Memphis police said a body found during an exhaustive three-day search for heir Eliza Fletcher, who was allegedly kidnapped while jogging, has been identified as the missing woman.
Confirmation comes from Tennessee authorities after a man, Cleotha Abston, 38, was charged on Saturday as a suspect in Fletcher’s kidnapping and for tampering with evidence after his DNA was detected on a pair of Champion sandals at the location. of his disappearance.
The 34-year-old heir and teacher he disappeared around 4:20 am while jogging around the University of Memphis Friday morning, when a person is thought to have forced her into a dark sports utility vehicle, United States police said.
A vehicle meant to be used for the alleged kidnapping was linked to a person on a property where the suspect, Abston, was staying.
Fletcher, who is the granddaughter of the late businessman and philanthropist Joseph Orgill III, was thought to have been seriously injured in the incident, based on surveillance footage.
The the body was found on Monday after a series of searches for the missing woman, police said.
In a statement posted on Twitter, Memphis police said, “The deceased victim who was located yesterday … has been identified as 34-year-old Eliza Fletcher.”
Abston is now charged with first degree murder and first degree murder by kidnapping.
The suspect also has he had previously been charged with another kidnapping when he was 16.
Abston was arrested and jailed for 24 years for kidnapping and robbing Memphis lawyer Kemper Durand in 2000 and later released from prison in 2020.
Mr. Durand managed to escape after a few hours and has since passed away in 2013.
In a statement published by Commercial Appeal, Durand said, “My feelings of being the victim of this crime, and the feelings of those around me, are that I have been extremely fortunate to have managed to escape Cleotha Abston’s custody.
“I was picked up from the trunk of my car, where he and his co-defendant had put me for a number of hours, and driven to Mapco station.
“The purpose was that I had to use my ATM card to get cash for Cleotha Abston.”
He added: “It was fortunate that an armed and uniformed guard from the Memphis Housing Authority entered the Mapco station while Cleotha Abston, Marquette Cobbins (the second defendant) and I were using the ATM.
“It’s very likely I would have been killed if I hadn’t escaped.”
Mr. Durand had told the court that Cobbins had been in the wrong place at the wrong time and had tried to get Abston to stop.
