MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Tennessee kindergarten trainer who police mentioned was kidnapped throughout a pre-dawn run after which killed earlier this month died from a gunshot wound to the pinnacle, an post-mortem report launched Thursday confirmed.
Eliza Fletcher, 34, had a gunshot wound at the back of the pinnacle and in addition had blunt-force accidents to her proper leg and jaw fractures, in response to the post-mortem accomplished by the West Tennessee Regional Forensic Heart in Memphis.
“There are two semicircular defects to the cranium in step with a single gunshot to the pinnacle with the bullet travelling in a posterior to anterior (again to entrance) and proper to left path,” the report mentioned.
Fletcher was operating on the College of Memphis campus when she was compelled right into a car after a wrestle about 4 a.m. Sept 2. Police mentioned her physique was discovered Sept. 5 behind a vacant house after a large police search lasting greater than three days.
Cleotha Henderson, who additionally has passed by the identify Cleotha Abston, has been charged with first-degree homicide and kidnapping within the case. He has not entered a plea, and his lawyer has declined requests for remark.
U.S. Marshals arrested Henderson a day after the kidnapping after police detected his DNA on a pair of sandals discovered close to the place Fletcher was final seen, in response to an arrest affidavit.
After her physique was discovered, one other police affidavit mentioned officers seen car tracks subsequent to the duplex’s driveway, they usually “smelled an odor of decay.”
Purple operating shorts whose look was in step with these Fletcher was carrying have been present in a discarded trash bag close by, the affidavit mentioned.
The post-mortem report mentioned a shell casing was recovered from the realm the place Fletcher was discovered.
The killing of Fletcher, a mom of two, shocked the Memphis neighborhood and has led to a flood of help for her and her household. A church held a vigil to hope for her and her household, and runners in Memphis and a number of other different U.S. cities held an early-morning operating occasion in her honor every week after she was kidnapped.
After he was charged with killing Fletcher, Henderson was charged with raping a lady in September 2021 — a few yr earlier than Fletcher was killed. Henderson was not arrested on rape prices earlier than Fletcher’s killing as a result of proof from a sexual assault equipment check had not been out there on the time, authorities have mentioned.
Henderson additionally beforehand kidnapped a outstanding Memphis lawyer in 2000 when he was 16 years previous. He spent 20 years in jail for that crime.
