At 5:07 p.m. on Monday, more than 36 hours after Abston, 38, was charged with exceptionally aggravated kidnapping, police searching for the mother of two discovered the body.
After being apprehended on Saturday, authorities said Abston, who had already served 20 years in prison for a brutal kidnapping, had refused to say where Fletcher was.
The body was discovered not far from where Abston, according to authorities, was allegedly spotted Friday morning during Fletcher’s 4 a.m. run cleaning out the GMC Terrain seen in surveillance footage of her dramatic kidnapping.
The suspect was described as acting “weird” and scrubbing his clothes hours after the kidnapping, according to the affidavit, which was signed by his brother, who was accused separately with drug and weapons violations.
Fletcher, the granddaughter of a late Memphis tycoon, was captured on camera by police on Friday morning as she raced near the University of Memphis.
Soon after the missing heiress was kidnapped while out for a jog, a body discovered during the search for Eliza Fletcher has apparently been identified.
The corpses were discovered on Monday, around 48 hours after 38-year-old suspect Cleotha Abston was detained and charged.
According to sources cited by Fox13, the body that was discovered belonged to Fletcher.
Police have not disclosed the cause of death for Fletcher.
Eliza, a rich heiress to a hardware empire, was seen in chilling surveillance film jogging just before she was shoved into a dark SUV on Friday near the University of Memphis in Tennessee.
After a brief fight, someone, said to be Abston, is seen shoving her into the car at roughly 4:30 in the morning.
Eliza, a junior kindergarten teacher who was 34 years old, was rumoured to frequently run the same route.
Her broken phone and water bottle were unexplainably found outside a home that belonged to the university.
According to Fox News, Abston was apprehended on Saturday and was apparently observed using a floor cleaner to clean the interior of his GMC Terrain, a “vehicle of interest,” after the abduction.
Two witnesses, including the suspect’s brother Mario Abston, reportedly saw him “cleaning his clothing in the residence” after the kidnapping, according to a police affidavit.
Mario reported to the police that his brother was acting “weird.”
At the crime scene, Abston’s Champion slides sandals were found. Police discovered they matched Abston, who was already in the system, after sending them for DNA testing.
The GMC Terrain was discovered over the weekend by US Marshalls parked in front of Abston’s residence in Waterstone Oak Way, Memphis.
The 38-year-old allegedly tried to run but was apprehended and is currently being held without cooperating or telling police where Eliza is.
The suspect “rushed forcefully at” Eliza, according to the affidavit, and “forced” her into the passenger side of his GMC Terrain.
Police say it is “apparent” from witness statements that the struggle to kidnap Eliza and her injuries would have left evidence in the car “that the Defendant cleaned.”
