The body found in Memphis is that of an abducted teacher and a suspect is being charged with murder, police say

(CNN)A body found this week in Memphis is that of a teacher who was abducted there while jogging last week, and a suspect is being charged with murder, police said Tuesday.

Eliza “Liza” Fletcher, 34, was identified as the person found dead Monday in the rear of a vacant duplex in the Tennessee city, roughly 7.5 miles from where surveillance video shows she was forced into an SUV early Friday, Memphis police said.

 

A suspect captured throughout the end of the week, Cleotha Abston, 38, will be summoned Wednesday on charges including first-degree murder – – adding to grabbing and different charges he previously confronted, Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy said.

“To lose someone so young and so vital is a tragedy in and of itself, but to have it happen in this way, with a senseless act of violence, it’s unimaginable,” Mulroy, offering his condolences to Fletcher’s family, said in a Tuesday news conference.

 

A suspect captured over the course of the end of the week, Cleotha Abston, 38, will be summoned Wednesday on charges including first-degree murder – – adding to seizing and different charges he previously confronted, Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy said.

t is too soon to decide the “spot and strategy for death,” Memphis Police Chief Carolyn Davis at a similar news meeting.

Fletcher, a junior kindergarten teacher at St. Mary’s Episcopal School in Memphis, was jogging around 4 a.m. Friday in a neighborhood near the University of Memphis when a man chased her and forced her into a black SUV, authorities said.

Her husband reported her missing that morning, sparking an intense weekend hunt that led to Abston’s arrest near his Memphis home Saturday after investigators unearthed clues including surveillance video of the abduction, authorities said in court documents.

Fletcher was the granddaughter of equipment head honcho Joseph Orgill III, who passed on in 2018 at 80 years old. As per the organization, Tennessee-based Orgill has yearly deals of $3 billion.

The suspect appears in court on kidnapping charges

Abston was arraigned Tuesday morning in a Memphis courtroom on charges filed against him before Fletcher’s body was identified: aggravated kidnapping and tampering with evidence.

Wearing jail clothing and a veil over his mouth, he talked exclusively to answer an appointed authority’s inquiries and said he doesn’t have a lawyer or assets to post bond.

Shelby County Judge Louis J. Montesi Jr. appointed a public defender to represent Abston.

Five of Fletcher’s relatives were in the courtroom. Before the hearing started, Montesi asked them to refrain from having any outbursts or emotional reactions during the arraignment.

Abston was being held in county jail Tuesday on the initial charges with a bond set at $510,000. He will be arraigned Wednesday on charges of first-degree murder, premeditated murder, and murder in the course of the perpetration of a kidnapping, Mulroy, the district attorney, said Tuesday.

Abston carried out a jail punishment for an exasperated capturing over a long time back, court records show.

The evidence in the case

Fletcher’s husband told police Friday morning that she’d not returned from her early morning jog, authorities said in an affidavit filed Sunday.

Somebody tracked down her telephone in the road on Central Avenue that morning, and it was given to one of Fletcher’s family members, who gave it to agents, the sworn statement peruses.

Police then found surveillance video of the area, which shows a black GMC Terrain pass by her, according to the affidavit. A man is seen in the footage getting out of the SUV and “aggressively” running toward her before forcing her into the vehicle’s passenger seat, according to the affidavit.

The SUV stayed in a parking area for around four minutes after the two individuals were inside and afterward drove away the testimony states.

Police also analyzed a pair of sandals that were found at the abduction site, near the victim’s phone. DNA found on the shoes matched DNA for Abston, the affidavit reads.

The SUV stayed in a parking area for around four minutes after the two individuals were inside and afterward drove away the oath states.

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 court document reads.

Investigators then interviewed Abston’s employer, who said he drove a GMC Terrain and verified his phone number. Examiners checked Abston’s cell records, which showed he was close to the snatching scene during the hour of Fletcher’s seizing, as per the affirmation.

Members of a US Marshals task force found a GMC Terrain near Abston’s residence on Saturday morning, and it had the same distinguishable damage and partial license plate information seen in the surveillance footage from Fletcher’s abduction, the affidavit reads.

The team saw him remaining in the entryway of the home, and kept him Saturday, the court record said.

Cleotha Abston, right, is arraigned in court on Tuesday.

Police also gathered details from witnesses who said they encountered Abston after the abduction.

One witness said she saw Abston at his brother’s Memphis home after the kidnapping, according to the affidavit. The witness and Abston’s brother said Abston was behaving oddly as he cleaned the interior of his SUV and washed his clothes in the sink, the affidavit said.

Police have not said what led them to the vacant duplex where Fletcher’s body was found.

That duplex was in the 1600 block of Victor Street, the police chief said. That’s about a half-mile drive from the address that authorities gave for his brother’s home, a 7.5-mile drive from the alleged abduction site, and about a 15.5-mile drive from his own home.

Memphis school community ‘heartbroken at the loss

Authorities at the school where Fletcher worked said Tuesday they “are devastated at the deficiency of our dearest instructor, associate, and companion.”

This morning our faculty and staff started the day in chapel. We lit candles to remember Liza who was a bright light in our community,” a Facebook post from St. Mary’s Episcopal School reads.

“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,'” the post reads.

“We continue to draw strength from our all-school read, ‘The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse’ by Charlie Mackesy. ‘We don’t know about tomorrow,’ said the horse, ‘all we need to know is that we love each other,'” the post reads.

Abston served their sentence in a previous kidnapping case

Following Abston’s arrest, Saturday charges unrelated to Fletcher’s kidnapping also were filed against him.

The charges include identity theft, theft of property $1,000 or less, and fraudulent use/illegal possession of a credit or debit card $1,000 or less, Shelby County jail records show.

Those charges are connected to a Thursday theft report filed by a woman who reported someone was using her Cash App card and Wisely Card at gas stations without her knowledge.

CNN has reached out to the Shelby County district attorney and Memphis police regarding the charges in the Thursday theft report.

Court records also reveal that Abston previously served a prison sentence for an aggravated kidnapping more than 20 years ago.

In November 2001, Abston pleaded guilty to the charge and was released in November 2020, court records show.

Abston had been convicted in the kidnapping of a local attorney in 2000, the Shelby County district attorney’s office told local outlet WREG.

CNN’s Anne Clifford, Jamiel Lynch, Chuck Johnston, Tina Burnside, Hannah Sarisohn, and Jennifer Feldman contributed to this report.