Shocking new details have been released in the investigation into Eliza Fletcher’s abduction.
A Memphis school teacher and granddaughter to a prominent businessman, Fletcher was reportedly out for a jog when she was abducted and forced into an SUV.
On Friday, police arrested the man suspected of abducting Fletcher — Cleotha Abston, 38, who, according to WREG, previously pleaded guilty to an especially aggravated kidnapping charge in 2000.
Neighbors living in the same apartment as Abston’s brother, Mario, witnessed Cleotha Abston engaging in some “creepy” behavior around the complex, according to the U.K.’s Daily Mail.
One such neighbor, April, described in detail to the Daily Mail a “creepy” encounter she had with the suspect.
“When women were around, he would sit in the truck and stare,” she said. “He was a weird pervert.”
“He watched me come on the porch, then came up the stairs behind me and said, ‘I will give you $100 to f**k.’”
According to April, Abston made the same offer to at least two other women in the apartment complex where they lived.
Latoya, another neighbor, told the Daily Mail that Abston propositioned her and her 20-year-old niece.
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“He kept waving me over to him and was like. ‘I’ve got $100,’” Latoya said. “He tried to catch my niece too, tried to get her to come into the apartment with him.”
As far as Latoya knew, Abston’s efforts were never successful.
“He creepy, he really creepy,” she added.
Witnesses who saw Abston shortly after the abduction claim he was acting in a very odd manner.
According to WREG, one witness reportedly saw Abston washing his clothes and “vigorously cleaning the interior of his car with carpet cleaner.”
Here’s what we know about the arrest of #CleothaAbston in the #ElizaFletcher abduction. pic.twitter.com/Cq3gt5Crsv
— Bria Jones (@BriaJonesTV) September 4, 2022
“He gives me creepy vibes,” one neighbor told WREG. “Like he’d look at you some type of way.”
Because of this, police believe Fletcher sustained serious injuries during the auction and likely left blood on Abston’s clothes and in his vehicle.
“As the abduction was violent with, as captured on video, the suspect waiting for, then rushing toward the victim, then forcing the victim into the vehicle, where she was confined and removed and continues to be missing, it is believed and supported by the facts and physical evidence that she suffered serious injury. Further, it is probable and apparent from witness statements that these injuries left evidence, e.g. blood, in the vehicle that the Defendant cleaned,” police records said, according to WREG.
Abston has refused to disclose Fletcher’s whereabouts to authorities.
