Police searching for missing student Mickey Shunick seeking driver of white pick-up van as new surveillance footage is uncovered



After nearly a week without results in the search for missing Michaela 'Mickey' Shunick, police have revealed they have uncovered surveillance footage of the 22-year old riding her bike.



Two videos both show the University of Louisiana student on St. John Street and St. Landry Street in Lafayette.



And in both videos a white four-door pick-up truck is seen to pass by on camera after Schunick rides by and date from 1.47 and 1.48 a.m after the student had left a friends house on Saturday May 19.

Scroll Down for Video



Same location: Visible in the top right of the video grab is Miss Shunick seen riding her bike home in the same area and time the three vehicles were seen passing

The white pick up van appears in one of the surveillance cameras footage driving by where Michaela 'Mickey' Shunick had just passed

'Investigators are seeking information regarding a white newer model four door pickup truck, which was captured on video after Mickey Shunick traveled on both streets,' said a statement from the Lafayette Police Department according to ABC News

Police have said it has taken this long to release the new information because much of the surveillance footage had to be watched in real time and then enhanced to positively identify Schunick.

Before the newest information had been released, police investigators had found no cell phone, purse or any trace of the missing woman after she left her friend Brettly Wilson's house.



And as investigators expanded their search to include a $25,000 reward for information, some people in the area began to wonder whether she had even been aducted.

Mystery: Michaela 'Mickey' Shunick, a 22-year-old anthropology major at the University of Louisiana, was last seen leaving a friend's house

'What concerns us is, where is her bicycle?' said Detective Stephen Bajat of the Lafayette police department.



'If it is some kind of abduction, most people would snatch and go on and not concern themselves with the bicycle.'



While hundreds of University of Louisiana students and some of Shunick's friends have been helping the police with their searches, the night she went missing still plays on some minds.



'It's something you keeping asking ourselves, if there's something that we overlooked or something that we missed,' said Brettley Wilson.

Desperate search: Michaela Shunick has been missing since Saturday after being last seen cycling home at 2am in Lafayette, Louisiana

Painting a clearer timeline of the evening, police are keen for witnesses to come forward from the Artmosphere bar that Shunick attended from 10 p.m till midnight and then onwards to Wilson's house and to a Taco Bell drive-through at around 1.24 a.m.



Receiving a phone call from a friend at around 1.31 a.m, Wilson drove Shunick to his home to collect her bike and she rode off at 1.45 a.m leaving Wilson.



'She checked her bike, took out her mace, made sure it was on. I walked her out, watched her get to the drive way then I closed the door and locked it,' said Wilson according to KATC

That was the last time that anyone saw her.

Support: The community in Lafayette attend a vigil to pray for the missing student

'Now we're able to show the family that, hey, we know she traveled to Versaille, we know she it as far as St.Landry Street, and that there was a white pick up truck in that area,' said Corporal Paul Mouton, Public Information Officer for Lafayette Police.



'Someone was in that immediate area when she passed on the bike so it's trying to identify with those people and getting that information back so we can hopefully get closer to finding her.'



Indeed, after seeing the white pick-up truck released by the police, new leads are already coming forward.

Shine a light: Friends and fellow students gathered in a park in downtown Lafayette last night to support Mickey's family in the search for her

A local girl, Tasha Patterson claims that it is the same truck that approached her two months ago while she was riding her bike down South College around 2 p.m.



She says that after heading back from a meeting a man in a white truck pulled over and asked if she needed a ride.

Patterson says she was exhausted and was not thinking clearly and got in.

Missing: Shunick was riding a black Schwinn bicycle with gold handle bar grips (pictured) and wearing a brown leather backpack purse when she disappeared

Fun-loving: Mickey Shunick (pictured right) missed her brother's graduation on Saturday

Throughout the car ride the man apparently offered her money in return for sex, an offer which she refused.



Dropping her off unharmed, Patterson described the truck as a white GMC Sierra 2500 Texas Edition and during the journey told her matter-of-factly that, 'He rides around town all the time trying to pick up pretty girls'.

