I think Brandon Lavergne is a serial killer. Lavergne pleaded guilty this morning to murdering Mickey Shunick and Lisa Pate. The admission came as part of a plea agreement in which Lavergne directed investigators to Shunick’s body last week. As part of his elocution, Lavergne was required to show police where Shunick’s body was buried and physically recreate his actions from May 19. Lavergne signed statements that say he followed Shunick, a 21-year-old University of Louisiana at Lafayette student, down St. Landry Street in his truck. He intentionally hit her bike and persuaded her into his vehicle. She was able to mace him, grab his knife, and stab him several times, giving him what were described as “life-threatening cuts.” He said he grabbed the knife back and stabbed Shunick four times until she fell over.
Lavergne said he assumed Shunick was dead at that point, but when he brought her to a secluded cane field in Acadia Parish she jumped up and regained control of the knife. Shunick stabbed him in the chest. That’s when Lavergne says he grabbed a semi-automatic handgun and shot Shunick in the head, killing her instantly. Lavergne was arrested July 5 in connection with Shunick’s May 19 disappearance. A Lafayette grand jury on July 18 indicted him on two counts of first-degree murder, for Shunick and Lisa Pate, whose remains were found in September 1999. Lavergne was a suspect in that case but a 2008 grand jury failed to indict him.
Nancy Rowe, Shunick’s mother, said after the hearing that her daughter “went down swinging with everything she could.” “Maybe he’ll wake up screaming every night, seeing her little hand with a knife plunging into him,” Rowe said. Clay Lejeune, one of Lavergne’s defense attorneys, said following the hearing that Lavergne has wanted to come clean about Shunick since before his arraignment. “He showed deep concern for the Shunicks and wanted closure for them,” Lejeune said. It was Lavergne who approached his attorneys expressing his desire to plea, Lejeune said. Lavergne saw Mickey Shunick’s sister, Charlie, on TV and realized there would be no end to the family’s pain until the case was closed, he said.
Shunick’s remains were recovered Aug. 7 behind a small cemetery off La. 10 in Evangeline Parish. Police said at the time that information from a credible source led them to the body, which was identified as Shunick on Aug. 9. Lavergne was checked out of the Lafayette Parish Correctional Center for nine hours on Aug. 7 by members of the multi-agency task force investigating Shunick’s disappearance. That led to speculation Lavergne had cut a deal with prosecutors in which he directed police to Shunick’s body in exchange for pleading guilty to the murders and not being subject to the death penalty.
A serial killer is traditionally defined as an individual who has killed three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time (a “cooling off period”) between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification. Lavergne has the ability and the means. From the swamplands of South Louisiana, Lavernge was an off-shore oil rig worker, a mechanic, for Wood Group PSN. These workers normally spend 21 days on the job followed by 21 days of paid leave. This allowed Lavergne plenty of time to hunt and to hunt across a fairly wide area. He is suspected in the disappearance of a Texas girl and at one time was mentioned in the case of missing Indiana University co-ed Lauren Spierer.
Hopefully, this plea bargain which assures he will spend the rest of his life in the Louisiana State Prison at Angola will afford him the opportunity to help law enforcement close other cases as well. If we are to believe he wanted to help end the Shunick’s pain, maybe he will see fit to help out with some others.
