TikTok personality named as suspect in death of therapist found wrapped in tarp off side of Louisiana highway
A TikTok personality with more than four million followers has been named as a person of interest in the death of a beloved therapist whose body was found wrapped in a tarp on the side of a Louisiana highway.
A passerby had seen the suspicious tarp rolling along the side of Highway 51 just before 8 a.m. Sunday and alerted the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office, Fox 8 Live reports.
Officers arriving on the scene then found the body of well-known therapist and motivational speaker William Nicholas Abraham, 69, in the tarp.
Just a day later, a Baton Rouge police officer spotted 20-year-old Terryon Ishmael Thomas – better known online as Mr. Prada – driving Abraham’s black Lincoln MKZ, according to an arrest warrant. obtained by WBRZ.
It said Thomas refused to comply when the officer attempted to conduct a traffic stop – and instead backed into the police vehicle and fled on foot while officers recovered the victim’s vehicle.
An arrest warrant has been issued for 20-year-old Terryon Ishmael Thomas – better known online as Mr Prada
Baton Rouge police say Thomas on Monday was driving a Lincoln MKZ belonging to a beloved therapist who was found dead a day earlier
The suspect was later captured on a nearby store’s surveillance cameras, which police released Monday evening while he remained at large.
Thomas is now wanted for aggravated criminal damage to property, resisting an officer and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.
He has not been charged in the therapist’s death, which authorities say was caused by blunt force trauma.
“It was a very physical and very violent attack,” Tangipahoa Sheriff Gerald Sticker said: according to WAFB.
‘He was hit in the head, shoulders and neck. There were a lot of bruises.”
The body of William Nicholas Abraham was found wrapped in a tarp on the side of Highway 51
A motive for the killing remains unclear, but East Baton Rouge Parish court records indicate obtained by WWL show Abraham was previously arrested in 2015 for allegedly inappropriately touching an 11-year-old boy during a therapy session.
Abraham has never been charged in the incident, and Sheriff Sticker said that while he is aware of the arrest, he is focused on locating where the therapist — who had a regular show on Baton Rouge television — was killed .
“At this time we have no idea where this came from,” the sheriff said.
He noted that no weapons were found on the side of the highway where his body was dumped, and that a search of the victim’s home in East Baton Rouge Parish also found no evidence that a crime had been committed there.
The sheriff’s office is now seeking “any information the public can give us to help us piece together the picture of Saturday evening, before he was ultimately killed – which we believe occurred sometime Saturday evening,” Sticker said .
No weapons were found on the side of the road where Abraham’s body was dumped
Abraham’s friends and family also demand answers.
“I want to know who did it and I want to know why,” his brother, Tommy Abraham, said told WBRZ.
“I watch the news every night and I cringe when I hear that someone has killed someone,” he said. “It’s just not the way it should be.”
‘No one is allowed to take a life except God. Nobody,” Tommy added to WWL. “He’s the only one who can take a life, and if anyone takes someone else’s life, you’re a coward.”
He and his brother, Joseph, said Abraham worked as a Catholic priest for 14 years, ministering in Mississippi and Milwaukee, before eventually becoming a therapist.
Abraham also served as a life coach, “motivational speaker, artist, author, teacher and pioneer.” according to its websitenoting that he had experience treating substance abuse, anxiety and depression and working with the LGBTQ community.
“He left a mark on people’s lives and helped them become better people,” Joseph said.
“He was kind, loving, a gentle man and, quite frankly, not the kind of man something like this would have happened to,” Abraham’s attorney, Jarret Ambeau, added.
“I am absolutely devastated and completely surprised that something like this could have happened to a man who I believe to be so tender and gentle and has such a serving heart.”