Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office identify body found in tarp near highway

October 1

TANGIPAHOA PARISH, La. (WGNO) — Deputies with the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office have released the identity of a body found inside a tarp along Highway 51 on Sunday, Sept. 29.

“We are working from that scene, outward. We just need to determine where this actually took place,” said Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff Gerald Sticker.

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The TPSO reported that deputies responded to a report of a “suspicious, rolled up tarp” along the side of Highway 51 near Fluker around 8 a.m.

Sticker explains they are still in the early phases of the investigation, but what they know so far is that the individual found was not from Tangipahoa Parish.

The Tangipahoa Parish Coroner’s Office has identified the victim as 69-year-old William Nicholas Abraham of Baton Rouge.

The autopsy listed the cause of death as homicide by blunt force trauma.

The body was discovered in a very rural and desolate location. Both the Tangipahoa Parish Coroner’s Office and the Louisiana State Police crime lab are working to find any evidence possible.

“We are taking every necessary step to preserve the evidence that is on the body and that immediate area. Our detectives are out as we speak following up and canvassing that area,” said Sticker.

Sticker also hopes that with technology and potential help from the public, they can find those responsible.

“There are businesses along that stretch of highway and so we are going to any source of video, cellphone towers. Whatever we have to do to determine and narrow down that list of possible suspects that are responsible for this,” said Sticker.

On Monday, Sept. 30, the TPSO reported that Baton Rouge Police found Abraham’s car. According to the TPSO, the car’s driver “sped away from a traffic stop and ultimately ran away after crashing the car.”

The investigation is ongoing.

Anyone with information can call Crimestoppers of Tangipahoa at 1-800-554-5245 or the TPSO Criminal Investigations Office at 985-902-2008.

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