DEATH PENALTY SOUGHT FOR PERV IN MEMPHIS-MOM-JOGGER MURDER
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace
iHeartPodcasts and CrimeOnline
4.2 • 8.1K Ratings
🗓️ 2 September 2023
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Tennessee prosecutors are seeking the death penalty Cleotha Abston, also known as Cleotha Henderson. He is charged with kidnapping and killing Memphis teacher Eliza Fletcher.
Fletcher vanished while out on her morning run. Neighborhood video captured images of Fletcher being forced into an SUV. The kindergarten teacher's body was found days later near a vacant house less than a mile from the kidnapping site.
Officers combing the area noticed footprints, tire tracks and “an odor of decay.” A pair of purple Lululemon running shorts matching what Fletcher was last seen wearing, was found in a nearby trash can.
Abston, 39, is also charged with the rape of a woman in September 2021, but he was not arrested until after Fletcher’s killing because the state crime lab hadn’t gotten around to processing the sexual assault kit.
Abston has pled not guilty.
Joining Nancy Grace today:
- Matthew Mangino – Attorney, Former District Attorney (Lawrence County), Author: “The Executioner’s Toll: The Crimes, Arrests, Trials, Appeals, Last Meals, Final Words and Executions of 46 Persons in the United States;" Twitter: @MatthewTMangino
- Caryn L. Stark – Psychologist, Renowned TV and Radio Trauma Expert and Consultant; Instagram: carynpsych/FB: Caryn Stark Private Practice
- Lisa M. Dadio - Former Police Lieutenant with the New Haven Police Department; Annie Le Lead Detective; Senior Lecturer, Director of the Center for Advanced Policing and Graduate Program Coordinator Investigations program, University of New Haven
- Rachel D. Fischer – Registered Nurse; Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE); Expert Witness; Private Investigator; Author: “Taking Back the Pen;” Forensic Nursing Consulting and Education LLC
- Dr. Kristen Mittelman - Chief Development Officer, Othram Inc.; Twitter: @OthramTech
- Dave Mack - CrimeOnline Investigative Reporter
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | A beautiful young mom, a schoolteacher, goes out early early in the morning around 4 a.m. |
| 0:22.0 | to jog so she can get back to take care of her tiny children and get to work on time |
| 0:30.6 | not waking up a soul including her husband as she leaves in the dark and morning hours for her run. |
| 0:37.8 | Eliza Fletcher never makes it home. She is kidnapped. I believe sex assaulted and murdered. |
| 0:47.6 | In the last hours we learned the state has announced it will seek the death penalty. |
| 0:55.5 | I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation and |
| 1:00.6 | serious XM-111. First of all, take a listen. Our friends W-R-E-G. |
| 1:11.8 | But things could take a while longer as the prosecution is asking the TBI to release more evidence |
| 1:17.8 | which could lead to more time before the case goes to trial. But what is certain and just |
| 1:23.1 | made public is the prosecution's plan to seek the death penalty if absent-handlers and were found guilty. |
| 1:37.3 | Trace heinous atrocious and cruel is a term of art and what it refers to is a level of violence |
| 1:46.2 | that goes above and beyond that necessary in order to cause the death. |
| 1:51.0 | That's right. Prosecutors announced they are seeking the death penalty for the man accused of |
| 1:56.3 | abducting a Memphis mom Eliza Fletcher during her early morning routine run and killing her. |
| 2:06.3 | The Shelby County District Attorney named Steve Mulroy filed that official notice. He will seek |
| 2:13.8 | the DP on Cleo the Abston. Now get this. Cleo the Abston already had one rape charge against him |
| 2:26.2 | that had never been prosecuted because the rape kit sat on a shelf at the crime lab and had not |
| 2:34.7 | been analyzed until after Eliza Fletcher was murdered. Which leads me to speculation if he had |
| 2:43.7 | been prosecuted for the earlier rape he would likely have been behind bars because there's a DNA |
| 2:49.7 | match and Eliza Fletcher would be alive today. Okay that said wait for it. There was another attack |
| 3:00.2 | years ago by this guy Cleo the Abston and yet he's out walking free. Where did it all start? |
| 3:10.2 | Listen it's been just over 12 hours since Eliza Fletcher disappeared and multiple agencies |
... |
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