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On Monday, Memphis authorities reported that 38-year-old Cleotha Abston, the prime suspect in the abduction and murder of school teacher Eliza Fletcher, has been charged in an unrelated kidnapping and s*xual assault against another woman.
On September 2, 34-year-old Eliza Fletcher was jogging at 4:20 am when she was violently dragged into a car by a suspect, who authorities later identified as Cleotha Abston. The next day, Abston was arrested less than a mile away from Fletcher's body, which was recovered behind an apartment complex.
While investigating Eliza Fletcher's murder, authorities discovered that Abston's DNA matched a sample recovered by forensics during a September 2021 kidnapping. He has been accused of abducting and violating an unidentified woman. The case remains under investigation, and further details regarding the same have not been released.
The criminal history of Cleotha Abston
In 2000, Cleotha Abston was convicted of specifically aggravated kidnapping after abducting lawyer Kemper Duran at gunpoint and forcing him to withdraw money from several ATMs. He served 20 years of a 24-year sentence.
In an official court statement, Memphis lawyer Kemper Durand, who was a kidnapping victim of Abston, claimed that the suspect's criminal history began as a juvenile. He said:
"I understand that [Abston’s] record goes back to 1995, when he was about 13 years old, and shows juvenile court matters in every year — 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999. He obviously never learned any lesson from his encounters with the law."
Durand also commented on Abston's seeming lack of remorse. He stated:
"It took Cleotha Abston from June 2000 to September 2001, some 15 months, to get around to pleading guilty to the crime to which he confessed on May 29, 2000."
He continued:
"He rejected a plea agreement because he ‘didn’t want to sign for any time.’ This, I understand, is jailhouse braggadocio — being a tough guy and showing off to the other jail inmates."
In 2021, Abston allegedly assaulted an unidentified woman, who filed a complaint with Memphis authorities claiming that the suspect had kidnapped her at gunpoint before physically violating her. While authorities recovered what was determined to be the suspect's DNA, the case went cold until this year.
Last Tuesday, after Eliza Fletcher's body was found, the DNA collected at the scene matched that of the 2021 case. The investigation into the kidnapping re-emerged and Memphis authorities charged Abston with gun possession, aggravated kidnapping and s*xual assault.
He also faces additional charges from his former place of employment, a cleaning company. He has been accused of stealing a woman's wallet while at his workplace. Authorities claim he fraudulently used one of her debit cards.
Abston remains under police custody. He is currently being investigated for two kidnappings and a murder.
