A tip from a farmer about a possible grave site on his property 2.5 miles northwest as the crow flies from the St. Ann Church in the Mallet community led to two more similar mounds but nothing else, according to St. Landry Parish Sheriff Bobby Guidroz.
The sheriff says the search for Mickey Schunick continues.
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| Photo by Dominick Cross | |
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St. Landry Parish Sheriff Bobby Guidroz says Thursday's search of property near the home of Brandon Scott Lavergne in the community of Mallet turned up nothing. |
"They are not grave sites," says Guidroz, adding that the use of probes and shovels determined the 6-foot-by-3-foot mounds were not graves. "We were convinced they are not grave sites because of the root systems that was in the mound of dirt."
From 6:30 a.m. to 10 a.m., 13-15 members of the Lafayette Crime Scene Unit and the St. Landry Sheriff's Department searched the area adjacent to farmland Guidroz says appears to be a rice field.
"And beyond the rice field is a wooded area and in the wooded area are trails where trucks and tractors pass," he says. "And at the edge of the woods is the first mound that we searched. The team was canvassing the area and found a second and a third."
Guidroz says the area is in the vicinity of the home of Brandon Scott Lavergne, who was arrested July 5 in connection with the disappearance of the 21-year-old woman last seen May 19 riding her bike home in Lafayette.
"We're going to keep looking. We're there for the Shunick family, along with the LPD and we're hoping that we can put some closure, recover her, find her alive or if she's not alive, we hope that we can recover her body," Guidroz says. "I know the family has hope that she's alive and that's certainly a possibility."
MAY 17 Here's a column from James Gill, this time in the Advocate. Gill, who has jumped ship from the Picayune, writes about the absurdity of dueling polls in this post. The numbers are so wildly different, it is obvious that both sides are "cooking the books," he writes. In particular, he looks at Sen. Mary Landrieu, and how her recent actions in DC have been received by those polled. Gill's acerbic, amusing prose is a welcome addition to a paper so conservative as to be occasionally lacking in personality.
MAY 17 Blogger Tom Aswell continues delivering bombshells about the state education department and Gov. Jindal's education "reform" efforts. In this post, he reports that students in the Shreveport area have been signed up for a charter school without their knowledge or consent. Most interesting to Aswell is how this Texas-based charter (with ties to GOP types) got the personal student information it has, if the students didn't give it.
MAY 17 This post by JR Ball in the Baton Rouge Business Report is an interesting tongue-in-cheek look at recent Baton Rouge economic development efforts. Among the items he examines is the idea that gaining a Costco makes BR a "world-class city." (Really? All you need is a different brand of Sam's? MK!) This effort, and other recent ones, are all built on the taxpayer's back, with tax zones, tax incentives and tax rebates, Ball writes.
MAY 17 Blogger CB Forgotston is critical of the legislature's reliance on a revenue-estimating committee's decision to include projected tax amnesty income in this year's forecast. That's a problem, CB posts, because the deadline for these people to pay their taxes is June 30, 2014. So when do you think these people who haven't paid taxes in years are going to pay their taxes? Surely not before June 30, and that means the money won't be there for this year's budget, he argues.
MAY 17 Here's an interesting blog out of California by a Hollywood writer, attorney and academic named Brian Alan Lane. He blogs about higher ed, and was a whistle-blower in a scandal over false credentials. In this post, he takes aim at LSU's new top dog, King Alexander. It's convoluted and a little confusing, but it sure makes Alexander a lot more interesting than he was yesterday.
MAY 17 Blogger Robert Mann writes about the LSU Board's refusal to allow Dr. Fred Cerise to testify before the legislature about Gov. Jindal's plan to close down all the state's charity hospitals and dump the poor on the private system. It's hard to imagine anyone more qualified than Cerise to testify about that, so why would anyone try to prevent him doing so? Mann thinks it is because the powers that be aren't interested in hearing any truth about the plan.
MAY 17 This post on the Louisiana Sinkhole Bugle, a blog that notes developments in the Bayou Corne and Jefferson Island salt domes, talks about a proposed expansion of the salt dome storage under Lake Peigneur in Iberia Parish. Residents are working against it for several reasons, including two biggies: the sinkhole disaster in Bayou Corne and the continuing, unexplained bubbling on the surface of the Lake.
MAY 17 NOLA police arrested more people Thursday accused of either being involved in the Mother's Day shooting or hiding the suspect afterward, this Gambit story reports. The NOLA police chief said he suspects the whole thing was gang-related and throws out a challenge to the gangs: he's got informants now, he says, and he knows a lot more than the gangs want him to know. The people who live in the neighborhoods terrorized by gangs are ready to talk, he says.
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