Eliza Fletcher killer admits abducting and murdering billionaire heiress during her morning run

A slayer unexpectedly pleaded blameworthy to abducting and murdering an heiress simple schoolhouse teacher during her greeting run.

Cleotha Abston, 40, admitted to the September 2022 sidesplitting of Eliza Fletcher, 34, successful a Memphis tribunal Monday morning. 

The vocation transgression was branded 'evil' by Fletcher's household arsenic helium was sentenced to beingness without parole for first-degree execution and aggravated kidnaping.

It was a astonishment crook of events, arsenic Abston was owed to basal proceedings successful February, 2024, and prosecutors had said they would question the decease penalty.

The mom-of-two, a member of a billionaire Tennessee bundle family, vanished during an aboriginal greeting tally aft being forced into a car by Abston.

Abston lowered his caput arsenic helium spoke successful tribunal but showed nary absorption aft pleading guilty, arsenic reported by WREG-TV.

'We person nary thought what happened to you to crook you into idiosyncratic truthful filled with a tendency to wounded people,' Fletcher's household said successful a connection work successful court.

'Whatever it was, it does not excuse oregon explicate what you person done. You person changed our lives forever, and thing volition ever beryllium the same. 

'Your actions were evil. There is nary different connection for it. You murdered Liza, adjacent though she did thing to merit it. She did not wounded you. In fact, she would’ve been the archetypal to assistance if you needed it.'

Fletcher was grabbed from a thoroughfare portion she was jogging earlier dawn adjacent the University of Memphis connected September. 2, 2022, and forced into an SUV. Her assemblage was recovered days aboriginal adjacent a vacant duplex.

Abston, who besides has gone by the sanction Cleotha Henderson, was arrested aft constabulary detected his DNA connected sandals recovered adjacent the determination wherever Fletcher was past seen. An autopsy study showed Fletcher died of a gunshot coiled to the head.

'We had been gathering with him regularly for the past fewer months and had been telling him that we request to settee this case, that we cannot spell guardant with a proceedings and expect to succeed,' said Juni Ganguli, Abston’s lawyer.

In a statement, Fletcher’s household said they 'miss the agleam airy of Liza’s beingness each day.' 

Abston was sentenced to 80 years successful situation May 17 for raping a pistillate a twelvemonth earlier helium was charged successful Fletcher’s death. 

He was convicted successful April of raping the pistillate portion holding her astatine gunpoint successful September 2021.

Abston, whose past of transgression charges dates backmost to the 1990s erstwhile helium was a juvenile, was not charged successful the 2021 rape lawsuit until aft being charged a twelvemonth aboriginal with sidesplitting Fletcher due to the fact that of a agelong hold successful processing the intersexual battle kit.

After Fletcher’s death, the Legislature passed a instrumentality requiring the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to contented a quarterly study connected intersexual battle kit investigating times.