MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF: Lakesha Thompson

Ashley Flowers (0:00)

Hi, Crime Junkies, I'm your host, Ashley Flowers.

Brit Prawat (0:02)

And I'm Brit.

Ashley Flowers (0:03)

And today's story starts with a question. If someone dies from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, how many inconsistencies would it take before you start questioning what really happened? One, two, more?

What if responding officers called out those inconsistencies while on the scene? Well, that's what happened here. And yet, three years later, a family is still desperately asking questions that law enforcement don't seem to want to answer.

This is the story of Lakesha Thompson.

Andrea Fluker is woken up from a dead sleep by her phone on May 24th, 2023 Now, when she looks at the screen, she sees it's 4 a.m. Spam calls don't usually come in at this hour. Plus, it's an Atlanta area code, where she knows that her mom is visiting her new fiance. So she picks up. And sure enough, on the other end is her mom's brand new fiance, Nathan Fitton. Andrea doesn't like Nathan, doesn't like that her mom, Lakesha Thompson, is engaged to him, because the little that she's gotten to know about him through their hot and cold relationship over the last couple of years, she doesn't like. Like the few times that Nathan would text or call Andrea, it felt like he was trying to stir up drama. He would accuse her mom, Lakesha, of seeing other men, and then make Andrea this middle man between him and her mom. And sometimes they would even call her in the middle of their arguments. And somehow Nathan would seem to twist things to make it seem like Andrea was the problem too. He recently told Andrea that she was blowing up his life, and he had a ring, he was going to propose to her mom, but because of her, now that's not going to happen. Clearly to make her feel bad.

Brit Prawat (2:23)

Well, and clearly a lie since they're obviously engaged now.

Ashley Flowers (2:27)

Yeah, something that none of Lakesha's four children were excited about when they announced it. They just got engaged like three days before all of this. They saw through Nathan. Bro was toxic. Like just a couple of days before Lakesha flew to Atlanta, Andrea got a call from her sister saying that her mom was on the phone with Nathan and he said that he was going to kill himself. And then he went totally silent on the phone. Lakesha thought that he had taken his own life right then and there. Obviously, he didn't.

Obviously, we like see this behavior is toxic. But like what could her kids do? Their mom is a grown woman.

So middle of the night call from Nathan, Andrea is probably like rolling her eyes as he launches right into the drama as expected. He tells her that Lakesha stormed out of his house. I guess they'd been drinking. They started arguing. They even called off their engagement. And now he doesn't know where she went. And Andrea is like, okay, like, hold on. You let my mom just like walk off alone in the middle of the night in a city that she's not familiar with? Because Lakesha was living in Michigan at this time, where Andrea is. She doesn't know Atlanta. So she's like, go out and get her. But then all of a sudden, Nathan changes his tune. He's like, listen, I'm trying to find her phone. She lost it. Can you call her phone for me?

And Andrea, who has a young baby at home and her last day of the lobotomy class in a couple of hours is like, what do you mean? Why are you calling me to call her?

Use your phone.

Brit Prawat (4:01)

Yeah, the one you have in your hands.

Ashley Flowers (4:03)

Exactly. Like, why do you need me to do that? Why are you calling me at all? And also go get my mom.

Brit Prawat (4:11)

Yes.

Ashley Flowers (4:12)

Then all of a sudden Nathan goes, wait, she's back. She's trying to come inside. And he tells Andrea that her mom is ringing the doorbell. She's banging on the door. Neither of which, she's like hearing in the background. And then Nathan just hangs up.

Now before going back to bed, Andrea checks her mom's location. She's still at Nathan's house, or at least her phone is.

Brit Prawat (4:34)

Right.

Ashley Flowers (4:35)

So despite what she told Nathan, she does try calling her, but her mom doesn't pick up. So assuming that this will resolve itself, like all of the fights before, Andrea goes back to sleep, not realizing that today would be different. And that call was the beginning of a new reality for her. Five hours later, after Andrea has gotten up, she's taken care of her baby, she's begun to fight traffic in the suburbs of Detroit on her way to school, her phone rings again. Another Atlanta number, not Nathan's though. So she picks up cautiously, not really knowing who or what to expect, but none of the scenarios that quickly ran through her mind were this, because it was the Clayton County Medical Examiner's Office calling to notify her that her mom had died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.