ST. MARTINVILLE – Four days after pretty, petite Mickey Shunick vanished from a Lafayette street in the middle of the night, peace officers and volunteers convened at Lake Martin in St. Martin Parish on Thursday to search for her body.

They said they were looking for clues into her disappearance, but the fact in the back of everybody’s mind was that the bodies of murder victims turned up here on two different occasions last year.

“I pray we don’t find her,” volunteer Eric Robicheaux of Breaux Bridge said. They didn’t.

And so Shunick’s fate remains a mystery.

The next step is a planned Vermilion River search being organized for Saturday.

Participating in the search here were deputies from the St. Martin Parish Sheriff’s Officer.

“The searchers scoured the shoreline on foot and in boats and found nothing relating to the 21-year-old woman.

Last November, the body of 83-year-old Jesse Messex was found in her parked car at Lake Martin. A St. Martin Parish Grand Jury has indicted her daughter, Heller Dupuis, 49, of Breaux Bridge, and her granddaughter, Toni Dupuis, 30, also of Breaux Bridge, for first-degree murder in the crime, described as death by strangulation.

That same grand jury also indicted Patrick Paul George, 41, for second degree murder in the stabbing death of Cory Nicholas Sonnier, whose body was found by a kayaker near the boat ramp on Lake Martin in June.

Shunick was reportedly last seen about 2 a.m. on May 20 riding a black and gold Schwinn bicycle. She was reportedly in route from a friend’s home on Ryan Street in the Saints Street area of Lafayette to her family’s home near Ambassador and Congress.

She is described as 5’1” tall, weighing about 115 pounds, with shoulder-length curly blonde hair and blue eyes. She has a small tattoo of a bicycle on her right outer ankle and a ring on her left nostril.

She was last seen wearing a pastel multicolored striped shirt, light wash denim skinny jeans, and silver ankle boots. She was also carrying a light brown leather backpack, a black and yellow Vera Bradley wallet, a black Verizon slider phone and a small pink container of pepper spray.

Police say they have received many tips in the case from people hoping to help find the UL student, and collect a substantial reward, but no clear leads.