a Tik Tok star is getting a lot more attention from some new followers law enforcement the 20-year-old known as Mr Prada online has been arrested accused of killing a therapist in another state could this be connected to allegations of misconduct against that counselor we're digging into the large scale investigation and how something like this could happen with the licensed clinical social worker and Trauma expert welcome to sidebar presented by law crime I'm Elizabeth ner in for Jesse Weber over the last several days rumors have been building online about an influencer whose real name is terion
Thomas the 20-year-old might be better known by his username Mr Prada and has more than 4 million followers on Tik Tok and I will admit I used to watch some of his videos now according to people who follow him online Thomas has been behaving more and more erratically for example he posted a video of himself shaving his head leaving little patches of hair all over he also posted in May of last year about practicing his mug shot because this might be the year someone's going to meet God if they make him too angry now it's
Thomas's actual mugshot that's making rounds on social media he was detained on Tuesday in Dallas Texas after he fled from a traffic stop where he was spotted driving a dead man's car and we're just learned he's officially been charged with murder so here's a timeline of what we know so far Dr Nicholas Abraham's body was found on Sunday September 29th wrapped in a tarp on the side of the road in Louisiana deputies say has his body was hidden partially in the woods about 60 Mi away from where he worked the 69-year-old was a mental health
therapist based in Baton Rouge as well as a former Catholic priest he also made Regular appearances on Baton Rouge television the coroner determined Dr Abraham died from blunt force trauma as a result of homicide investigators in Louisiana have been working to figure out exactly where Abraham was killed the sheriff said No weapons were found near his body and a search of his home turned up with no clue new his roommate told deputies that Abraham said he was going to have his car cleaned and do some paperwork at his office on Saturday but never came back
on Monday deputies released Abraham's identity then later that same day an officer spotted an SUV that had a license plate that came back as stolen when the officer tried to do a traffic stop the driver backed the SUV into the officer's patrol car then ran off on foot officials released surveillance videos showing the last person known to be driving that SUV V when they posted these photos online people immediately started making the connection between the man in the picture and Mr Prada saying the two look just alike on Tuesday officers in Dallas Texas were able
to take Thomas into custody he's charged with allegedly having a stolen vehicle running from police and now murder so what do we know about Dr Nicholas Abraham Abraham's website reads Dr Nick specializes in addiction substance abuse anxiety and depression relationship growth Adolescent and adult developmental issues and sexual identity concerns he has further expertise in men's health and wellness issues and as a member of the Louisiana counseling Association the website goes on to say that he not only has a PHD in counseling but a master's degree in religious studies and a master's degree in theology but
the speculation around this murder mystery was whipped into frenzy when it was revealed that Abraham had been arrested in the past for allegedly touching a boy in a appropriately during a counseling session that arrest happened back in 2015 Abraham was arrested and released on a $25,000 Bond a prosecutors decided not to take the case to trial in a statement district attorney Hiller Moore told local affiliate wfb while there was probable cause for an arrest my office had to determine if the evidence supported our burden at trial which is proof Beyond a reasonable doubt this matter
was under review by my office for approximately 2 years after after considering all available evidence the best interest of the child and the lack of inculpatory statements by the arrestee we declined to Institute formal charges many people have wondered is it possible that the alleged victim in that case is terion Thomas the attorney for Abraham in the previous case says absolutely not so for now the motive for the killing is still under investigation you know we cover a lot of horrific and tough stories here at lawn crime and part of the reason we're able to
keep bringing you these types of stories is because of our great sponsors so I really want to take a quick moment to thank upside for sponsoring us so if you're wondering what's upside well it's a free app that gets you cash back on daily Essentials like gas and groceries and it's actual real cash back too the money appears in your upside app that you can transfer straight into your bank account so here's what you do you download the upside app then claim an offer for whatever you're buying on upside I went to 7-Eleven got some
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licensed clinical social worker trauma expert and author of stolen childhoods thriving after abuse Sher Botwin Sher it's always so great to see you you know Mr Prada was a really well-known content creator on Tik Tok I think for many people including myself it was shocking to see him as a person's of interest in a murder let alone now a suspect in the murder what's been your reaction to this case I think mostly shock and disbelief and what was going on what happened I have I have like a list of questions running through my mind it's
it's a really sad story and you know Mr Prada as his username was he was pretty funny on Tik Tok but what he's accused of doing is pretty horrendous you know stealing the therapist's card dropping um the victim off on the side of the road fleeing to another state and just let alone this whole murder aspect of it all what are your thoughts given that he was just this kind of in a way upbeat personality let alone that flip side now where he's accused of this dark and horrific thing I think what happens with social
media especially someone like him who's an influencer on Tik Tok constantly making these videos you get a perspective you get one side of a person but you don't really know what's going on behind the scenes you don't know what's going on inside of him one of the things I was thinking about was was he using Tik Tock as a place to create a part of his personality that he thrived on whether it was connecting with other people getting the attention or even just if he's having a day where he's feeling really angry or really happy
or really upset is he going on social media to share that particular part of him but then behind the scenes what's going on inside of him and was he using Tik Tock as a coping mechanism or a way to feel like he has some control or that people will like him it's just so hard to say because I've never met him but I know that he he did talk some about what was going on in his mind and at one point he alluded to being bipolar so when I hear that I think you know again
I don't know him but it sounds like he had some awareness that he was really struggling what are your thoughts about the pressure that a lot of Tik Tok content creators face because again he's he's only 20 years old but he had a following of I think more than 4 million followers that's a lot of people kind of following your day-to-day life but what are your thoughts on how maybe the pressure of social media may have played a part and kind of him maybe snapping in a way allegedly so we don't know what his followers
are saying if you go back and read all the comments I'm sure we would find comments that might have been mean or critical and I think too once you're an influencer the expectation is is that you be making these videos you be on visible to the to your followers probably multiple times a day and I think that alone especially for someone who's young and someone who may be struggling with some type of mental health issue what it does is it exacerbates all of the insecurities that someone struggles with and I think for some people the
pressure can really get them to a point where they become whether it's homicidal suicidal again we're not hearing that that side of him because he wasn't sharing any of that one of the hopes I have as this case unfolds is I want to find out more about him I want to know more about what he was thinking of course I want to know what his relationship was with this particular therapist so I think right now there's a lot of questions that we don't have the answers to but once you become an influencer and once your
name is out there there are a lot of expectations that you can put on yourself or that others will put on you and it it can be dangerous for some people many of his viewers and followers have speculated he might have had mental health issues that he was conveying on the internet you see him um on video after he shaved his head do you think he was conveying to his audience that may have not known at the time that he was experiencing a mental health crisis that's what that was my first reaction when I watched
the video with him having shaved head he does allude to being bipolar so one of the things I'm thinking is is this a way for him to signal to people that he needs help is this the part of him that doesn't feel like people are listening does anybody behind the scenes in his family his close friends whoever he's connected to do they know what's really going on inside of him those are some of the questions that I have and again one of the things I know because I work with a lot lot of young adults
who use social media who post on social media people use social media to get the word out so for some people it can be very helpful if you're a survivor of something like sexual assault and you're trying to get support you go on social media and you find out there's so many other hasht me toos but in this situation I feel like he was alluding to the fact that there might have been something wrong but we don't really know what was wrong WR and we don't know what he was thinking and what he was trying
to get out of having this public platform and there's a term that you see a lot on Tik Tok it's called crash out or crashing out while sometimes it's used kind of in a funny way many online have thought that Mr Prada was crashing out given your expertise what do you kind of make of that I mean the term itself is a bit concerning it makes me think of when clients come in and they say I'm hitting rock bottom or I can't do this anymore it almost what it makes me think is that's when someone's
at the breaking point so whether they're at the breaking point of feeling extremely angry or they haven't slept in days or if in fact they are struggling with bipolar crash out could be hitting rock bottom and feeling homicidal suicidal but it also can mean for someone who has bipolar that they're at the height of the Mania phase and it's a word that I think when people use it we really have to be careful what we how we interpret that and how we respond so if he's going on social media and describing feeling like that or
other people are saying that to me that's a warning sign that's a red flag and what are your thoughts on the allegations that the therapists had also faced where he was accused years ago of um inappropriately touching a young boy what are your thoughts kind of given that aspect although the um the law for the therapist that said that you know uh Mr Prada had nothing to do with that or anything like that he's not the alleged victim in that case but what are your thoughts given that added aspect of the allegations the therapists also
faced previously I mean I think we're going to find out I think that those are allegations that are obviously very concerning and like you said that charge was dismissed and we don't know anything really about that part of his story but we will find out you know people have to understand that when there are therapists doctors teachers that doesn't mean that they are perfect or that they too may not have something going on whether they're struggling with a mental illness so it's an interesting aspect of the story and it's obviously for me one of the
questions that I have what was his relationship like with this person was he seeing him for therapy what was what were the boundaries in that relationship so so I think what we're going to find out it's interesting that that part of his past has come out because it's going to leave people with a lot of questions and I think another kind of interesting aspect of this whole case is just how much in the internet kind of played a role in what I believe to be kind of catching the suspect in this case as soon as
that Persons of Interest photo came out people immediately started making that connection that this is Mr Prada what are your thoughts on kind of the aspects that a lot of his followers a lot of people who have followed him throughout his career kind of helped play a role in him getting apprehended by law enforcement I mean again I can only imagine what Mr PR is thinking but once you go out there once you become a public figure everybody's going to know who you are at least the his followers and the thing to keep in mind
with social media is people have a LoveHate relationship with influencers there are some people that sound like they adored him they found to be entertaining but then there were some people I was reading about who were not surprised at all when they heard about the allegations and again those are the people that if they see him they will make a call and that's the thing that you have to keep in mind you you're no longer going to be able to be you're no longer going to remain private when you're being followed by 8 million people
and the 8 million people that follow him they didn't all love him and again it's just about about 4 million people still millions of viewers still millions of followers but just to clarify just four million a little more than four million I should say well Sher Botwin I appreciate your time today and joining us on sidebar before we sign you off is there anything else you'd like to add I mean the thing I just want to say is this is a story that there's there's different messages that we need to walk away with number one
if you're following someone on social media an influencer and you're hearing things that are concerning or feel like red flags I wouldn't make light of that I think a lot of the teenagers they don't understand by polar disorder depression and I think it's important if you have teenagers that are following these type of public figures and they're telling you that this particular influencer is making jokes about something that's very serious definitely talk to your teenager about that and try to remember again social media has things that can be really good and helpful but sometimes it
can be very scary and we don't want Mr Prada and his influence to then lead other teenagers to do similar things because again what we're finding out is sadly in this situation this is not the type of person that you would want your teenager to be influenced by right Sher Botwin again thank you so much for your time today I really appreciate it thanks for having me well that does it for this episode of sidebar you can check out more episodes and subscribe to us anywhere you listen to your podcast whether it's Apple podcast Spotify
or YouTube I'm Elizabeth Milner in for Jesse Weber and this has been sidebar presented by law crime [Music]
