NEW ORLEANS — A TikTok character referred to as Mr. Prada is charged within the bludgeoning dying of a Louisiana therapist whose physique was found over the weekend in a rolled up tarp close to a state freeway, authorities mentioned Thursday.
The physique of Nicholas Abraham, 69, of Baton Rouge, was discovered Sunday in rural Tangipahoa Parish, which is east of Baton Rouge and north of New Orleans. On Tuesday, police in Dallas County, Texas, arrested 20-year-old Terryon Thomas, who is understood on social media as Mr. Prada, after Baton Rouge police mentioned he fled from them in Abraham’s automotive.
Thomas’ relationship to the sufferer and a motive for the killing had been unclear as of Thursday morning, the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Workplace mentioned in a information launch. Thomas is charged with second-degree homicide and was awaiting extradition From Texas to Louisiana, the information launch mentioned.
“Right now, there is no such thing as a proof to counsel that Thomas was a consumer of Abraham,” the discharge mentioned.
On-line reserving information in Dallas County didn’t listing an legal professional may very well be contacted for touch upon Thomas’ behalf.
Abraham was seen on surveillance video getting into Thomas’ house Saturday night time, in keeping with an arrest warrant from the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Workplace. He was sporting the identical clothes he had on when his physique was found, the warrant says.
Witnesses instructed investigators that Thomas was seen hours later struggling to tug one thing wrapped in a blue tarp down the house constructing stairs earlier than putting the tarp in Abraham’s automotive, in keeping with the affidavit. Investigators later obtained a search warrant for Thomas’ house, the place they discovered indicators of a battle, together with blood “all through the house,” and indications that Thomas had tried to wash up earlier than departing, the affidavit mentioned.
“It was a really bodily and really violent assault,” Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff Gerald Sticker instructed WAFB. “He was bludgeoned about within the head shoulders and neck.”
Two of Thomas’ a number of TikTok accounts every has greater than 4 million followers.
A biography of Abraham on his web site says he had 30 years of expertise treating substance abuse, melancholy and nervousness. It additionally mentioned he spent 11 years as a Roman Catholic priest.
“Dr. Abraham was a really sort, very tender, very mild man,” mentioned Jarret Ambeau, a Baton Rouge lawyer who has represented Abraham in authorized issues and in addition counted him as a pal. “Nobody deserves to die this manner, however I’d have by no means anticipated somebody of his disposition to have been violently murdered.”