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."
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MAY 21 Here's a post on the Advocate (but buried on a subpage, not on the front) that reports something Louisiana Voice reported some time ago: a top DOE official lives in Los Angeles and "commutes" to Baton Rouge. The positioning of the story caused a stir on Facebook Monday, with several posters asking if the Advocate was covering someone's hiney. Sentell's stories on DOE are notoriously soft, and this one is no different: don't expect any hard questions in here.
MAY 21 Here's another post from blogger Tom Aswell about the "course choice" program. He's already reported on kids being signed up without their consent or knowledge, and has more here: For example, he tells of a six-year-old who was signed up for high school Latin. He also digs a little deeper into the sister companies of the main one operating in Louisiana; all of them seem to have complaints against them. Stinky.
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MAY 21 Blogger CB Forgotston says there are too many elections in Louisiana, and they're costing us too much money. The proof is in the pudding: turnout for most of these nonsensical pollings gets worse and worse, CB opines, even as millions of dollars that could be spent on health care or higher ed go down the tubes. The legislature must take action to stem the tide of pointless elections, he says.
MAY 21 Here's an interesting investigative piece by WVUE on the retirement benefits of some Jefferson Parish public employees. According to the story, the taxpayers are paying 100 percent of the retirement contributions of employees who started work prior to a certain date in April 1986 -- and have done for more than 30 years. It costs the parish millions annually, and might not be legal, the story reports.
MAY 21 This post on Bayou Buzz provides insight from Louisiana's intrepid pollster, Bernie Pinsonat, on the winners and losers from this year's legislative session. But to hear Bernie tell it, there's almost nuttin but losers: Jindal, the Republican party, the Fiscal Hawks all get big goose eggs in his win column.
MAY 20 This post on The Lens takes a look at a huge (either $500K or $250K) bill that one NOLA charter now has for school lunches. The RSD says the charter group didn't fill out the proper paperwork for federal reimbursement, but the story details how the RSD didn't ensure the people running the charter had the proper training, despite requests from hapless charter employees trying to fill out forms. Either way, somebody's asleep at the wheel.
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