MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WTVF) — A man is now facing charges in the abduction of Eliza Fletcher.
Memphis Police and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation began searching for Fletcher on Friday, September 2, after she was forced into an SUV while jogging.
Police said a vehicle of interest and a male driver who had been occupying the vehicle were found around 4 p.m. on Saturday.
UPDATE: The individual who was detained has been officially charged in connection with the abduction of Eliza Fletcher. At this point in the investigation, Cleotha Abston, 38, has been charged with Especially Aggravated Kidnapping and Tampering with Evidence.
— Memphis Police Dept (@MEM_PoliceDept) September 4, 2022
Memphis police sent out an update that the male who had been detained Saturday afternoon was charged in connection to Fletcher's abduction. Cleotha Abston, 38, was charged with especially aggravated kidnapping and tampering with evidence.
Eliza Fletcher has not been located since Abston's arrest. Investigators from the Memphis Police Department and federal officials are continuing their search to locate her. According to news outlets, she is the granddaughter of the late Joseph "Joe" Orgill III, a Memphis hardware businessman and philanthropist.
This remains to be an active and ongoing investigation.
— Memphis Police Dept (@MEM_PoliceDept) September 4, 2022
We continue to ask for assistance from the community. If anyone has any information concerning this investigation, they should call CrimeStoppers at 901-528-CASH.
Police mentioned that a second individual, who is not believed to be connected to Fletcher's abduction, was taken into custody during the investigation.
Mario Abston, 36, was charged with possessing a controlled substance with the intent to manufacture and sell fentanyl, possessing a controlled substance with the intent to manufacture and sell heroin and convicted felon in possession of a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony.
In an affidavit detailing the charges against Cleotha Abston, an investigator wrote that Fletcher's husband reported her missing on Friday morning after she went for her usual early morning jog and never returned home. A witness found her cellphone and a nearby pair of sandals that morning and turned them over to a member of the Fletcher family, who gave them to the police.
The affidavit also said that police found surveillance video showing a black SUV with damage to the back right tail light waiting in the same area where the cell phone and sandals were later found. The video showed a man leave the SUV, run toward Fletcher, force her into the passenger side of the vehicle, and then sat for four minutes before driving off.
CBS News reports that DNA testing on the sandals matched for Cleotha Abston, and investigators found he had been staying at an address belonging to a woman who owned the same type of SUV seen in the surveillance footage.
The affidavit said they then traced a phone number connecting Abston to the scene of the crime.
When police interviewed the woman with whom Abston was staying, she said she had seen him cleaning the floor of the SUV in the morning, after the time Fletcher was abducted, according to the affidavit. The woman and another witness also said they saw Abston washing his clothes in a sink, and that he was "acting very strangely."
"[Abston] declined to provide investigators with the location of the victim," the affidavit said.
