A Mississippi-based truck driver is believed to have been dead for days before her body was discovered at a a New Orleans truck stop last week.
Truck driver Karmeshia Thomas was found in the sleeper berth area of her truck at the Mardi Gras Truck Stop on Wednesday, September 12, according to WREG. She is believed to have been dead for at least one day before she was found.
The circumstances surrounding Thomas’s death have left her family with numerous questions.
Karmeshia Thomas’s mother Joyce Thomas says that the last time she heard from her daughter was on Sunday, September 9. Thomas says that Karmeshia called her on Sunday from the truck stop’s office after her phone had been stolen while she was on Bourbon Street. Joyce Thomas says that her daughter was scheduled to be home on Monday, September 10, but that she never showed up.
Truck stop workers also say that they saw Karmeshia on Sunday inside the building watching football. She is said to have gotten a ride from an Uber or Lyft driver at some time on Sunday.
On Wednesday, truck stop management went out to Thomas’s truck to check on her after receiving a call from her company.
“When I came out and we banged on the window, we didn’t get an answer. But, we saw a lot of flies,” the store manager told WWLTV.
The doors of the truck were locked, so rescue crews broke out the windows and found Thomas dead inside the sleeper berth area. Joyce Thomas says that “they said she was covered in blood.”
Joyce Thomas says that she was not allowed to see her daughter’s body and that there will be a closed casket at her funeral on Saturday. Thomas says that she doesn’t understand why no one from the truck stop checked on her daughter for days, especially since she hadn’t paid for her parking spot since Sunday: “How could you let someone sit on your parking lot for three days and you noticed they haven’t come and paid.”
The cause of Karmeshia Thomas’s death remains under investigation.