Man allegedly drove through several states with dead wife propped up in passenger seat before being arrested for her murder

A Louisiana man is accused of driving through several states with the body of his dead wife propped up in the passenger seat after allegedly shooting and killing her.

Tyronne Brazille, 50, was arrested on Thursday evening after a traffic stop by police in Memphis, who made the horrifying discovery.

WREG reports that police found Brazille's wife, 50-year-old Lanessa Bradford, dead in the passenger seat with a gunshot wound.

Baton Rouge investigators told the outlet that the couple had reported been at Independence Community Park in Baton Rouge together, roughly 80 miles northwest of New Orleans, when an argument broke out and Brazille allegedly shot his wife.

Tyronne Brazille is accused of killing his wife. Credit: Shelby County Sheriff's Office

He is then accused of fleeing with Bradford's body and driving across multiple states over the course of five hours before being stopped by police in Memphis.

According to longtime friend Shelicka Decker, the couple had been having difficulties in their relationship, with Brazille reportedly suffering from mental health issues.

Decker claims Bradford had told her last month that she was planning to leave her husband.

She told WREG: "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.

"She was going to leave her car, she was going to leave all the things behind, and she had been in touch with her family that was out of town, and that’s how she was going to make this move to get away."

Decker claimed Bradford, who'd worked at an elementary school in Baton Rouge, had told her that Brazille had threatened to kill her or himself when she'd tried to leave him in the past, but Decker did not believe he would follow through on the threats.

She claimed: "He never put his hands on her up until recently, like maybe like two or three months ago.

"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."

Decker added that she can't fathom why Brazille shot Bradford and drove through multiple states with her body, adding: "Where was his mind at during that ride? Like, it’s so crazy. It’s so crazy and heartbreaking."

It is not known how long the couple were married for, and Decker says they did not have children of their own, but that she adored the pupils at the elementary school where she worked.

Decker added: "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.

"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 in Memphis and is due in court on Monday, awaiting extradition back to Louisiana.

Once there, he is expected to face a murder charge in connection to Bradford's death.

Featured image credit: Shelby County Sheriff's Office