- A man was detained in connection with the kidnapping and murder of a teacher.
- He also appeared in court on charges of rape and kidnapping of another woman.
- Eliza Fletcher, a Memphis teacher and rich heiress, died.
A man who was detained in connection with the kidnapping and murder of a teacher also appeared in court on charges of rape and kidnapping another lady at gunpoint.
Eliza Fletcher, a Memphis teacher and rich heiress, died, and 38-year-old Cleotha Abston was arrested in connection with her passing.
His DNA was found on the victim’s sandal, and it was used to link him to new accusations, including rape and kidnapping, that were added to his original booking on Friday.
Police said that DNA from Abston was found in a sexual assault report that was taken on September 2, 2021, and submitted two days later.
Because there was no request for the analysis to be hurried up and no suspect information or DNA standard was included in the submission, the evidence against Abston was put in a “queue of unknown assailant kits.”
Slide sandals found at the scene of the purported kidnapping of Fletcher allowed US Marshals to identify Abston as the suspect in the case. DNA evidence from his arrest linked him to the earlier crime.
Because Fletcher and Abston had never met before the attack, investigators claim that her kidnapping and murder were a “isolated” incident.
Police claim that after being kidnapped, Fletcher suffered a “severe injury,” albeit the precise cause of death has not been made public.
In 2000, when he was 16 years old, Abston previously entered a guilty plea to the aggravated kidnapping of a well-known Memphis attorney. Although he received a 24-year sentence, he was released early in 2020.
Fletcher, a kindergarten teacher, was related to the late Joseph Orgill III, a philanthropist and businessman in the Memphis hardware industry. According to the company website, her family’s enterprise is “the world’s largest independent hardlines distributor with annual sales exceeding $3 billion.”
She worked as an elementary school teacher and was a mother to two young sons.
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