A 20-year-old TikTok personality has been charged with murder after the body of a therapist was discovered wrapped in a tarpaulin on a motorway.
Terryon Thomas, best known online as Mr Prada, was arrested in East Baton Rouge, Louisana, on Tuesday after 69-year-old therapist William Nicholas Abraham was found dead on the side of a road near Tangipahoa Parish a few days earlier.
His cause of death was blunt force trauma, according to authorities, Sky News’ US partner network NBC reported.
Thomas has multiple accounts on TikTok, one of which has 4.3 million followers and over 500 million likes.
He is believed to have fled from police while driving Mr Abraham’s car. A later search of his home found evidence indicating a violent altercation had occurred inside, according to an arrest warrant affidavit filed by the sheriff’s office.
Images of Thomas released by police before his arrest. Pic: Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office
Police found “a significant amount of blood” and “multiple sharp objects and other weapons,” NBC said, citing the affidavit.
A release by the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office said the relationship between the TikToker and Mr Abraham was unclear. It is not thought Thomas was a patient of the therapist.
Mr Abraham was seen entering Thomas’s apartment on Saturday night, according to the arrest warrant. His body was found the next day wearing the same clothes.
Witnesses told police that Thomas was seen struggling to drag something wrapped in a blue sheet down the stairs of the apartment building before placing the tarpaulin in Mr Abraham’s car, according to the affidavit.
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“It was a very physical and very violent attack,” Tangipahoa Parish sheriff Gerald Sticker told local TV station, WAFB.
“He was bludgeoned about in the head shoulders and neck.”
A lawyer who previously represented Mr Abraham described him as a “very kind, very tender, very gentle man”.
He said: “No one deserves to die this way, but I would have never expected someone of his disposition to have been violently murdered.”
Thomas gained popularity on TikTok for making comedy videos. The management team believed to represent the social media personality were approached for comment by NBC.
He remains in custody in Dallas, Texas and is awaiting extradition to Louisiana.