A Louisiana man is accused of fatally shooting his wife, placing her body in the front passenger seat and then driving across multiple states before authorities caught up with him during a traffic stop.
Tyronne Brazille, 50, was taken into custody Thursday night in downtown Memphis after officers pulled him over and discovered his wife, 50-year-old Lanessa Bradford, dead from a gunshot wound in the passenger seat, according to WREG.
Investigators in Baton Rouge said the couple had been at Independence Community Park, roughly 80 miles northwest of New Orleans, when a dispute escalated and Brazille allegedly opened fire on Bradford.
Police say Brazille then left the park with Bradford’s body and drove for more than five hours across state lines before Memphis officers made the disturbing discovery during the stop.
Shelicka Decker, a longtime friend of Bradford, told WREG the couple had been married for years but their relationship had recently become strained. Decker said Brazille had been struggling with mental health issues and claimed Bradford told her last month that she planned to leave him.
“She had the money saved up. She had come up with a plan, and she was going to just vanish. That was the only way she would be able to get away from him,” Decker told the station.
Decker said Bradford intended to walk away from nearly everything, including her car, and had already contacted relatives outside the area as part of her plan to start over elsewhere.
Authorities have not said exactly how long Brazille and Bradford had been married.
Decker said Bradford — who worked at a Baton Rouge elementary school — told her that whenever she tried to leave Brazille previously, he would threaten to kill her or himself.
However, Decker said she did not believe Brazille would follow through on his threats to harm Bradford.
“He never put his hands on her up until recently, like maybe like two or three months ago,” she told the outlet.
“It wouldn’t have surprised me if someone had called and said that he killed himself because he always says this. It surprised me that he killed her.”
As for why Brazille allegedly shot her and then drove through multiple states with her body in the passenger seat — Decker said she simply can’t make sense of it.
“I have so many questions, like, what were you doing in the car with her that amount of time while she was deceased,” Decker said.
“Where was his mind at during that ride? Like, it’s so crazy. It’s so crazy and heartbreaking.”
Decker said the couple never had children of their own, but Bradford poured her heart into the kids at her elementary school.
“It’s such an unfortunate situation, like everybody, she was such a good person. Everybody, she uplifted a lot of people, a lot of parents,” Decker told the outlet.
“My prayers are with her family and friends as well as his, because we were all friends. We all, you know, hung around each other, and this is just not the same person that we grew up with.”
Brazille was booked as a fugitive by Memphis police and is due in court Monday while he awaits extradition back to Louisiana.
Once extradited back to Louisiana, he is expected to face a murder charge in connection with Bradford’s death.
