On Monday, police said that a body had been discovered in south Memphis, where they had been looking for Eliza Fletcher, the teacher who had been kidnapped while out for an early morning jog on Friday. Police in Memphis state that they have been unable to identify the deceased person or ascertain what caused their death.
The body was discovered at 5:07 p.m. local time, according to the police.
Surveillance footage shows the moment a man approaches Fletcher, 34, while she is jogging at 4 a.m. on a Friday morning. After a brief struggle, he forces her into a dark SUV. Fletcher did not come home that morning, so she was reported missing.
The abduction likely badly harmed Fletcher, according to an affidavit filed by Memphis police.
On Saturday, police made an arrest: 38-year-old Cleotha Abston was taken in for questioning about Fletcher’s disappearance. Right now, he’s being held on charges of kidnapping and tampering with evidence, both of which are considered to be particularly serious.
On Monday, CBS station WREG-Bria TV’s Jones said that police were heavily patrolling a neighborhood “quite close to where a dumpster was towed from outside Cleo Abston’s brother’s apartment” on Sunday.
Fletcher teaches junior kindergarten at St. Mary’s Episcopal School, an all-girls, private, independent school in Memphis. “We join the Fletcher and Wellford families in praying for Liza’s safe return,” the school stated on Facebook on Saturday.
