LIFE IN PRISON FOR SUSPECT IN BRUTAL MURDER OF MEMPHIS MOM ELIZA FLETCHER
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace
iHeartPodcasts and CrimeOnline
4.2 • 8.1K Ratings
🗓️ 1 December 2024
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The man charged in the brutal kidnapping, rape and murder of Tennessee teacher Eliza Fletcher changes his plea after prosecutors seek the death penalty. Cleotha Abston, 40, was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
Abston was sentenced to 80 years in a separate rape case. A sexual assault kit was submitted to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation two days after the alleged rape, but no request was made for expedited analysis. The kit sat for months in line with other cases waiting for testing. The kit was finally processed and once the initial report was completed, the information was then entered into the FBI DNA database on 29 August. A positive match came back three days after Fletcher was kidnapped.
Joining Nancy Grace today:
- Matthew Mangino - Attorney, Former District Attorney (Lawrence County), Former Parole Board Member, Author: "The Executioner's Toll: The Crimes, Arrests, Trials, Appeals, Last Meals, Final Words and Executions of 46 Persons in the United States", MattMangino.com, Twitter: @MatthewTMangino
- Caryn Stark - NYC Psychologist, CarynStark.com, Twitter: @carynpsych, Facebook: "Caryn Stark"
- Lisa M. Dadio - Former Police Lieutenant, 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 Nuse, Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE), Expert Witness, Private Investigator, Author: "Taking Back the Pen", Forensic Nursing Consulting and Education LLC, LegalRNConsult.org
- Dr. Kristen Mittelman - Chief Development Officer, Othram Inc., DNAsolves.com, Twitter: @OthramTech
- Dave Mack - Crime Online Investigative Reporter
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Once upon a time, Amazon Music met audiobooks and listeners everywhere rejoiced. |
| 0:05.8 | Oh yeah. |
| 0:06.6 | Because now they could listen to one audiobook title a month from an enormous library of popular audiobook titles, including romanticity, |
| 0:15.3 | autobiographies, true crime, and more. |
| 0:19.3 | Suddenly listeners didn't mind sitting in traffic or even missing their |
| 0:22.6 | flight. Amazon Music Unlimited now includes audible. No way. Download the Amazon Music app now to start |
| 0:28.4 | listening. Terms apply. Crime stories with Nancy Grace. A beautiful young mom out running at the crack of John around 4.15, 4.30 a.m., is abducted, raped, and murdered. |
| 0:51.2 | Eliza Fletcher ran so early in the morning so she could fit in all her duties as a mother |
| 0:57.6 | before she went to work every day, like so many of us. |
| 1:02.6 | Why was she prayed upon? |
| 1:05.7 | In the last days, a stunning update and the Memphis murder of Eliza Fletcher. |
| 1:13.7 | I'm Nancy Grace. |
| 1:14.8 | This is Crime Stories. |
| 1:16.0 | Thank you for being with us. |
| 1:18.7 | In the last days, a killer, surprisingly, does 180 a U-turn in court and pleaseads guilty to kidnapping and murdering an elementary school |
| 1:31.7 | teacher during her morning run? |
| 1:34.6 | What makes the prosecution against Cleotha Abston, age 40, even more disturbing, is that an |
| 1:43.3 | unprosecuted rape case was pending against him at the time he |
| 1:50.0 | murdered this young mom, Eliza Fletcher. Why? Because the DNA had not been examined. It was the rape |
| 1:58.4 | kit was just sitting on a shelf. Had it been examined, Cleo |
| 2:02.8 | Abston would very likely have been behind bars for a felony rape. But no, he was wandering |
| 2:08.6 | around free and now Eliza is dead. Her children left without a mother. That's right. Cleotha |
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