Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - LIFE IN PRISON FOR SUSPECT IN BRUTAL MURDER OF MEMPHIS MOM ELIZA FLETCHER

Episode Date: December 1, 2024

The  man charged in the brutal kidnapping, rape and murder of Tennessee teacher Eliza Fletcher changes his plea after prosecutors seek the death penalty. Cleotha Abston, 40, was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.   Abston was sentenced to 80 years in a separate rape case.  A sexual assault kit was submitted to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation two days after the alleged rape, but no request was made for expedited analysis. The kit sat for months in line with other cases waiting for testing. The kit was finally processed and once the initial report was completed, the information was then entered into the FBI DNA database on 29 August. A positive match came back three days after Fletcher was kidnapped. Joining Nancy Grace today: Matthew Mangino - Attorney, Former District Attorney (Lawrence County), Former Parole Board Member, Author: "The Executioner's Toll: The Crimes, Arrests, Trials, Appeals, Last Meals, Final Words and Executions of 46 Persons in the United States", MattMangino.com, Twitter: @MatthewTMangino Caryn Stark - NYC Psychologist, CarynStark.com, Twitter: @carynpsych, Facebook: "Caryn Stark" Lisa M. Dadio - Former Police Lieutenant, New Haven Police Department, Annie Le Lead Detective, Senior Lecturer, Director of the Center for Advanced Policing and Graduate Program Coordinator, Investigations program, University of New Haven  Rachel D. Fischer - Registered Nuse, Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE), Expert Witness, Private Investigator, Author: "Taking Back the Pen", Forensic Nursing Consulting and Education LLC, LegalRNConsult.org Dr. Kristen Mittelman - Chief Development Officer, Othram Inc., DNAsolves.com, Twitter: @OthramTech  Dave Mack - Crime Online Investigative Reporter  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A beautiful young mom out running at the crack of dawn around 4.15, 4.30 a.m. is abducted, raped, and murdered. Eliza Fletcher ran so early in the morning so she could fit in all her duties as a mother before she went to work every day like so many of us. Why was she preyed upon? In the last days, a stunning update

in the Memphis murder of Eliza Fletcher. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. In the last days, a killer surprisingly does a 180, a U-turn in court and pleads guilty to kidnapping and murdering an elementary school teacher during her morning run. What makes the prosecution against Cleotha Abston, age 40, even more disturbing is that an unprosecuted rape case was pending against him at the time he murdered this young mom, Eliza Fletcher. Why? Because the DNA had not been examined. It was the rape kit was just sitting on a shelf.

Had it been examined, Cleoth Axton would very likely have been behind bars for a felony rape. But no, he was wandering around free. and now Eliza is dead. Her children left without a mother. And that's right. Cleo, the absent age 40 admits to the September murder of Eliza Fletcher, just 34 in a Memphis courtroom, a career criminal called evil by Fletcher's family when he was sentenced to life without parole for murder one and aggravated kidnapping. This, as we know, the convicted felon is also accused of raping Alicia Franklin back in 2021. Her rape kit sat there basically unnoticed for over a year. Nothing was done.

And while he's out walking free, never jailed or tried on her rape, he finds Eliza Fletcher and doesn't settle with just attacking her. He murders her as well. Again, Cleotha Aston Henderson, age 38, arraigned at the Shelby County Criminal Court on multiple charges, including the rape and kidnap of another woman. Where did it all start? Listen. It's been just over 12 hours

since Elijah Fletcher disappeared. Multiple agencies have joined forces. I can tell you, there's a lot of concern in the community as time passes by. Where is Eliza Fletcher? That's the question many are asking across the Mid-South after investigators say the avid jogger was abducted. It's very important that if anybody knows the whereabouts of Ms. Fletcher to contact the police immediately. Fletcher was jogging down Central Avenue around 4 30 this morning when investigators say she was approached by someone who forced her into a dark colored SUV

and drove off. You don't want to hear that that's going on. We want to find her. We don't know. We don't know what's going on. Hart Robinson is a friend of Fletcher and got the news this morning and immediately came to the area of Central Avenue and Zach Curling Street where she was last seen. Everybody's desperately looking for her. The search was on for the missing mom of two, Eliza Fletcher. You were just hearing our friends at WREG Channel 3. There were only two clues left behind. Listen.

Fletcher's cell phone and a water bottle were found in front of a home owned by the University of Memphis. In a safety alert sent to students, they say she was reported missing after not returning home from her run. The SUV that she was last seen in was spotted driving westbound down Central Avenue. Multiple agencies, including the FBI, are assisting with the case with one goal in mind, find Eliza Fletcher. Our concern is to locate Ms. Fletcher. So if anybody knows where she's at, call the police immediately. Really? Just think, her life could have been spared.

I firmly believe it. And then the frantic search. Listen to our friends at NBC. Around 7 to 50 a.m., roughly three hours after the abduction, the suspect's brother and another witness telling investigators they saw him wash his clothes in a sink and clean the inside of the car with floor cleaner. According to an affidavit, the brother also saying he was acting very strange. That bizarre scene allegedly unfolding less than a mile from where police discovered the unidentified body late Monday. The affidavit also says Abston left sandals behind, authorities using DNA from those shoes

to zero in on him. So while the frantic search throughout the Memphis area is ongoing for the missing mom. You see Cleotha Abston frantically cleaning the back of his GMC, washing his clothes in his brother's sink. Wow. Isn't that quite the coincidence? And then the gruesome discovery. Our friends WREG. A gut-wrenching discovery in South Memphis as detectives confirm a body was located a few yards away from where Eliza Fletcher's alleged abductor came hours after her kidnapping. Monday, Memphis police swarmed this area after finding a body in an overgrown lot near a vacant home on Victor Street.

The scene just a stone's throw away from where Memphis police say 38-year-old Cleota Absin came hours after abducting Fletcher. They believe he cleaned blood from the interior of the SUV used in the abduction and washed his clothes in his brother's sink. In the past 10 minutes, Memphis police confirming those new details, saying that the body they found yesterday is that of missing mother Eliza Fletcher and now the man they had in custody already charged with her kidnapping, faces, murder charges. And this is coming just about 16 hours after they discovered a body here not far, they said, within walking distance to an apartment complex

where 38-year-old Cleotha Abson was seen cleaning his SUV shortly after the abduction. Our friends at Fox 13 joining WREG. When Eliza went missing, the search ensued. You see the defendant, the suspect, caught on video just cleaning, cleaning, scrubbing, scrubbing, trying to get rid of blood. He would need some sort of hydrochloric acid to do that trick. It didn't work. Blood throughout his SUV and then a couple hundred yards away, the body

of Eliza Fletcher found just discarded in tall grass. Her Lululemon running shorts found in a garbage bag not far away also discarded. And now, today, we find out her abduction, her likely rape, her murder could have all been avoided. How? Take a listen to our friends at WATN. The man accused of kidnapping and killing Eliza Fletcher is facing three new criminal charges tonight.

The charges are from another case in 2021. In this case, he's facing charges for aggravated rape, kidnapping, and unlawful possession of a gun. Memphis police confirm a sexual assault report was taken on September 21 of 2021. The sexual assault kit was submitted to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations two days later on September 23rd, but that kit was not tested until he was connected to Eliza Fletcher's disappearance. Did you hear that? Another aggravated kidnap and rape. All the way back, almost a year ago, 2021, a rape kit was taken.

It was sent to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations, the TBI, and not a thing was done. It sat on a shelf. And in that manila evidence bag, sealed shut with the investigator's initials over it, to maintain the chain of custody was the evidence that would have put Cleo the Apsitant behind bars at the time Eliza was kidnapped and murdered. Joining me right now, an all-star panel to make sense of what we know right now. But first, I want to go to Dave Mack, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. joining me right now an all-star panel to make sense of what we know right now but first i want to go to dave matt crime online.com investigative reporter dave what went wrong nancy um you know we talked about how quickly they were able to identify the dna of cleotha abstin on the slides that they found at the kidnapping scene for Eliza Fletcher.

They turned that around in less than 18 hours. From the moment they found the slides to the moment they identified the DNA coming from Cleotha Abston. In the case from September 21st, 2021, a woman reported the rape. They did a rape kit, and 48 hours later, on September 23rd, the rape kit was submitted to the TBI DNA case files. The problem is, unless they order a rush on the DNA, it goes into the regular file. Just stop. No offense, Dave Mack, but I really don't want to hear that because that is all BS. I know you're reporting what the TBI wants me to hear.

But when it comes to a life-threatening violent crime, why is there a wait? I pay half my paycheck every year and have been since I was a lowly assistant in the district attorney's office. Since before that, when I worked at the library at Mercy University. Why do I pay taxes? So Cleotha Abston can walk free and murder Eliza Fletcher, leaving her two children with no mother. You know how much that screws a kid up forever? And you're telling me it sounds like with a straight face that it was in line to get analyzed. You know what? I don't want to hear it. She's dead. And she endured a horrible death. That SUV was covered in blood.

Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. With me now, Lisa Daddio, former police lieutenant, New Haven PD. And she is the director of the Center for Advanced Policing and Graduate Program Coordinator, University of New Haven. Lisa, could you please interpret what Dave Mack was just trying to say? Honestly, Nancy, the police department messed up on that one. And, you know, I really don't. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Messed up.

Let's just analyze what you just said. Messed up. This is more than just messing up. They didn't fall through the cracks. They screwed up horribly and Eliza is dead because they couldn't analyze a rape kit. To Rachel D. Fisher joining me, special guest, registered nurse, sex assault nurse examiner. She's an expert witness. She's author of Taking Back the Pen. And you can find her at legalrnconsult.org. Rachel, do you ever get tired of hearing about one fail after the next? You deal with rape victims

every day. And I keep screaming it from the rooftops. A rape victim is never the same like a child molestation victims. Yes, they can go on about life. They seem like they're having a normal life, but they're never the same after a rape. Maybe you can say it better than me, Rachel. Yeah, the impact that a victim has after being assaulted, it's lifelong. It never goes away. A murder is one thing. That's the end result.

But there are people living with the effects of this for the rest of their lives. And it comes down to the fact that jurisdictions, communities don't put an emphasis on crimes of violence against women or the vulnerable. These sex crimes are just tossed aside. There's not proper funding. We don't adequately staff our law enforcement agencies or crime labs. And then the statutes, I mean, Tennessee, you don't even have to, the law enforcement agency does not even have to turn over the kit until 60 days to the crime lab. So the statutes are showing, okay, there's not a priority. What can happen in 60 days? A lot can happen. Other rapes can happen. Yeah, like Eliza Fletcher can get murdered. And you know, another thing, Rachel D. Fisher, who is a rape, sex assault nurse examiner,

it's a very, very specialized area. I wonder what that says to the rape victim, like Cleotha Abston's other rape victim. I mean, we already know of one when he was nearing adulthood, this one in September 2021. I wonder how that rape victim felt when she would call and say, what's the status of my brutal rape case? And she said, oh, and she hears, oh yeah, well, it's in the queue. It's like you're at Target and there's a long line or you're at Kroger and the line wraps around the cash register. Uh-uh. No, she's not buying a dozen apples. She's trying to find out about her rape case that forever altered her life and she gets told, yeah, you're in the line. They'll analyze it. Meanwhile, this guy is walking free. What am I talking gibberish Karen Stark? Because I feel like I'm not getting through.

I don't think I can scream any louder in a studio. Karen Stark joining me. I'm a renowned psychologist out of New York at KarenStark.com. That's Karen with a C. Karen, help me please. Nancy, you're not talking gibberish. This is how it happens. I feel like crying and fighting and hitting someone

all at the same time. People don't take it seriously enough. Here's something that will damage someone's life forever. And I don't understand because police are supposed to be trained. They're supposed to know that they need to do something right away. And it is outrageous, just outrageous that they did not make sure that that came back as soon as possible. And who knows what else he was up to, Nancy? Oh, oh, this is the tip of the iceberg.

Karen, Karen, Karen Stark. This guy, Cleotha Abston, started committing violent felonies at age 11. That we know of. And, you know, Matthew Mangino, I'm not asking you to speak. I'm just referring to you. Former prosecutor, now civil and defense attorney and author, he would argue, oh, he was just 11, the sweet little boy. You know, I might buy that at 11, 12, 13, 14, but then at 16, 17, 18, I'm not buying it anymore. So Karen Stark, when people say he started his

one-man crime wave at age 11, how many rapes has this guy committed culminating in the murder of Eliza Fletcher? And Magino, don't even bother jumping in and saying he's innocent until proven guilty. I know that. We all know that. And I believe there is a snowball's chance in hell that he may not be guilty, okay? So that said, what, Karen Stark? Say something so I can quit feeling like I want to kill somebody. You're not going to quit. I'm sorry, Nancy, but this is outrageous.

And people do. You know that psychopaths start at an early age. So it doesn't surprise me that this began at 11. The outrageous part of this is that he is not already under lock and key. Walking free to grab Eliza. Okay, so what is the excuse? Take a listen to our friend Marcus Hunter. Scientists pulled the recently tested kits matching Absinthe Henderson for analysis

nine months after it was received on June 24th of this year and completed an initial report of the results on August 29th. The sample was then entered into CODIS, which returned a match on September 5th, which was within hours of Memphis police finding Fletcher's body on Victor Street. And 49 weeks after MPD submitted the rape kit to TBI, the match of the September 21 assault came back to Cleotha Abston Henderson. The results were then reported to Memphis police. According to court documents, Thursday, he was indicted on charges of aggravated rape, especially aggravated kidnapping and gun charges in connection to the crime from a year ago. You know, it's just all blah, blah, blah words. Now, am I supposed to believe Matthew Mangino?

I'm coming to you just as a legal expert. Don't put on your defense hat yet. Okay. Because we all know you're a former prosecutor, former parole board member, author of the executioner's toll. So please don't start telling me he was only 11 years old when he committed his first felony. I'll just say that for the shrink.

What, you know, all this is BS, right? Because they're saying that what, it was just a coincidence that when Eliza Fletcher goes missing, they go, Oh, you know what? You're at the front of the line. Now let's do that DNA kit. No, that's not a coincidence. There's no such thing in criminal law. So they're trying to tell me that Eliza goes missing.

And then they go, wow, I think it's time that we do the DNA on that file way back there on the shelf. What really happened, Mangino? Well, I think what really happened is they were able to find DNA on the sandals that were found at the crime scene. And they immediately did an analysis. I'm not talking about that. Matthew, Cleotha Aston, DNA is on a September 2021 rape victim. Okay? Right.

So why, when Eliza gets kidnapped and there's a search going on, do they go, wow, I think I'll run that DNA test? That's total BS. Why did they suddenly decide to run it then? You know, to cover their butts. I mean, they failed. This was a systemic failure to test DNA that was found at a crime scene. And as simple as just running a CODIS. Combined DNA index system.

Exactly. Yeah. It was cover your ass. That's what it was. Yeah. And I'm just wondering, Matthew Mangino, why did they select that particular rape kit to suddenly test? I'm guessing that that rape occurred in the same MO, modus operandi, method of operation, as Eliza's kidnap, that the victim may have described the same kind of vehicle.

Something about that rape kit, about that rape. Maybe it was in the same area. I just, I don't know. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. The prime suspect in the murder of a young mom, Eliza Fletcher, pleads guilty. Fletcher's family devastated in court. They read a statement and it partially says, quote, we have no idea what happened to you to turn you into someone so filled with a desire to hurt people. Whatever it was, it does not excuse or explain what you've done. You've changed our lives forever and nothing will ever be the same. Your actions were evil. There's no other word for it. You

murdered Liza, even though she did nothing to deserve it. She didn't hurt you. In fact, she would have been the first to help if you needed it. Remember, Eliza was kidnapped off the street while jogging near University Memphis back on September 2, she was forced into an SUV. Her body was found days later near a vacant duplex. Abston, who goes by the name Cleotha Henderson, was arrested after police found his DNA on sandals found near the location where Eliza was last seen. An autopsy showed Eliza, a young mom, died of a gunshot wound to the head. Before I go to special guest Dr. Kristen Middleman from Othram Labs, I want to circle back to Rachel D. Fisher, registered sex assault nurse

examiner. Rachel, could you please describe what is the procedure that you go through when you examine a rape victim and what is a rape kit? When a rape victim comes to the hospital, we do a head-to-toe assessment and a detailed genital exam where we collect evidence from all the intimate parts of the body and anywhere based on the history. We submit this kit to law enforcement and law enforcement... Slow down, please. As I like to say, Rachel, we're not having tea at Highgrove with King Charles, okay? When you say we collect DNA from all parts of the body, that is certainly putting perfume on the pig. The rape victim who has already been brutally raped, probably beaten, terrified,

then has to go for a rape kit. Then it's basically a pelvic exam and it takes a long time. What do you have to do? It's a very intrusive exam. We spread their legs, we touch, we look, we examine, we go into all the genitalia, We swab. We insert speculums. It's re-traumatizing for the victim essentially is what it is because we're going back into these places. Okay, wait a minute. See, you are an expert. And when you just roll off comments like that, not everybody knows what you mean. When you say a speculum, isn't that kind of like a reverse eyelash curler where you squinch the curler together? Instead, a speculum is something you stick inside the lady's vagina

and anus, and then you open up those female cavities, and then you go in there basically with a searchlight, like a flashlight. And you look around with a really long Q-tip. And you look in there and you try and find with a swab. Yeah, everybody in the studio is grimacing and looking away right now for a reason. And you swab around inside the anus and the vagina, and hopefully you will get, naked to the human eye, sperm, DNA, right? That's the intent, to get any sort of DNA off of the internal orifices of the patient, yeah. And that includes the anus, correct?

We do also swab the anus, yes. And then you have the rape kit combing, as if I would comb my hair. What is that? We take a comb and we go through the head hair, the pubic hair, getting any debris that can link it back to potentially the scene of where it happened to corroborate that as well. Sometimes we do plucking of the hair in order to get DNA as well. So it's a very painful, intrusive exam in some points of it. But when the victims are that brave enough to come in for that, that's right there, the first step in their healing.

And the first victim of this case with a positive hit was brave enough to do that. So I can only imagine her seeing this, that she was brave enough to go in and then nobody tested it until it was too late. I can only imagine what she's feeling right now. She was brave enough to do that initial rape kit back then. And here we are. And the only way her case was finally processed was because Eliza was murdered. It took a murder to get her rape kit done. That's the harsh truth of what we're dealing with.

Rachel D. Fisher, could you please describe the spectrum of demeanors URATE victim patients have displayed? They come in sometimes completely with no affect, meaning their face does not smile. They don't frown. They're just quiet. They don't make eye contact. Sometimes they laugh. They're distracted themselves. Sometimes they're crying.

Trauma presents in very different ways, and each victim is different. And I've seen law enforcement or even say well she doesn't seem like anything happened we're not even sure if it's real because of her demeanor like you i've heard it all but each victim processes their trauma differently so regardless of how they respond to it if they're brave enough to come get an intrusive exam in a busy ER and have an examiner stick things into their bodies, something happened. Nobody willingly does that. Regardless of what their demeanor is, they're there for help and we help them all the same and we prioritize it

on our end. And then we do the next step in our process is handed over to law enforcement for them to do their due diligence, which is supposed to be to take it to the crime lab. But Tennessee has a statute that they have 60 days for it to sit on their shelf before they're mandated to give it to the crime lab. Karen Stark, as Rachel D. Fisher, our sex assault nurse examiner, was speaking, it's so painful, as you were just hearing Rachel Fisher describing, some women might giggle. You know, I'm thinking of these rape victims when it's so horrible, they can't even begin to grapple with it, Karen Stark. That's right, Nancy. It is,

it's, they disassociate and you really can't pay attention to how someone reacts to trauma and to death because everyone, each one of us is very, very different and there are people that cry. Think about, you know, when people sometimes get nervous and they start laughing and they're not laughing because it's funny. It's just their response. They have no choice. That's how they deal with that kind of a situation. And that's what you're describing. I've been to funerals where somebody was so angry at the death of their spouse. They were furious. And you would never know that this was happening because they're grieving and loving and in pain. And it all gets mixed up when they have to deal with this kind of a situation.

Terrible. Having spoken to the rest of our panel, I'm going to lay it all in your lap, Dr. Kristen Middleman. She is the Chief Development Officer at the highly respected Authoram, Inc. You can find them at DNAsolves.com. One of their specialties, I have learned, is taking old or degraded DNA and somehow pulling a miracle and getting a match. I'm talking about DNA that's been in mud, been underwater, been through a fire, 50, 60 years old. First of all, I want to know how they made the match and what likely statistical identification we have of Cleotha Abston. And any insight you can give us as to why they so horribly failed the first rape victim,

well, the last rape victim that we know of, and Eliza. How did that happen? I mean, you deal with this kind of thing every day. And we are. We're going to deal with this kind of thing every single day. And I, like you, and everyone here at Austin, believe that it's an outrage that we do not have the technology implemented that would be able to stop this from happening. You know, we talk about this every single day, but the CODIS testing system was created 30 years ago and nothing new has come to forensics since in order to help these investigators. You know, you say the investigators might have failed. I don't think

the investigators are failing. We work with these guys every single day. In fact, we work with CDI and they work day and night trying to make things work. They're not given the technology that's necessary to be able to clear these cases at scale. The government is who's failing. The government has failed to fund and adopt new technologies that would allow the backlogs to truly clear. We have backlogs everywhere because this technology, the way that it's written right now, is not scalable. You can't hire enough people to run every single test immediately and have a result in eight hours. It's just not possible. But there is new technologies here. Ours is one of the new technologies that could help clear a lot of the backlog that gets stuck

when there's no DNA answer. But there are other new technologies here. Could you imagine doing this podcast on, you know, computers from 30 years ago? No, you wouldn't. You would get the new computer, you would get the best mic, you would do the next best thing. You would do it just for your business. Why isn't forensics changing? Okay, hold on, Dr. Middleman. It is far, far beyond me, your knowledge regarding DNA and scientific testing. But I'm not asking for a result in eight hours. What about eight days? What about eight weeks? What about eight months? This was a year. The last rape victim that we know

of of Cleotha Astins was September 2021. You're preaching to the choir, Dr. Middleman. I spent a third of my time as a prosecutor at the Georgia State Crime Lab. And can I tell you, those people work like dogs, scientists in ballistics, in fiber analysis, hair analysis, DNA, blood, you name it. They work like dogs. They already work overtime. What more do we want them to do? So where is the fail. And I guarantee you, the TBI, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Crime Lab, is the same. So how is it he's walking the street to murder Eliza? Because the system has failed to implement all the necessary tools. You know, let me tell you, Nancy, it's just like if I gave you a bicycle and I told you, go ahead and deliver mail all over the United States. Well, how can you possibly deliver mail all over the United States with a bicycle?

It would never happen. It's not possible. But if there were cars and planes and roads and everything else there and the infrastructure put all together, then you could deliver that mail all over the United States. Unfortunately, we are at the bicycle state of forensic science when it comes to solving these backlogs with sex assaults and murders. DNA testing is at its infancy still. And there are so many ways. I mean, our technology, we don't need a CODIS database to identify someone. You don't have to have raped someone else in order for us to identify you. That's the biggest key. You can rape one person and get identified the very, very first time. Yet our technology isn't widely used everywhere because people scream all sorts of stuff. Oh, well, it's

new. We don't know if it works. Oh my God, privacy. Oh, this, oh that. Well, the government's slow in funding it. I want the perpetrator in jail the first time they commit a crime. I don't want to have to wait till the second victim and the third victim or the 11th or 12th victim. And trust me, we've identified those as well. They're encoded so many, many times and no one's ever identified them. They come to us finally and now they're identified and all these crimes are solved. That's devastating. You're hearing the voice of Dr. Kristen Middleman, Chief Development Officer at Authram Lab. You can find her at DNAsolves.com explaining how we don't even need another rape or murder to identify Cleoth Aston from his last rape, but it was never done. Take a listen to Marcus Hunter, WREG. The TBI accepts Rush DNA cases when requested by a local investigative agency,

as we did in the recent Eliza Fletcher case. It went on to say our scientists identified Cleota Abston as a suspect less than 18 hours after receiving key evidence. The agency said the sample they received in September of last year was not submitted as a rush case. Therefore, it was placed with the standard casework, which can have an average turnaround of 33 to 49 weeks. So, Lisa Dario, what does it take to be a rush case? I mean, Cleota Abston in court today on new charges of a violent rape and as they say, especially dangerous kidnap. Why was that not a case back in September 2021? It should have been. When you have a stranger rape and given the circumstances of what we know, that should have been a rush because we know they're going to hit again. It's not just

one and done. So I don't understand how a year ago that case was not rushed to try to identify the who. A violent rape, a brutal kidnapping is not a rush, then what is? In a statement, Eliza's family say they, quote, miss the bright light of Eliza's life every day. Can you even imagine what this has done to her children. Now, Abston was sentenced to 80 years behind bars in May for raping a woman a year before he's charged in Eliza's murder. He was convicted of raping the woman while holding her at gunpoint. Then Eliza is murdered with a gun. Abence criminal history, as I have mentioned, goes all the way back to the 90s when he was a juvenile. He had not been charged in the rape until after being charged a year later for murdering Fletcher because of a, as they say, long delay in processing the sex assault kit. Now, after Eliza was murdered, the Tennessee legislature passed a law requiring the TBI to issue a quarterly report on sex assault kit testing times.

That was a good move. Our prayers, of course, were the Liza Fletcher's family as justice unfolds. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.