In the aftermath of Eliza Fletcher’s kidnapping and death in Memphis, new footage has surfaced showing murder suspect Cleotha Abston clearing up his SUV.
Around 8 a.m. on Friday, the video captures Abston, 38, driving to his brother Mario’s residence in the Longview Gardens apartment building.
Fletcher, 34, was viciously abducted while out running near to the University of Memphis less than four hours ago.
Abston can be seen parking his vehicle in the footage after reaching the complex. After some while, he gets up and walks over to the car’s trunk. It’s not evident what he took out of the trunk.
Eliza Fletcher, a mother of two, was discovered dead nearby an apartment complex earlier on Tuesday, according to investigators in Memphis. Behind a house nearby, her corpse was discovered.
Her husband Richie and their two children will take care of Fletcher, an heiress to the billion dollar Orgill hardware empire.
Abston then enters the house of his 36-year-old brother. After getting back in, he spends more than an hour sitting in the GMC Terrain’s passenger side.
The criminal affidavit in the case states that Mario Abston’s neighbours saw the defendant emptying out his vehicle and complained about his odd behaviour.
Fletcher’s family issued a statement after learning of the finding of her remains and the filing of further charges against Abston, in which they referred to her death as a “senseless loss.”
Liza was such a delight to so many people, including her family, friends, coworkers, students, parents, members of her church, and everyone else who knew her, according to the statement.
Her family also expressed gratitude to law enforcement for their efforts in finding Fletcher and capturing Abston.
“We are beyond thankful to local, state, and federal law enforcement for their diligent efforts to locate Liza and to bring justice to the individual responsible for this heinous act,” they said.
Before the corpse was identified on Monday night, Mario Abston’s neighbour April Jackson, 30, told DailyMail.com, “It’s emotional, it really hurts.”
Anybody who was out running that morning, a student included, may have been that person. She said, “And he was just just freed from jail for another kidnapping, and he comes out and does it again.
“It makes me feel bad.” When police and a bloodhound were in the area yesterday, a few hundred yards from the corpse, she was out and volunteering to help with the search.
Nearly 30 minutes before to her abduction, Abston had been running in the area where she went missing.
A Mario Abston neighbour revealed exclusively to DailyMail.com on Sunday that she had seen the suspect visiting his brother’s home almost daily for the previous month.
Following Fletcher’s abduction on September 2, authorities detained Cleotha Abston, 38, and charged him with exceptionally aggravated kidnapping and tampering with evidence.
24 minutes prior to the mother-of-abduction two’s in Memphis, Tennessee, at 4:20 a.m., police in Memphis, Tennessee, had surveillance video of the car involved in the incident.
Unreleased surveillance video that the police got shows a guy ‘aggressively’ racing at Fletcher and shoving her into the passenger side of the car.
After seeing car traces and a “odour of decay,” police officers found Fletcher’s corpse in the tall grass near an abandoned home.
She was discovered near to where a garbage bag containing her Lululemon running shorts was discovered.
Fletcher’s cause of death has not yet been determined by the authorities, but the identity of the body, which was discovered seven miles from her last known location, has been established.
Just a few yards from the location where authorities last saw the car she was forced into, she was found by the stairs of a decaying one-story building.
Flies were still buzzing the area, and there was still a bloodstain at the foot of the steps adjacent to the dirt spot where her corpse had been discovered.
The release of the tape coincides with the revelation by retired FBI agent Jennifer Coffindaffer that Memphis lawyer Kemper Durand, who was the first victim of Abston’s abduction, worked for the same legal firm as Fletcher’s uncle, Michael Keeney, according to NewsNation.
I believe this to be a very important hint, and I am certain that the FBI, US Marshalls, and TBI are thoroughly examining this link.
When Abston and a companion abducted Durand, put him in his own trunk, and attempted to coerce him into using an ATM at a petrol station in 2000, they were only 16 years old.
Abston served 22 years in prison for the offence, and he was released early in 2020.
Durand, who passed away in 2013, said in his victim impact statement that he was in danger during his captivity. He was saved by a Memphis Housing Authority security who heard him call for assistance and went to his aid, according to the Commercial Appeal.
If I hadn’t fled, I probably would have been murdered, Durand wrote. The attorney added in his comments
The lawyer was concerned by the teen’s extensive criminal history, which dates back to when he was only 12 years old and includes allegations of theft, violent assault, and rape, according to Durand’s impact statement.
According to the Tennessee Department of Corrections, Durand received a 24-year jail term but was released early in 2020.
Coffindaffer said that putting Abston in jail would have averted the alleged crime and criticised the decision to release him two years early.
Yes, she agreed, saying that if someone is released early and then commits another violent act, society has been let down. “I believe that his early release has let us all down.”
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