A TikTok star has been arrested in connection to the brutal murder of a therapist after posting concerning videos.
Known online as Mr. Prada, Terryon Thomas was taken into custody last week after the body of a man was found beaten and wrapped in tarp along a highway on September 28.
Thomas was seen driving the victim’s car a day after his body had been found.
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The TikToker was approached by police during a traffic stop but allegedly refused to obey orders and backed into a police car, before fleeing the scene on foot.
CCTV images of Thomas were released and social media users quickly realized who he was.
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The 20-year-old content creator has over 4.3 million followers on TikTok and is known for his comedy sketches.
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The victim is 69-year-old therapist William ‘Nick’ Abraham, and police have revealed that Thomas wasn’t a patient of his.
In a news conference, Sheriff Gerald Sticker said that the victim ‘was bludgeoned about in the head, shoulders and neck. There was a lot of bruising’.
Originally charged with second-degree murder, the TikToker is now facing charges of first-degree murder and obstruction of justice, prosecutors confirmed this week.
Thomas' charge has been upgraded under a Louisiana law that allows the more serious charge when 'the offender has the specific intent to kill or inflict great bodily harm upon a victim who is under the age of 12 or 65 years of age or older', local media reports.
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Fans of Thomas have claimed that his videos seemed to shift in content in the months leading up to the murder.
In one video, he told viewers: “I'm bipolar... ya'll never seen anybody that's bipolar before? I was trying to hide it but it just slipped out.”
In another video, he said: “Life is a prison, get me the f**k out.”
And in April, Thomas wrote: “When you've gone a little too long without getting in trouble and you feel a cannon event approaching.”
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In a post from May 2023, he wrote: “Practicing for my mug shot cus this might be the year someone gonna meet God if they p*ss me off too much.”
It’s still unclear what Thomas’ motive for the murder was, and a link between the two men is still being established by police.
East Baton Rouge Parish court records obtained by WWL show that Abraham was previously arrested in 2015 for allegedly inappropriately touching an 11-year-old boy during a therapy session.
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He was never charged in the incident, and Sheriff Sticker shared that while he is aware of the arrest, he is focusing on locating where the therapist was murdered.
Speaking to WBRZ, Abraham's attorney, Jarrett Ambeau, said: “He was kind, loving, a gentle man and frankly not the kind of man that something like this would've happened to.
“I'm absolutely devastated and completely surprised that something like that could've happened to a man who I believe to be so tender and so gentle and have such a service heart.”