Report: Felon Accused of Kidnapping Teacher Stalked Area Before Her Disappearance

Cleotha Abston_Q1M
Tennessee Department of Corrections, Memphis Police Department
Amy Furr

The felon accused in the case of missing teacher Eliza Fletcher reportedly stalked the area prior to her abduction in Tennessee.

Thirty-eight-year-old Cleotha Abston was arrested Sunday and charged after the woman disappeared on Friday while jogging, the Daily Mail reported Monday.

Authorities had video footage of the vehicle in the case, which was described as a black 2013 GMC Terrain. It was in the area nearly 30 minutes before the young mother was abducted early that morning in Memphis.

“Surveillance footage obtained by police, which has not been released, show a man running ‘aggressively’ towards Fletcher, 34, and forcing her into the passenger side of the vehicle,” the Mail article said.

There was a struggle and the car idled for four minutes while the woman was still inside. It then left the scene.

Officials charged Cleotha Abston on Sunday with especially aggravated kidnapping and tampering with evidence.

Fletcher’s family has offered a $50,000 reward to anyone with information that could help bring her home while authorities have been combing through Martin Luther King Riverside park (MLK Riverside), a pond nearby, and Pine Hill Park in the search for her.

A photo showed a Memphis police car at MLK Riverside park:

Officials set Cleotha Abston’s bond at $500,000, ABC 24 reported Monday:

“Abston’s arrest comes just over two years after he was released from prison where he served 20 years for the kidnapping and robbery of lawyer Kemper Durand in Memphis in May 2000,” per the Mail article.

Most recently, officials located the suspect once DNA was collected from Champion sliders left where the struggle with Fletcher occurred. However, the suspect apparently refused to tell authorities the missing woman’s location.

The suspect’s brother, Mario Abston, was arrested recently when neighbors said he was behaving suspiciously, resulting in a search which revealed a handgun and scale with heroin and fentanyl inside his home.

Meanwhile, a woman reportedly witnessed Cleotha Abston cleaning the inside of his car and and washing clothes in a sink, reporter Jordan James wrote in a social media post on Sunday:

Over the weekend, authorities removed a dumpster near Abston’s brother’s apartment complex, Longview Gardens.

Video footage showed the green dumpster being hauled away from the complex in south Memphis:

Officers also searched dumpsters at a local McDonald’s restaurant late Saturday as they continued looking for the missing teacher.

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.