Fourty One

Oh gosh, it's been a long time since I last was on here.  I guess that's what happens when school takes off and I get swapped with assignments and work.

I haven't been in a writing mood lately, as the stack of homework sitting on my desk reminds me.  I just have not been very motivated.  But a few weeks ago we all found out that Mickey was found and I have had an urge to write.  If you don't know who I am talking about, I will give you a brief recap.

I first heard about Mickey Shunick a few days after she went missing back in May from Matt & Kim's facebook page.  I think the moment I saw such a beautiful and happy person on a missing poster my heart began to hurt.  She lived close(ish) to my brother, so even though I'm all the way in New Zealand, I somehow felt connected to this story, as thousands others did worldwide.

She was riding her bike home after hanging with her friends, it was around 2:30am and she was only biking a few miles to her house.  This is something that I have done many times before when living in Milwaukee, and so many of my friends do as well.  And I agree with the movement going on at the moment- I don't think Mickey did anything wrong in biking home in the early hours of the morning.  When did it become a place were the only way to stay safe is to stay home?  We should have the expectation that our streets our safe at all hours of the day- this is why we pay for police after all, to keep our cities and streets safe.   While she was biking home she was followed by a terrible evil person, forced by knife-point into his truck and was murdered.

After first reading about her disappearance, I started to going back to the site a few times a week to check for updates, that turned into daily checks; just like everyone else I was so hopeful that she would be found alive and returned to her family.    And her family and her friends; wow- what an extraordinary group of people.  I was just blown away by the love they hold for her, and for other missing people.  And their drive, they would have never stopped looking for her.  And although I wish the outcome would have been different, I am truly glad they found her finally.

Like I said a few weeks ago she was found, but sadly not alive.  The man responsible has plead guilty to her murder and to another murder in 1999, that of Lisa Pate.  The details of how she died were heart breaking but also read into how strong  of a person Mickey was.  She wouldn't give up, macing her attacker and stabbing him multiple times, even after she had been stabbed.  She gave everything she had to survive until the very end.  

And even though I didn't know her, who she was in life and in death and those who knew her and love her and spread her story have made a huge impact on my life.  I don't think a day could go by without thinking about her.  She is such an inspiration and it's so heart breaking that he life was cut short, but thousands and thousands of people will not let her memory; that smile of hers fade away.  It sounds absurd, but she has changed my life.