Eliza Fletcher latest: Cleotha Abston’s teen rape conviction revealed as he’s arraigned for teacher’s murder

There is no indication that the law firm connection between Fletcher’s uncle Mike Keeney and kidnapping victim Kemper Durand has anything to do with her murder, which investigators described as an ‘isolated attack by a stranger’.

Rachel Sharp reports.

“Now it’s time to remember and celebrate how special she was and to support those who cared so much for her,” family of murdered Memphis woman Eliza Fletcher say in statement.

“So when the news hit that a female jogger had been abducted from a Tennessee street early last Friday morning (we now know that it was Fletcher, a 34-year-old mother of two, and we also know that she was tragically killed) it spread like wildfire amongst the running community on social media,” writes Gemma Abbott for Independent Voices.

“But not purely because this was such shocking and disturbing news. Most people just simply couldn’t believe it had happened – again. Another female runner abducted or assaulted as she went about doing the thing she loved. Sadly, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen news reports of women being attacked while out running in the last few years.”

Abston, who has requested he be known by his paternal surname Henderson, was convicted of raping a man when he was a teenager – almost three decades before he allegedly kidnapped and murdered Memphis business heiress Eliza Fletcher.

Now 38, he was just 14 years old when he committed a juvenile delinquent act of rape against an unnamed male, according to court documents.

The charge was sustained and the teenager was placed in the custody of Shelby County’s Youth Services Bureau.

Rachel Sharp has the story.

“We want to stand up and say it’s OK for women to run at 4 o’clock in the morning and it’s OK for women to run in whatever type of clothing they feel comfortable in,” the organiser of the Let’s Finish Liza’s Run event tells The Independent.

Memphis police confirmed on Tuesday morning that a body found during an “intensive” city-wide search was positively identified as missing mother of two Eliza Fletcher. Ms Fletcher, 34,was abducted while out jogging near the University of Memphis campus early on Friday morning (2 September) in what police have described as a random attack.

Here is a timeline of events in the case.

Grainy video footage that purportedly shows murder-accused Cleotha Abston cleaning a dark SUV in the hours after Eliza Fletcher was abducted has been obtained by Memphis news network WREG.