Memphis police officers search the area where a body was found in South Memphis, Tenn., on Monday.
Mark Weber/Daily Memphian via AP
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Mark Weber/Daily Memphian via AP
Memphis police officers search the area where a body was found in South Memphis, Tenn., on Monday.
Mark Weber/Daily Memphian via AP
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Police in Tennessee said Tuesday that a body found during an exhaustive search that lasted more than three days is that of a woman who was kidnapped and forced into an SUV during an early morning jog near the University of Memphis.
Memphis police said on Twitter that investigators identified the body of Eliza Fletcher, 34, a school teacher and granddaughter of a prominent Memphis businessman.
The body was found Monday after a series of searches over the Labor Day weekend for the woman who was abducted around 4 a.m. Friday, police said. A man approached her and forced her into an SUV after a brief struggle, police said. Fletcher was reported missing when she did not return home from her regular morning run.
Memphis police said Tuesday that investigators have identified the body of Eliza Fletcher, 34, who was forced into an SUV during an early morning jog Friday near the University of Memphis.
Memphis Police Department via AP
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Memphis Police Department via AP
Memphis police said Tuesday that investigators have identified the body of Eliza Fletcher, 34, who was forced into an SUV during an early morning jog Friday near the University of Memphis.
Memphis Police Department via AP
A man charged with aggravated kidnapping and tampering with evidence in the nationally publicized case was arraigned Tuesday. U.S. Marshals arrested Cleotha Abston, 38, on Saturday after police discovered his DNA on a pair of sandals found near where Eliza Fletcher was last seen, according to an arrest affidavit.
Abston will now also face one count of first-degree murder and first-degree murder in the kidnapping, Memphis police said in a tweet Tuesday morning.
Relatives of Fletcher and more than 20 members of the media were in the courtroom Tuesday morning for the arraignment, which was Abston’s first appearance before a judge on charges of kidnapping, tampering with evidence, burglary, identity theft and fraudulent use of a credit card. Abston was released on a $510,000 bond. Abston said he couldn’t afford the liability and couldn’t afford a lawyer. General Sessions Judge Louis Montesi appointed a public defender to represent Abston.
Police also linked the vehicle they believe was used in the kidnapping to a person at a home where Abston was staying.
Late Monday, police tweeted that a body had been found in a Memphis neighborhood, but that the person’s identity and cause of death were unconfirmed. A heavy police presence was reported in the area where authorities reported finding the body just after 5:00 p.m. Memphis police had searched several locations with dogs, ATVs and a helicopter over the long weekend.
Fletcher 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 finding Fletcher and has offered a $50,000 reward for information in the case.
Abston previously poached a prominent Memphis attorney in 2000, the Commercial Appeal reported. When he was just 16, Abston forced Kemper Durand into the trunk of his car at gunpoint. After several hours, Abston pulled Durand out and forced him to drive to a Mapco gas station to withdraw money from an ATM. At the station, an armed Memphis Housing Authority guard walked in and Durand screamed for help. Abston fled but was found and arrested. He pleaded guilty in 2001 to aggravated kidnapping and aggravated robbery, according to court records. He received a sentence of 24 years.
Durand, in a victim impact statement, wrote, “I was extremely fortunate to be able to escape the custody of Cleotha Abston. . . . It is very likely that I would have been killed had I not escaped,” The Commercial Appeal. reported.
Durand died in 2013, seven years before Abston was released in November 2020 at the age of 36. In the two years since his release, there were no further documented charges against Abston in Shelby County before his arrest Saturday, the Commercial Appeal reported.
