The man accused of snatching Memphis pre-K teacher Eliza Fletcher kidnapped an attorney in 2000 and served almost 20 years.
Cleotha Abston, 38, pleaded guilty in November 2001 to especially aggravated kidnapping and was released in November 2020, WREG reported Sunday.
Abston was taken into custody Saturday and charged with especially aggravated kidnapping and tampering with evidence, the Memphis Police Department announced Sunday.
Fletcher, a 34-year-old mother of two and a billionaire’s granddaughter, remains missing since she was grabbed off the street near the University of Memphis around 4:30 a.m. Friday and shoved into a mid-sized dark SUV, according to police.
Her damaged cell phone was found at the scene, along with a pair of Champion slide sandals with DNA that matched Abston, according to an arrest affidavit.
Abston was also allegedly seen on surveillance footage at a theater a day earlier in the same sandals and cell phone data placed him near the scene of the abduction Friday morning.
Mario Abston, Cleotha’s 36-year-old brother, was also arrested on drug and gun charges as part of the investigation, but police said he is not believed to be connected to Fletcher’s kidnapping.
A witness told police that she saw Cleotha Abston after the kidnapping “behaving oddly” outside his brother’s house, cleaning the SUV with floor cleaner and washing his clothes in the sink, according to the affidavit.
Investigators believe Fletcher suffered “serious injury” in the “violent” abduction and that Abston was likely cleaning blood out of the car.
Fletcher’s grandfather, Joseph Orgill III, co-ran the Tennessee-based hardware distributor Orgill Inc., which was worth $3.2 billion in 2020, according to Forbes.
