MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Police are asking for help finding a University of Minnesota student last seen with an accused killer. New surveillance video shows Anarae Schunk and her ex-boyfriend in the parking lot of Nina’s Grill in Burnsville early Sunday morning.
Police say that’s where her ex, 31-year-old Shavelle Chavez-Nelson, shot and killed 23-year-old Palagor Jobi during an argument. Officers arrested him Tuesday, but Schunk hasn’t been seen since.
Schunk is described as 5-feet, 9-inches tall, 165 pounds, with brown hair and green eyes. She was last seen wearing a white zip-up jacket with a University of Minnesota logo on the front.
A chess wiz, devoted student and a math tutor, Schunk did many things, but she didn’t drive. Her family says it was while waiting for a bus that she met Shavelle Chavez-Nelson, who would become her boyfriend.
“My feeling of him was never positive, that’s likely shared by the rest of our family,” said her brother, Owen Schunk.
In typical big brother form, he says he didn’t know the ins and outs of his sister’s relationship, just that the pair broke up in November, and that she had loaned him $5,000.
“She’s so studious, so intelligent, so bright and so positive that she has an enabling gene in her body to help people,” her brother said.
Police say they learned via surveillance that Anarae Schunk was with Chavez-Nelson early Sunday morning at Nina’s Grill and Bar in Burnsville. They say that night Chavez-Nelson killed a man he’d gotten into an argument with in the parking lot.
Of the arrest, Owen Schunk said: “It’s semi-discouraging that he was found without her but also encouraging at the same time, knowing that there was a chance that she was able to escape, evade and potentially try to protect herself.”
Officers say they don’t know if Chavez-Nelson had anything to do with Anarae Schunk going missing. They’ve still got questions to ask him.
Her brother says he would ask Chavez-Nelson two questions: Where is she? Is she OK?
“Everything else,” he said, “is in the rear-view mirror.”
Anarae Schunk is not suspected in Sunday’s homicide. Her family does not believe she knew the victim.
If you have any information on Schunk’s whereabouts, call police at 952-895-4636.
