LAFAYETTE PARISH, LA (FOX44) — One thing that has colored this case the entire time is the involvement of the community here in Lafayette, after Tuesday's discovery, residents in Evangeline parish are saying they're shocked and mourning with those in the Lafayette community.

Police cars and a coroner's van broke the relative quiet of Evangeline parish Tuesday.
Drawing residents in to a double murder investigation they had, until this point, watched from afar.

"I was pretty shocked. At the same time I wasn't there's a lot of sick people in the world. I mean i was shocked it that close to my house," Hannah Dixon, an area mother, said.

“It's shocking that something like that is so close to home because I am from Ville Platte and it's hard to believe that someone this close could be committing murders like that,” Pat LaFleur, a resident of the area, said.

In Lafayette parish where an entire community rallied to 'bring Mickey home', Feelings are mixed. Though police have yet to confirm with 100% certainty that the body found is Shunick’s, many believe the community is finally receiving some closure.

“Honestly I know the family needs closure. And as soon as they get DNA results I think they'll feel a lot better. With the other girl also. It will help to get them closure as well. This has been going on for a long time now," Dale Dupre, an Opelousas native, added.

For others, the end of this long journey is not what they had hoped and prayed for, and it's an outcome they say has left the community hurting.

"As a community, as a whole community. Everybody mourns for that family, feels for them. We all feel it. We all think of our own families and our own children at a time like this," Sally Hamana, a downtown business owner, explained.

Police have said it could take up to three days to positively identify the body found in Evangeline Parish.