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

Eliza Fletcher was well known in the Memphis community as both a respected teacher and the heiress to a local business fortune.

The 34-year-old mother of two was the granddaughter of the late local businessman and philanthropist Joseph “Joe” Orgill III, who founded the Memphis hardware supply company Orgill.

The private, family-ran business is now worth $3.2bn and employs 5,500 people, with the Orgill family well-known in the local area.

The company website describes Orgill as the “world’s largest independently owned hardlines distributor, providing retailers across North America and in more than 60 countries throughout the world access to over 75,000 products and industry-leading retail services”.

Instead of working in the family business, however, Ms Fletcher became a local kindergarten teacher at St Mary’s Episcopal School.

She was married to Richard Fletcher III and they have two boys together.

Cleotha Abston has just entered the Shelby County Circuit Court in Memphis for arraignment on first degree murder charges.

He is wearing prison garb and masked, and a lawyer is speaking to him in the dock.

The judge says the suspect has asked that he be known as Cleotha Henderson, rather than Cleotha Abston.

Cleotha Abston (Henderson) is being arraigned on first degree murder charges in Shelby County Circuit Court.

A judge has revoked his $500,000 bond from earlier kidnapping charges, pending a bond hearing.

“In light of the change of circumstance, I’m going to order that there be no bond. The $500,000 bond is revoked,” the judge said.

The Shelby County Circuit Court judge has ended today’s hearing, and ordered another hearing on Thursday to determine what Cleotha Abston’s bond should be set at.

Cleotha Abston, who has been charged with the abduction and murder of heiress Eliza Fletcher, spent 20 years in prison for kidnapping and robbery before being released in 2020.

Here’s everything we know about Mr Abston, who has since asked that he be known as Cleotha Henderson.

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.

Video has surfaced of Eliza Fletcher, the Tennessee kindergarten teacher who was kidnapped and killed last week, recording a song for her students.

In the clip, Fletcher, a junior teacher at St Mary’s Episcopal school in Memphis, sings “This Little Light of Mine” and tells students about her dog. The video, which has been viewed more than 530,000 times on Twitter.

Josh Marcus has the story.

Cleotha Abston 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.

Abston Henderson, now 38, 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.

“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.”