolutely no sign of Mickey.
Therefore, it`s a logical conclusion to believe that she could still be alive. It`s exactly the scenario we`re working in Morgan Hill right now with the disappearance of Sierra Lamar. There`s absolutely nothing that`s telling us that these children are dead, and there`s every indication that they could possibly be alive. And until a body is found, one way or the other, we`ll never know for sure.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He`s a sex offender.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A break in the case.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Lafayette Police Department has arrested Brandon Scott Lavergne and charged him with first-degree murder and aggravated kidnapping.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mickey Shunick.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Disappeared days before her birthday.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She reportedly left a friend`s home in Lafayette on her bicycle, headed home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lavergne is believed to be responsible for the disappearance of Mickey Shunick.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The first pictures of her taken just minutes after she left her friend`s house.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, maybe he was -- he was riding around, looking for someone to victimize.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lavergne`s truck was found burned only days after Lafayette police released photographs of the truck as a vehicle of interest.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Positively identify the truck that traveled directly behind Mickey in the video as belonging to Brandon Lavergne.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are back and taking your calls. Tonight we learned that the highest level registered sex offender, a sex predator with convictions under his belt, is connected to the disappearance of Mickey Shunick. Tonight he`s behind bars, she`s still missing.
To Tom Shunick, this is a special guest joining us. This is Mickey`s father, reaching out for your help.
Tom, is he talking? What is he saying behind bars?
TOM SHUNICK, FATHER OF MISSING CO-ED BEAUTY, MICKEY SHUNICK: From what I have been told, once they started questioning him about Mickey, they said that he just clammed up, he`s not helping them at all and he just asked for an attorney at that point. I have not heard anything from over the weekend. I don`t know what has been going on over the weekend.
GRACE: Tom, would you be willing to give him any kind of leniency in exchange for Mickey`s whereabouts?
SHUNICK: Well, yes, especially if she`s still alive. But she was out looking for a victim as the police said and she just happened to be his victim and he took her and killed her, I don`t think he should -- he deserves any leniency, for kidnapping and/or murder.
GRACE: Thank you, Tom Shunick. Tom, when did you learn police think he is implicated in Mickey`s disappearance? How did you find this out?
SHUNICK: Well, I knew -- I didn`t know him, but I knew for several days that they had a suspect that they thought was -- you know, was involved. And I know he was working offshore, so they had to wait for him to come back. The actual fact that he`d been arrested, they sent a couple of detectives over and talked to me a little bit before it broke in the press. Now we`re beyond that third --
GRACE: Tom, when you say that this guy, Brandon Lavergne, was working offshore, what do you mean by that?
SHUNICK: He had a job, he was offshore. On a well somewhere. I`m not sure, you know, if it`s a drilling well or something offshore. They said he -- that`s where he worked offshore and they had to wait for them to fly him back in.
GRACE: What more are police telling you tonight, Tom?
SHUNICK: Really they haven`t told me anything else. They told me that it`s an ongoing investigation. They`ve got a lot of things they`re working on, they want to find Mickey, and, you know, what they`ve got going on right now, they don`t want to --you know, they don`t want to tell me and I`ve already told them, I don`t need to know that.
GRACE: Right. Tom, does your wife agree? Do you believe that Mickey is still alive?
SHUNICK: Yes, we`re hoping and praying. My wife is, you know, she`s taking it pretty hard, she breaks down quite a bit, but she`s still praying that she`s still out there somewhere. And, you know, the rest of my family, too.
GRACE: Well, you know, Tom Shunick, I keep thinking back on Jaycee Dugard who was kidnapped by a registered sex offender, Phillip Garrido, and his wife Nancy, and they kept her for about two decades, alive. She was alive that whole time. And this guy was even on probation under supervision, much like Brandon Lavergne, and they would even go and visit his house and search his house and he was keeping Dugard alive in an out- house structure, and they have never searched it.
Tom, I mean, these things happen. We have had so many cases where children are brought -- and teens are brought home alive.
Tom Shunick, I mean, I just can`t give up on Mickey this soon.
SHUNICK: Certainly I won`t give up. I can`t give up. Until her body is found, we`ve got to keep searching and we`ve got to find something out here. I just hope there`s somebody else involved besides this Lavergne guy. If he`s offshore for a couple of weeks, that means that he probably didn`t have her. I`m just hoping somebody else is involved in this.
GRACE: You know what? That`s a good point. Now what did you say about three weeks? You cut out on me.
SHUNICK: I said he -- they said that he`d been offshore for the last couple of weeks. I don`t have an exact number f days. But he`d been off - - you know, if he`s been out, you know, and not at home for -- you know, quite a while then I don`t know how he could have been, you know, been keeping her by himself. I just hope that somebody else is involved with him in this thing.
I have no -- you know, the police have not mentioned anybody else --
GRACE: Well, actually, Tom Shunick, your theory, your theory is making a lot of sense, because if he takes this white pick-up truck -- let`s see a shot of it again, Liz.
Gets it all the way to Texas, burns it, you know, as we said earlier, he didn`t walk home, he got home. And speaking of that truck, Tom Shunick, where was it found as you describe burned out? Was it on the side of the road? Was it in a field? A forest? A dump? Where was it, Tom?
SHUNICK: I don`t know. I have no idea. I haven`t heard anything about the exact location. I think they said it was somewhere around San Jacinto County in Texas. But I`m not even sure that`s the right country. But I do know it was -- and I don`t know --
GRACE: Because I`m thinking --
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: I`m thinking, Tom, if it`s out in the middle of nowhere, I mean how did he get all the way back home as you pointed out? I mean it`s very possible someone has aided and abetted with this guy.
And I want to hear your thoughts, Tom Shunick. Here we`ve got the highest level registered sex offender out walking around with no supervision, there`s no requirements on him, I`m not hearing anything about drugs and alcohol screening, I`m not hearing about him reporting in. I`m not hearing about searches at his apartment or home or his car. Nothing. He`s just walking around free.
SHUNICK: Right. And he`s probably not the only one either. There`s probably a lot of them out there. Apparently there has to be, if they didn`t do anything else to this guy, then there`s probably other guys out there just like him. And -- you know.
GRACE: Unleash the lawyers, Jennifer Smetters, Kirby Clements, Randy Kessler.
First to you, Randy Kessler, why no supervision, no check-ins, no nothing on a registered sex offender, the highest level, Kessler?
RANDY KESSLER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, you know, I agree. Hindsight is 20/20. But he did the crime, he paid his time. I don`t think there`s going to be a plea this time around because he apparently still doesn`t like the fact that he was in jail for eight years for the last time. But you know what can you do? You can monitor them forever, you can put them in jail forever.
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Well, you know what? You`re leading me down the garden path on that. I asked you a direct question.
Kirby Clements, you know, I`m very, very surprised at the maximum for aggravated sexual battery. And you`re a prosecutor before you became a defense attorney, Kirby. And very typically in our jurisdiction, that carried I think 10 to 20 to life behind bars for aggravated sexual battery.
And they completely through out the burglary, Kirby. He could have gotten 12 years consecutive on that burglary, Kirby, but nobody did anything.
KIRBY CLEMENTS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, you know, Nancy, I will say this. Actually when I went to New York, I was a sex crimes prosecutor as well.
GRACE: Yes.
CLEMENTS: I would tend to think that they`d probably cut this deal because they had -- they probably had some difficulties with the case. And as you know, when you`re in there doing criminal cases, sometimes --
GRACE: Put him up.
CLEMENTS: Sometimes you have to go ahead and cut a deal and say, we`ll go ahead and give you a plea to this, and we`ll dismiss the other charges. That`s the nature --
GRACE: No. No.
CLEMENTS: -- criminal defense and criminal practices like sausage making (ph).
GRACE: No.
CLEMENTS: Yes. Because it`s what happened.
GRACE: I appreciate that. I appreciate that opinion of yours, but Jennifer Smetters, when you have a sex crime victim that will make an I.D., and you`ve got him coming in the window and making statements that it was consensual, no jury in their right mind is going to believe that a man is invited in to the bedroom window. B.S. This should have been the maximum, with the burglary, that would have been 22 years behind bars. Somebody dropped the ball and now Mickey Shunick is missing and possibly dead.
JENNIFER SMETTERS, FAMILY LAW ATTORNEY: Absolutely. We`re so -- you know, we hear time and time again about the offender. Instead of looking at this from the victim`s perspective, how to protect the victims and the rest of society. This man, if you -- if you -- the last time you highlighted this story, Nancy, we had another young girl who knew about this predator on the streets who tried to pick another young girl up. This man was notorious to the community and now we have the ultimate victim here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: There`s been an arrest in the case of missing college student Mickey Shunick.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mickey Shunick disappeared just days before her 22nd birthday. Now police, they have arrested a registered sex offender and charged him with her murder.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Police searched Brandon Lavergne`s home in Church Point, Louisiana, six miles from where Mickey Shunick was last seen alive riding her bicycle.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Police say they have evidence that Lavergne was in the Whisky Bay area around the time that Mickey`s bike was found but they will not elaborate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lafayette Police Department has -- has arrested Brandon Scott Lavergne and charged him with first-degree murder and aggravated kidnapping. Lavergne is believed to be responsible for the disappearance of Mickey Shunick. Louisiana State Police conducted a traffic stop on Lavergne near the intersection of I-10 and I-49. He was arrested on an unrelated warrant and he was transported to the Lafayette Police Department.
During questioning in Lafayette PD Lavergne requested an attorney and has refused to cooperate any further with our investigation. At that time, he was initially charged with the aggravated kidnapping and first-degree murder of Mickey Shunick.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Why a murder charge? Tonight sitting behind bars sulking and not saying a word, level three registered sex offender, Brandon Lavergne, age 33, being held with no bond tonight. He`s charged in the disappearance of Mickey Shunick, but is she dead? Many, including her family, still holding out hope.
We are taking your calls, I want to go out to Dr. Patricia Saunders, clinical psychologist. They have absolutely, Pat, linked him to Mickey`s disappearance. For all I know she`s being held somewhere. In his last offense, the victim was not killed. Why do registered sex offenders think they can continue to offend over and over and over without ever being caught?
PATRICIA SAUNDERS, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: Well, they`re lacking obviously judgment and conscience. What defines a level three, the highest level sex offender is one that they`re most likely to reoffend and worse, they have the highest degree of dangerousness. Level three sex offenders tend to escalate in the degree of harm on their victim. That`s what really worries me, Nancy. Elizabeth Smart said and she`s right --
GRACE: Well, you know, another thing, Pat Saunders, is out of all the cases I ever prosecuted, there were only a handful of offenders that I absolutely am convinced cannot be rehabilitated. And sex predators are one of them. So I don`t understand why this guy was unleashed on the community and here comes Mickey Shunick on her black and gold Schwinn, the collision path. I don`t understand why he was released to start with. Why he got a cheap plea, number two. And number three, the mind set. He`s already done 10 years on an aggravated sex battery. Why offend again, Pat Saunders? I don`t get the thinking.
SAUNDERS: Well, fortunately we don`t get the thinking because it`s abnormal. These are guys who act on impulse, they don`t think of the consequences, they go with their own desires. Now I don`t believe that sex offenders can be rehabilitated at all. There`s a teeny-weeny little percentage and there`s been a lot of forensic psychological study on this that maybe 1 or 2 percent can learn how to inhibit their impulses. Otherwise these guys should be locked up for life.
GRACE: You know, I want to go to Dr. Michelle Dupre, joining me, medical examiner, forensic pathologist, joining me out of Columbia.
You know, Dr. Dupre, a lot of us have children that we sink our whole lives into, raising them, fostering their dreams and their hopes, only to know that wandering around out there is somebody like this freak, Brandon Lavergne. He burned out his car. Does that mean I`m not getting any evidence, any DNA evidence off that car, Doctor?
DR. MICHELLE DUPRE, M.D., MEDICAL EXAMINER AND FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: Not necessarily, Nancy. Oftentimes we found that burned vehicles, if they`re not burned badly, sometimes can actually help us, for example, with the fingerprint. If it`s just soot, that sometimes makes the fingerprints show up better. DNA, if it`s a very hot fire, if it`s really burned badly, we may not get DNA.
GRACE: With me, Dr. Michelle Dupre, joining me out of Columbia.
Everybody, the family album is back, showcasing your iReport photos. Here are Florida friends, the Chonackis. They love mission trips to Costa Rica and they love to travel.
Share your photos through iReport family album at hlnTV.com/Nancygrace and click on "Nancy`s Family Album."
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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Break now in that baffling case of what happened to a missing Louisiana co-ed.
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GRACE: Out to the lines, Cindy in Florida. Hi, Cindy, what`s your question, dear?
CINDY, CALLER FROM FLORIDA: I just wonder what`s going to happen to him whenever he gets -- well, he is caught, right? Have they caught him?
GRACE: Well, Cindy, yes, they have caught him but we don`t know where Mickey is, whether she`s dead or alive at this hour. The search is going on. But the death penalty is in place in Louisiana and I say he is the perfect candidate.
Out to Steve Carney and former police detective, lead instructor, Defend University.
Steve, thank you for being with us. Steve, back to him being placed in the area where her Schwinn bike was disposed. What do you make of that?
STEVE KARDIAN, FMR. POLICE DETECTIVE, SELF-DEFENSE EXPERT, LEAD INSTRUCTOR AT DEFEND UNIVERSITY: Well, I would imagine that his cell phone records were possibly -- he may have pinged off a tower in that area. He may have been seen on video surveillance in that area but something has led law enforcement to believe that he was at that place at the time (INAUDIBLE) that bicycle.
GRACE: That`s a good idea, Steve Kardian.
Ken Romero, co-host, "Mornings with Ken and Bernie," joining us there in Lafayette. Do we know how he is placed at the disposal of her Schwinn bike location?
I beg your pardon? I couldn`t quite hear you.
GRACE: Do we know how they are placing him, sex predator Brandon Lavergne, at the location on where her Schwinn was disposed?
KEN ROMERO, CO-HOST, MORNINGS WITH KEN AND BERNIE, news talk 96.5 KPEL: Police have not divulge how found the bike. They haven`t told us whether it is GPS or phone or anything. They haven`t divulged that information at all.
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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: There`s been an arrest in the case of missing college student Mickey Shunick.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lavergne is believed to be responsible for the disappearance of Mickey Shunick.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Lavergne`s truck was found burned only days after Lafayette Police released photographs of the truck.
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GRACE: Where is Mickey Shunick? I want to go back to Ken Romero, joining us out of Lafayette. Ken is co-host, "Mornings with Ken and Bernie."
Ken, I know that this guy`s home, Brandon Lavergne, registered sex offender, his home was searched. Do we know what if anything police got out of the home?
ROMERO: Again, police haven`t divulged anything. They spent a day and a half there and they haven`t told us if they found DNA or anything else. And we`re still in the dark about that. They are withholding a lot of information about the search.
GRACE: Robyn Walensky, anchor/reporter with "The Blaze." Robyn, his car -- his truck was found in your neck of the wood there in Texas. What do we know about a tipster`s call regarding the truck? Who`s the tipster? What do they know?
ROBYN WALENSKY, ANCHOR/REPORTER, THE BLAZE: A couple of point, Nancy. There were over 1,000 calls to the tip line. One of the calls panned out. And it was someone who spotted, who knew that that car was in Texas. It`s in an area not far from the Louisiana border. And they spotted the car, they ran the plate, the registration. And it came back to this guy.
So somebody had very good information. He apparently, Brandon, apparently reported that truck, Nancy, stolen, but think about this, why in the world do you set your truck or car on fire? Answer, to hide something. And what was he hiding? Most likely there was DNA or blood in that vehicle.
GRACE: With us, Robyn Walensky, anchor/reporter with "The Blaze."
Everyone, the tip line in this case, 337-291-8633. There`s a $25,000 reward.
Let`s stop and remember Marine Captain Trevor Yurista, 32, Pleasant Valley, New York, killed, Afghanistan. A John Jay criminal justice grad. Also served Iraq. Purple Heart. Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medals. National Defense Service medal. Loved soccer, baseball, a fitness center named in his honor, leaves behind parents, Ronald and Donna, sister, Heather.
Trevor Yurista, American hero.
Thanks to our guests but especially to you for being with us and a very special happy birthday to Erin, an occupational therapist, wife, mother, whose hard work, love and dedication single-handedly helped her husband and twins beat both cancer and premature birth.
If anybody deserves a happy birthday, Erin, it`s you.
Dr. Drew up next, everyone. I`ll see you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern. And until then, good night, friend.
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