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MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Memphis police set up a mobile command center and were searching an area on Sunday near a home where Cleotha Abston, a 38-year-old man suspected of kidnapping Eliza Fletcher, could be seen washing clothes and cleaning the interior of his vehicle on Friday following the alleged abduction. Police have not confirmed that Sunday’s search is connected to the violent abduction of the billionaire heiress.
Surveillance video reviewed by police shows a man forcing Fletcher, a 34-year-old mother of two and kindergarten teacher, into a GMC Terrain as she was out for a morning run on Friday near the University of Memphis campus. The video also shows Fletcher fighting back against her abductor.
Police located that GMC terrain at Abston’s residence on Saturday and took him into custody after he attempted to flee.
Two witnesses told police that they saw Abston “acting very strange” and “behaving oddly” as he washed his clothes in a sink and cleaned the interior of the GMC Terrain at his brother’s home near the Pine Hill Community Center, according to an affidavit.
Police wrote that it was “probable and apparent” that Fletcher’s injuries “left evidence, e.g., blood, in the vehicle that the Defendant cleaned.”
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The Memphis Police Department and Shelby County Sheriff’s Office used ATVs, K-9s, and horses as they scoured a park near that community center on Sunday.
Cleotha Abston, 38, is suspected of kidnapping Eliza Fletcher on Friday morning while the mother of two was out for a run near the University of Memphis.
(Tennessee Department of Corrections)
After Abston was taken into custody, he “declined to provide investigators with the location of the victim,” according to the affidavit. He was charged with especially aggravated kidnapping and tampering with evidence.
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Police originally identified Abston as a suspect because he allegedly left a pair of sandals behind at the scene of the abduction.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation confirmed that Abston’s DNA was found on the sandals and surveillance video showed him wearing them the day before the kidnapping.
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More than two decades ago, Abston was charged with aggravated robbery and kidnapping for forcing prominent Memphis attorney Kemper Durand into the trunk of his car in May 2000.
Fletcher’s grandfather was billionaire Joseph Orgill III, founder of Memphis-based Orgill Hardware, which now has more than 11,000 retail stores throughout the United States.
Anyone with information about the Fletcher’s disappearance can call Crime Stoppers at 901-528-CASH (2274).
