Police charged a 38-year-old man in the abduction of Tennessee school teacher Eliza Fletcher, a billionaire’s granddaughter who’s been missing since she went jogging on Friday.
Cleotha Abston was charged Sunday with especially aggravated kidnapping and tampering with evidence, hours after cops found him inside the black SUV wanted in connection with Fletcher’s disappearance.
The 34-year-old wife and mother of two was jogging Friday morning when she was forced into a dark GMC Terrain; her smashed phone and water bottle were also found nearby.
Memphis police continue to search for Fletcher.
A second man, currently not believed to be connected to Fletcher’s abduction, was also charged Sunday during the investigation.
The alleged SUV the suspect was driving that took fletcher.
Mario Abston, 36, was charged with possession of a controlled substance with intent to manufacture and sell fentanyl, possession of a controlled substance with intent to manufacture and sell heroin, and convicted felon in possession of a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony.
Both men were booked into the Shelby County Jail early Sunday.
Fletcher’s family offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to her return.
“It’s just a matter of waiting and hoping and praying,” her father-in-law, Richard Fletcher Jr, told The Post. Fletcher said he visited his son, Richard Fletcher III, and they talked “about his wife [being] missing and how hard it is and how unexpected it is and how hard it is to cope with something that seems so random.”
Fletcher was taken after jogging in the early morning of September 2, 2022.
Fletcher’s grandfather was hardware magnate Joseph Orgill III, who founded the private family business, Orgill Inc., which employs 5,500 people and does $3 billion in sales annually, according to their website.
* Article from: The New York Post
