Deputies check dirt mounds: not student's grave
Last Modified: Thursday, July 12, 2012 12:58 PM
OPELOUSAS (AP) — Investigators checked out a tip Thursday about possible grave sites roughly two miles from the home of a man booked with murder of a missing Lafayette college student, but found nothing.
St. Landry Parish Sheriff Bobby Guidroz said a farmer called about three piles of dirt near his fields. Cadaver dogs were brought in, but all three sites were ruled out as graves.
The area was about two miles from the Lawtell home of Brandon Lavergne, who has been booked with aggravated kidnapping and first-degree murder of Mickey Shunick. The University of Louisiana at Lafayette student has been missing since May 19.
A grand jury will consider the case July 18, Lafayette Parish District Attorney Mike Harson has said.
Lavergne is being held without bail at the Lafayette Parish Correctional Center.
Shunick was last seen riding away from a friend's house in Lafayette on her bicycle, days before her 22nd birthday. A surveillance video shows her on the bicycle on the morning of May 19.
Lafayette Police Chief Jim Craft has said Lavergne owned a white pickup truck that was also spotted on the same video.
The vehicle was later found burned in Texas. Investigators also can place Lavergne in and around the remote, swampy area where Shunick's black Schwinn bicycle was found eight days after she disappeared.
Craft has said damage to the bike's rear tire might have come from being hit by a vehicle.
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