TikTok personality “Mr. Prada is charged with the murder of a Louisiana therapist

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A TikTok personality named Mr. Prada is charged in the brutal death of a Louisiana therapist whose body was discovered in a rolled-up tarp near a state highway over the weekend, authorities said Thursday.

The body of 69-year-old Nicholas Abraham of Baton Rouge was found 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, known on social media as Mr. Prada, after Baton Rouge police said he fled from them in Abraham's car.

Thomas' relationship to the victim and a motive for the killing remained unclear Thursday morning, the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office said in a news release. Thomas is charged with second-degree murder and was awaiting extradition from Texas to Louisiana, the release said.

“At this time, there is no evidence that Thomas was a customer of Abraham’s,” the release said.

Dallas County's online booking records did not list an attorney who could be contacted for comment on Thomas' behalf.

According to an arrest warrant from the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office, Abraham was seen on surveillance video entering Thomas' apartment Saturday morning. He was wearing the same clothing he was wearing when his body was discovered, the arrest warrant states.

Witnesses told investigators that hours later, Thomas was seen struggling to drag something wrapped in a blue tarp down the apartment building's stairs before putting the tarp in Abraham's car, the affidavit said. Investigators later obtained a search warrant for Thomas' apartment, where they found signs of a struggle, including blood “throughout the apartment” and evidence that Thomas had attempted to clean up before leaving, the affidavit said.

“It was a very physical and very violent attack,” Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff Gerald Sticker told WAFB. “He was struck in the head, shoulders and neck.”

Two of Thomas' numerous TikTok accounts each have more than 4 million followers.

A biography of Abraham on his website says he has 30 years of experience treating substance abuse, depression and anxiety. It also said he spent 11 years as a Roman Catholic priest.

“Dr. “Abraham was a very kind, very gentle, very gentle man,” said Jarret Ambeau, a Baton Rouge attorney who has represented Abraham in legal matters and also counts him as a friend. “No one deserves to die this way, but I never expected someone with his disposition to be violently murdered.”