Hold My Sweet Tea
Where True Crime collides with chilling ghost stories and Southern folklore. Join us, sip sweet tea, and uncover shocking tales of murder, mystery, and the supernatural, all with a healthy dose of Southern charm and a touch of sass!
Hold My Sweet Tea
Ep. 57-Rolled in a Tarp: The Murder of Dr. William Nicholas Abraham
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When police discovered a body wrapped in a tarp along Highway 51 in Louisiana, they never expected it would lead to a shocking connection between a beloved therapist and a TikTok star with millions of followers.
Dr. William Nicholas "Dr. Nick" Abraham had dedicated his life to helping others. With a PhD in counseling and over 30 years of experience treating substance abuse, depression, and anxiety, he was a familiar face in Baton Rouge, appearing on local TV and working compassionately with the LGBTQ+ community. His former attorney described him as having "such a servant's heart" – making the brutal nature of his murder all the more devastating.
The investigation took a surprising turn when evidence pointed to 20-year-old Terryon Ishmael Thomas – better known online as "Mr.Prada," a TikTok personality with an astonishing 8.2 million followers across his accounts. When authorities searched Thomas's apartment, they discovered weapons and large amounts of Dr. Nick's blood. The doctor had last been seen alive outside Thomas's apartment complex before his body was found dumped on the roadside, having suffered fatal blunt force trauma to his head, neck, and shoulders.
What remains mysterious is the connection between these two vastly different individuals – a respected 69-year-old therapist and a young social media influencer. Was Dr. Nick counseling Thomas? Was there another relationship between them? As Thomas faces first-degree murder charges and a possible death penalty, the case continues to unfold with the next court date approaching. Join us as we examine this tragic crime that left a community mourning a man who had spent his life helping others, only to meet a violent end that shocked everyone who knew him.
Like, share, and follow Hold My Sweet Tea wherever you get your podcasts to stay updated on this case and other fascinating true crime stories from the South.
Source Material:
Obituary, Oct 2, 2024, https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/theadvocate/name/dr-william-abraham-obituary?id=56440552
Maiden, Lauren, September 29, 2024, TPSO: Body of man wrapped in tarp found in Tangipahoa Parish, https://www.wdsu.com/article/tpso-body-of-man-wrapped-in-tarp-found-in-tangipahoa-parish/62433101
Miller, Mason, September 30, 2024, Man’s body found wrapped in tarp identified as Baton Rouge therapist \ Person of interest wanted, https://unfilteredwithkiran.com/mans-body-found-wrapped-in-tarp-on-side-of-highway/
Welty, Chris and Van de Riet, Emily, October 2, 2024, TikTok star ‘Mr.Prada’ arrested in connection to death of therapist found wrapped in tarp, officials say, https://www.wymt.com/2024/10/02/tiktok-star-mrprada-arrested-connection-death-therapist-found-wrapped-tarp-officials-say/
Marigny, Alexis, January 15, 2025, ‘Mr.Prada’ appears in court for bond hearing; murder suspect going before grand jury, mr-prada-appears-in-court-for-bond-hearing-murder-suspect-going-before-grand-jury
Tuttle, Ethan, January 28, 2025, TikTok star “Mr.Prada” pleads not-guilty in arraignment hearing, https://www.wafb.com/2025/01/28/ti
Travis Decker Case Update
Speaker 1September 29th 2024. A man's body, rolled in a tarp, is found on the side of the road. This is Hold my Sweet Tea. How you doing, I'm Pearl.
Speaker 2And I'm Holly and I've got an update for the Travis Decker case. So it's been what? Three months now and they still haven't found him. Good Lord, yeah, it's been a minute, yeah.
Speaker 2And they have done extensive searches. They did release results from the dna that they took and the autopsies and all that stuff. So it said that two of the daughters had two separate bags over their heads. So he put two bags over their heads and the the third one had three bags over her head and then, in addition to the plastic bags, there were like cable ties in the area and stuff. So he had suffocated them with these bags and cable ties around around them. Like that's just crazy, yeah. But they submitted all of this into evidence and sent it to the lab for dna and on august 6th the crime lab reported that the dna profiles matching travis decker were found on the plastic bags and the cable ties, so it was 100. He did it. He did it to his own kids, to his own kids, to his own kids. Because there was still like that whole thing like well, maybe somebody kidnapped him, maybe somebody killed his kids.
Speaker 1So they're just trying to like rule out any other suspects at this moment.
Speaker 2There was nobody else's like DNA evidence anywhere on that scene. Goodness gracious, yeah so, but he's still out there and he needs to be found.
Speaker 1Yeah, interesting little mini update there.
Speaker 2I just wanted to update on that one because I've been following it and hoping that they would catch him. I'm sure something. I'm sure the girl's mothers would, you know, definitely like an update on that.
Speaker 1Yeah, absolutely. I'm sure they'd like to see that come to an end.
Speaker 2Yes, With him anyway, Ay yi yi. So what are we getting into today?
Dr. Nick Abraham's Background
Speaker 1You know, not much better than that. At least it doesn't involve children. Well, that's good. Not much better than that. At least it doesn't involve children, well, that's good. So we're going to talk about the murder of Dr William Nicholas Abraham. He was born in Clarksdale, mississippi, on December 28th 1954. He had four brothers and three sisters.
Speaker 2Busy parents. Right, my parents had five of us, so yeah yeah, but nowadays more than two kids. There's no way you can afford that.
Speaker 1Oh my gosh my, my little family is so complicated because my parent, my mom and dad which, by the way, fun fact, yeah, their names are mary and joseph I always tell everyone they had satan, though my brother right, voldemort I joke chicken voldemort, he's not satan, but anyway he acted like it though he and I are the only two from that union. Right when they said they divorced, they divorced. Dad had two more boys with another woman and we had a stepbrother from that.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1And then my mother has two girls who also have different dads from each other. Ah, okay, my mama hoochie. No, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 2Your mom is listening to this right now going she's raising her fist at you. I know she is.
Speaker 1She's probably over there shaking her fingers Stupid.
Speaker 2Yep, you know yes.
Speaker 1And now she's laughing because I mimic, yep, what she said. But yeah, so.
Speaker 2Yeah. So I mean she said but uh, yeah, so yeah. So I mean big families are out there. I mean I've had relatives that had very large families. But oh, yeah me, I'm like one and done.
Speaker 1I think I can't afford more than that less common, less common now than yes, yes, yes, so he had attended Clarksdale High and after graduating there he would go to attend St Ben's Seminary, which is in Covington, louisiana. But he'd also attend the University of Southern Miss and Indiana University, all leading to his master's degree in divinity and theology of the Sacred Heart School of Theology. Interesting, he would also earn a PhD in counseling from Marquette University, a business administration and management degree from Concordia International University he's a busy man and a certification in counseling from LSU.
Speaker 2But wait, there's more. Right, it seems like a never-ending list, I mean his thirst for knowledge.
Speaker 1Yeah, is the big one. So he was known as Dr Nick by most people, so we're just going to refer to him as Dr Nick Nick by most people. So we're just going to refer to him as Dr Nick. Okay, obviously he was a counselor, motivational speaker. He was a recording artist, an author, a teacher and even a Catholic priest at one time. Wow.
Speaker 2He did have a lot going on.
Speaker 1Yeah, he did In his life. He would gain more than 30 years experience treating substance abuse, depression and anxiety and providing psychotherapy and psychoeducation to individuals of all ages in Baton Rouge and surrounding communities. So he was known outside of Baton Rouge, but that's where he lived and where he practiced. He was also known to work with the LGBTQ plus community, assisting with working through identity issues, acceptance and any struggles that they could be dealing with within their families.
Speaker 2That's amazing.
Speaker 1So he was out there just trying to help, not judging. He was a familiar face in Baton Rouge, having appeared on TV as a mental health therapist. So he like I think he did something in conjunction with one of the news channels His former attorney, jarrett Ambo, would tell WYMT that he was shocked by his death and how brutal it was. He said, quote I'm absolutely devastated and completely surprised that something like that could have happened to a man who I believe to be so tender, so gentle and to have such a servant's heart, which we just talked about.
Speaker 2Right, that's what I'm saying it sounded like he was just he was there to help people and yeah, that's so sad when somebody like that and he had like right His family and like all of his friends, like completely devastated, like in a major way, after losing him.
Speaker 1So you know, everybody's not like without issue. Like everybody has their things that happen in life. Yeah, so in 2015, dr nick was accused of molesting an 11 yearyear-old patient during a session. The boy was allegedly so upset that after that session he told his parents he would never go back to that doctor again. He's like I don't ever want to see him again. I don't think he actually expressed what had happened to his parents or the reason why he didn't want to go until he actually started seeing his new therapist and the boy would tell the new counselor about the alleged molestation during his counseling session he had last with Dr.
Speaker 1Nick the doctor of course was arrested and booked into East Baton Rouge Prison and later released after posting a $25,000 bond. This case actually was never brought to trial. Da Hiller Moore told WAFB that while there was probable cause for an arrest, his office had to determine if the evidence supported the burden at trial, which is proof beyond a reasonable doubt. The matter was under review by his office for approximately two years. After considering all available evidence he said the best interest of the child and the lack of any inculpatory statements by the arrestee, they ultimately declined to institute formal charges.
Speaker 2Hmm.
Speaker 1So did he do it? Did he not do it Right? We don't know, but there was that accusation.
Speaker 2Was it the only accusation?
Speaker 1Apparently it was.
Speaker 2Okay.
Finding the Body in a Tarp
Speaker 1Like there's nothing else. I saw like no other arrests, no other anything like that that I could find on him. But on the morning of September 29th, police would receive reports of a suspicious looking rolled up tarp on the side of the road. This tarp was located on the side of Highway 51 between Fluker and Tejabaho. When police arrived, they discovered the body of a man inside the tarp. It's pretty obvious. It's pretty obvious. This was not where he was killed.
Speaker 2Yeah, he was dumped there.
Speaker 1He was just yeah dumped there.
Speaker 1By the next day, tpso confirmed that the body found inside the tarp was 69-year-old Dr William Nicholas Abraham. They also released photos of a person of interest. This was the person who was last seen driving with Dr Nick. I say this loosely because I think it's more like it's the last person seen driving his car. Oh, okay, and not necessarily him in general. So the tangipoa coroner's office was also able to release a preliminary cause of death and they did rule it a homicide and that his he had died by blunt force trauma to his head, neck and shoulders. Sheriff Gerald Sticker told Unfiltered with Kieran.
Speaker 2I love her.
Speaker 1Yeah, me too. It was quite obvious from the scene. It was a very violent, very physical encounter and the evidence speaks to the coroner's finding. And all he means by the scene is just like where they found him and the condition he was in.
Speaker 2Right right.
Speaker 1It's not the actual where it happened, because at this point, they are not sure where he died. Just that this is where we found him. This is what he looked like.
Speaker 2Okay.
Speaker 1It was believed that Dr Nick was killed somewhere else, like I said, and the body was most probably discarded on the side of the road the night of September 28th so the night before they found it on the 29th night of September 28th so the night before they found it on the 29th A black car believed to be driven by the person of interest early in the investigation was found at an office complex off of Sherwood Forest Boulevard on the morning of September 30th. So this stuff is kind of rolling out pretty quick, yeah, yeah, yeah. Kind of rolling out pretty quick, yeah, yeah. Yeah, the Baton Rouge Police Department had seen the vehicle and had even pursued it, but the driver allegedly had hit several parked cars before exiting the vehicle and was able to evade police. The police who were pursuing him never actually really saw what he looked like, so they weren't really even sure.
Speaker 2They didn't even have a kind of a clear description.
Speaker 1There was really no indication of who the driver was and they weren't really sure if that driver was the person of interest that they had. At this point, like they're not sure if that was the same person they're like I don't know. So the crazier thing is is that he had apparently, like what led to pursuit was he had apparently backed into another police car, oh wow. And so that officer didn't initially come out saying, oh, he hit me and I know who he was. Like he's not the one who pursued the guy. Like they saw the car somewhere else and started pursuit.
The Investigation Unfolds
Speaker 1So now we've got Tangy where they found the body. You know their lead on the case until otherwise told they're not Right. But now we're involving the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office because, one, the pursuit that happened there, but also because Dr Nick actually lived in Baton Rouge. So there was two reasons for that. And then it's also the belief of detectives that the car actually driven did belong to Dr Nick. So I just want to make that kind of clear. Yeah, that's what I was going to ask.
Speaker 2I was like was it indeed his car?
Speaker 1Yeah, so they're saying the black car is Dr Nick's car, or at least they believe it is.
Speaker 2Okay.
Speaker 1By October 2nd, that person of interest, 20-year-old Taryn Ishmael Thomas, was now considered a suspect and was arrested in Dallas, texas. So when he evaded police he took off all the way to Texas. Yeah, he like got out of.
Speaker 2Dodge, he darned it.
Speaker 1He was like bye-bye. The officer that he backed into in Baton Rouge was actually able to identify Thomas from a lineup. Oh, after they, you know, figured out. Oh, he hit me before you guys chased him.
Speaker 2Right, let's put him in there with some random people and he's like that one right there.
Speaker 1Okay, so he was identified as the driver of the black car. This would lead to Thomas facing charges of aggravated criminal damage to property, resisting an officer and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, since it was not his car. However, at that point, no one would actually be charged with the doctor's death, and I think it's important to note here that Thomas was not the alleged victim from that previous molestation charge I was talking about from 2015.
Speaker 1So this is not the same person. In case anybody was thinking, oh, is this the kid coming back to get?
Speaker 2revenge, because nothing ever happened.
Speaker 1No, they're not the same people they they've like verified. Okay, it's not him. So a little something to tell everyone about 20 year old thomas. He is confirmed to be a t personality known as Mr Prada. He actually has two accounts on TikTok, apparently, and over those two accounts there has been approximately 8.2 million followers. That's a lot of followers and over 550 million likes.
Speaker 2I'm going to have to go look him up now.
Speaker 1Right, I haven't Crazy enough yeah, I haven't even looked, but I'm like what, what, what I just put the h before the w my brother would be, like, I know what that means right yeah, I was like and here we are, begging people well, we almost have 40,000, or, yeah, 40,000 followers.
Speaker 2So, yeah, we got a quarter of a million likes.
Speaker 1It's fine it's fine we get all the love on tiktok, but you know yeah come, love us some more everywhere and share us on your tiktok.
Speaker 2That's right a little plug in the middle of there.
Speaker 1all right, so Duck, that's right, a little plug in the middle of there, all right so.
"Mr. Prada" and His TikTok Fame
Speaker 2By January 15th 2025.
Speaker 1Mr Prada was in court for a bond hearing when he was initially booked into East Baton Rouge Parish Prison. He was charged with second degree murder, but the charge was upgraded to first degree murder due to the age of the victim. But if a victim is either under the age of 12 or over the age of 65, you can charge them with first degree. Just based off of that, of course, his bond is denied and he is set to go in front of a grand jury the very next day.
Speaker 2Nice.
Speaker 1Yeah, okay. Thomas's attorney, stephen Sterling III, stated that social media has played a big role in how the case is perceived. Obviously Right, and he hopes that the public will not be quick to judge and will allow the process to play out. Don't know how well he's going to get his wish, but how well he's going to get his wish. But sheriff's office records say that Dr Nick was last seen alive outside of Thomas' apartment complex.
Speaker 1The very next day is when his body's found on the side of the road and investigators allege that Dr Nick was murdered inside Thomas' apartment. He lives off of SN Lane in Baton Rouge. A search of his apartment would end in them finding several sharp objects, weapons and even large amounts of the doctor's blood and DNA. No one really knows how they're connected, like, what was he doing there? Don't know. How do they know each other? Don't know. So on the following day, when he goes before the grand jury, he does get indicted, and he's indicted on first degree murder, obstruction of justice, yeah, aggravated criminal damage to property and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.
Arrest and Murder Charges
Speaker 2He would get back into the courtroom on January 28th for his arraignment and he would plead not guilty. So I did look him up on TikTok, yeah, and his last post was September 10th of 2024. Oh gosh, okay. And this was September 28th is when the murder occurred. Okay, so this was right before the murder occurred. His last post.
Speaker 1Like 18 days? Yeah, so if he is ultimately found guilty, he could definitely face the death penalty. They did have another bond hearing on July 10th and he was again denied bond. His lawyer Told WAFB that there is a litany Of evidence that he will be scouring Over the months leading to trial, and the next court date Is October 8th.
Speaker 2So we wait, so we wait and find out. So I wonder if there was some um situational ship going on between him and the doctor. I don't know, because I'm flipping through his tiktoks, you know, and he's he's very gender fluid, so it's a possibility either that, or maybe the doctor was just counseling him, or maybe you know something like that because we did just express that.
Speaker 1He was right. You know counseling people in in the lgbtq community right I always have to stop myself from saying uh, what's that guy's name? Chris? What's his last name? I can't remember the one that calls everybody shook. Hey, sure, oh, yeah, yeah, I can't.
Speaker 2He always says he always says the legitimate aqa, yep, legitimate aqa that's. I was gonna say that, but I was like I'll just say lgbtq I love him.
Speaker 1He's so funny. I love him, and so I like have to stop myself from saying all the things of the people that I watch all the time we quote a lot of people, yeah. We do.
Speaker 2Well, I want to hear about that and I'm going to scroll through some more of his TikToks. Yeah, yeah, he's very young. He does look.
Speaker 1I mean he's 20.
Speaker 2Yeah, he's barely out of his teens there.
Speaker 1He's still a young one, but I'm just like what on earth and I guess we're not going to really know much more go run it out.
Speaker 2You didn't go. Hey, I'm going to go clean up my apartment from all of the evidence that was left here. No, no.
Speaker 1He just took off.
Speaker 2That's a dumb criminal.
Speaker 1Yeah, I mean, young people are pretty dumb. They haven't lived enough life to know any better you know well, at least as far as that goes right I I don't know how many times I tell my kids and I I mean this in a positive way like cya, you need to cover your ass. Yep, always, like at work, wherever you are, you better have receipts. Yep, absolutely cover your booty. And they still don't they?
Speaker 2They still do dumb things. Mine does. I'm like what the heck?
Speaker 1Yeah, that's crazy. I mean I'm not telling you to go out and murder somebody.
Speaker 2No.
Speaker 1And then cover your ass.
Speaker 2And then cover your ass.
Speaker 1No, that's not what I mean making sure that, like you know, you're not getting. You know, at work, getting talked to about something that you didn't even do because right they just thought it was you.
Speaker 2I had no involvement in that like I was, you know, here at that time right.
Speaker 1So it's like. That's why I say I'm like cya all the time.
Speaker 2Yeah, there's on his last post.
Speaker 1There's a lot of um hateful things going on, and then there's a lot of free mr prada going on, so that'll be some interesting scrolling, yeah yeah, it's a whole rabbit hole, but that I tried to stay out of because I wanted to just like focus on this other part for the moment and then I'll do my own doom scrolling the scroll of doom. It happens every night right before a path out.
Speaker 2Oh, me too. I do it every single night and I'm like I'm going to try to go to bed early tonight, 1030. I'm like I've been doom scrolling for an hour and a half Right.
Speaker 1Exactly, that's exactly. I will look up and go oh my God, right, I have to go to sleep.
Speaker 2Turn my alarm on Right, put my phone down, stop it. No, yeah, I don't know. I don't need an alarm.
Speaker 1I have a cat. So, look, we did something in Louisiana that wasn't in New Orleans how about that?
Speaker 2But New Orleans is so interesting Right.
Speculation and Final Thoughts
Speaker 1I just want to say not everything bad happens in New Orleans. Yeah, that's all. Want to point that out, true, kind of happens everywhere. True, shreveport and Baton Rouge. Yeah, some days I have to wonder if Baton Rouge hasn't gotten worse.
Speaker 2Yeah, they had the highest murder rate for like a good while, even over like Chicago and Detroit.
Speaker 1It was kind of bad there for a while. I mean, people in Detroit got nothing else to do, Right, they're like eh might as in Detroit got nothing else to do.
Speaker 2Right, they're like, eh, might as well. So that's real bad. Yep, yeah, I know, and it's just crazy because after Katrina a lot of people were shifted around and then it went up from there, so it was just a whole crazy mess. Yeah, still a crazy mess, but there's bad people everywhere, absolutely, and that like even living out that way, even as a teenager, we always knew like you don't go in this section of Baton Rouge, you don't go over here in this section of this city, or whatever, so you know, but it's still.
Speaker 2There are gas stations you don't go to in Baton Rouge you don't stop, nope, you get out and Fred Flintstone it, because you know yeah, push your car, you need gas, keep going. Yeah, pass it right up. Yep, absolutely.
Speaker 1But you know, it is what it is, I guess, so, I guess. So we'll update as soon as there is one, of course, because you know I babysit all this stuff.
Speaker 2Absolutely.
Speaker 1And speaking of babies.
Speaker 2Oh my gosh, the cutest baby, whole like dump. The photo, dump, the photo dump from Patty Salzetta. Patty Salzetta, patti Salzetta, her baby is so cute. Yes, he's adorbs.
Speaker 1Yes, and thank you for making our theme music Absolutely Even though you were busy with the baby. You did such a great job. We appreciate you, so Make sure you're sharing us. Share those links, yep. Tell all your friends Like, share, follow everywhere, right.
Speaker 2And you know what? We even have merch on Printify Hold.
Speaker 1My Sweet.
Speaker 2Tea and you can buy us a coffee.
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Speaker 2Buy me a coffee at Hold my Sweet Tea Podcast. Buy me a microphone. We're going to get new microphones soon, I promise.
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Speaker 1So we can start doing some. I don't think we're gonna do full episodes, but we're gonna do stuff.
Speaker 2Shorts on youtube, some like stuff on tiktok we'll. We'll load them on reels so we'll have some little we'll just take some little snippets about what we record out while we're recording ourselves and just put that because we're freaking hilarious so you'll just, we'll, just we'll. We'll record the entire recording of the audio, so then you can see our funky faces and all that fun stuff, like we'll just cut out the fun things and absolutely throw and throw it together for you and load up some little funny moments or interesting moments.
Speaker 1And, as usual, if you have anything you'd like to share with us, or if you just want to say, hey, what up? You can message us on social media or email us at steeped at holdmysweetteacom.
Speaker 2Absolutely and, as always, hold. My Sweet Tea is a Drunken Bee production. And just because we are dipping and you guys stay safe out there while you're dipping, While we're dipping. While we're dipping.
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