A man has been charged with the abduction and murder of Eliza Fletcher, a kindergarten teacher in Memphis.
Eliza Fletcher, 34, a mother of two who also goes by Liza, was on an early morning jog last week near the University of Memphis at about 4:30 a.m when she was forced into a dark S.U.V., the police said.
According to court records, officers were dispatched at 7:45 a.m after her husband, Richard Fletcher, reported that Liza did not return home.
Video surveillance showed a person exiting a dark-colored S.U.V. when Eliza Fletcher passed. The man ran towards her and forced her into the vehicle’s passenger side. “There seemed to be a struggle,” court records said.
Just a day after the police detained Cleotha Abston, 38, for her abduction, Eliza’s body was found in South Memphis on Monday afternoon. On Tuesday, the Memphis Police Department said that Mr. Abston had been charged with first-degree murder in addition to previously announced kidnapping charges. Court records said Mr. Abston had been in the S.U.V. used in the abduction.
Cleotha Abston’s brother Mario Abston, 36, was also detained over the weekend, though he is not associated with the abduction. Mario faces drug and weapon possession charges.
In 2001, Cleotha Abston was sentenced to 24 years in prison for the abduction of Kemper Durand, a popular Memphis lawyer. He was released in November 2020.
A bike found Ms. Fletcher’s cellphone about seven miles from where she was abducted. The biker also came across a pair of shoes from the same area. The shoes were linked by D.N.A. testing to Mr. Abston. Video evidence also shows him wearing the shoes during the abduction.
After being detained, Abston declined to provide investigators with the victim’s location.
“It is believed and supported by the facts and physical evidence that she suffered a serious injury,” court records said. “Further, witness statements are probable and apparent that these injuries left evidence, e.g., blood, in the vehicle that the defendant cleaned.”
Cleotha Abston worked for a cleaning service, his employer confirmed to the police. The employer also pointed out that Abston drives the S.U.V. captured in the surveillance footage.
Cleotha Abston is scheduled to be arraigned on Tuesday, with a court appearance scheduled for Wednesday at 9 a.m.
Ms. Fletcher was a teacher at St. Mary’s Episcopal School in Memphis. The school posted on Facebook, saying, “we are heartbroken at the loss of our beloved teacher, colleague, and friend Liza Fletcher. We lit candles to remember Liza, a bright light in our community. Liza embodied the song that we sing every week in Early Childhood chapel, ‘This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine.”’
Fletcher’s grandfather, Joseph Orgill III, was a billionaire philanthropist who ran Orgill Inc., a hardware distributor based in Memphis. Orgill died in 2018.