Memphis Police positively identified the deceased victim found as Eliza Fletcher. (Read More Here)..
Cleotha Abston is now charged with First Degree Murder and First Degree Murder is perpetuation of a kidnapping.
TN is a Death Penalty State. Durand, in a victim impact statement, wrote, “I was extremely lucky that I was able to escape from the custody of Cleotha Abston. … It is quite likely that I would have been killed had I not escaped,” the Commercial Appeal reported.
Durand died in 2013, seven years before Abston would be released in November 2020 at age 36. In the two years since his release, there were no further documented charges against Abston in Shelby County prior to his Saturday arrest, the Commercial Appeal reported.
U.S. marshals arrested him Saturday after police detected his DNA on a pair of sandals found near where Fletcher was last seen, according to an arrest affidavit.
Police also linked the vehicle they believe was used in the kidnapping to a person at a home where Abston was staying. Online court records do not show if Abston has a lawyer who could comment on his behalf Tuesday morning.
Fletcher, a school teacher, is the granddaughter of the late Joseph Orgill III, a Memphis hardware businessman and philanthropist. The family has released a video statement asking for help in finding Fletcher and offered a $50,000 reward for information in the case.
Abston previously kidnapped a prominent Memphis attorney in 2000, the Commercial Appeal reported. When he was just 16 years old, Abston forced Kemper Durand into the trunk of his own car at gunpoint. After several hours, Abston took Durand out and forced him to drive to a Mapco gas station to withdraw money from an ATM.
Surveillance footage captured from a local theater the day before Fletcher’s disappearance showed Abston wearing what authorities believe are the same pair of Champion slide sandals found at the crime scene, according to the affidavit.
Researching Abston’s residence, police found that he lived at a home whose utilities were registered in the name of a woman who owned a GMC Terrain, the affidavit reads.
A body found this week in Memphis is that of a teacher who was abducted while jogging last week, and a suspect is being charged with murder, police said Tuesday.
Eliza “Liza” Fletcher, 34, was identified as the person who was found dead Monday in Memphis, Tennessee, roughly 7.5 miles from where surveillance video showed she was forced into an SUV early Friday, Memphis police said on Twitter.
A suspect arrested over the weekend, Cleotha Abston, 38, has now been charged with first degree murder in perpetration of kidnapping, in addition to kidnapping and other charges previously filed, Shelby County Court records show.
Abston made a court appearance in the case Tuesday morning.
The cause of Fletcher’s death was not immediately announced.
Fletcher was jogging around 4 a.m. Friday in a neighborhood near the University of Memphis when authorities believe a man chased her and forced her into a black SUV.
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