An abandoned body dumped in Memphis, was identified to be Eliza Fletcher, the heiress who was violently snatched during an early morning run four days ago.
“The deceased victim that was located yesterday in the 1600 block of Victor has been identified as 34-year-old Eliza Fletcher,” the Memphis police tweeted Tuesday morning.
Authorities also announced additional charges of first-degree murder and first-degree murder in perpetration of kidnapping against the suspect, Cleotha Abston.
Authorities searching for the mom of two had found the body at 5:07 p.m. Monday, more than 36 hours after Abston, 38, was charged with especially aggravated kidnapping.
Abston, who already served 20 years in prison for a violent kidnapping, had refused to reveal where Fletcher was after being busted Saturday. If found guilty, he would have to serve his entire sentence, according to a new Tennessee law.
During a press conference held on Tuesday, authorities said the alleged attack appears to be random, explaining that Abston and Fletchers were strangers. Authorities also said it is too soon to determine where Fletcher died and how she was killed.
The body was found in an area close to where police say Abston was seen cleaning out the GMC Terrain seen in surveillance footage of Fletcher’s violent abduction during her 4 a.m. run Friday.
His brother, who was separately charged with drug and gun offenses, reported the suspect was acting strange and scrubbing his clothes a few hours after the abduction.
Police had released images of Fletcher, the granddaughter of a late Memphis billionaire, during her morning run Friday through an area around the University of Memphis.
It was later revealed after investigating, the vehicle she was forced into had been trolling the same area at least 24 minutes before she ran through.
Surveillance footage showed the SUV pulling up ahead of Fletcher and a man getting out and running “aggressively toward” her, forcing her into the passenger seat.
“During this abduction, there appeared to be a struggle,” the affidavit said, warning then that Fletcher likely suffered serious injury.
Fletcher’s husband, Richard Fletcher, raised the alarm at 7 a.m. after realizing his wife never came back home.
Abston soon became the prime suspect after DNA testing on a pair of Champion slides left at the scene were tested.
Abston had already served 20 years for especially aggravated kidnapping, the same charge he was hit with for Fletcher, after forcing an attorney into the trunk of a car at gunpoint to get him cash from various ATMs.
His victim, late prosecutor Kemper Durand, said it was “quite likely that I would have been killed” had he not managed to alert an armed security guard who scared off his gun-toting kidnapper.
Abston was just 16 at the time, and already had a lengthy juvenile record, with allegations including rape.
Neighbors described Abston as a creepy pervert, who was always trying to pay women for sex. Even his own uncle, Nathaniel Isaac, 69, said, “I’m 100 percent sure my nephew had something to do with that girl’s abduction, that whole f–cking family is wacky.”
