Sunday 4 September 2022 11:28 PM Suspect in heiress kidnapping offered woman '$100 to f***' and 'stalked others ... trends now
The man accused of 'violently snatching' billionaire heiress Eliza Fletcher while she was out jogging in the early hours of September 2 has been described as a 'creep' and 'pervert' by neighbors.
Authorities in Memphis announced Sunday that 38-year-old Cleotha Abston was charged with especially aggravated kidnapping and tampering with evidence following Fletcher's disappearance.
One neighbor told DailyMail.com exclusively that Abston had routinely offered women money for sex and stalked others while hanging around the apartment complex where his brother lived.
His arrest comes just over two years after his release from prison on kidnapping charge. Abston served 20 years for the kidnapping and robbery of lawyer Kemper Durand in Memphis in May 2000.
On Saturday, Memphis police descended on a low-income apartment complex named Longview Gardens and stayed through the night, collecting three bags of evidence from an apartment where the suspect's brother, Mario, lives.
Cleotha Abston, 38, was charged with especially aggravated kidnapping and tampering with evidence following Fletcher's Friday disappearance
Police also hauled off a green dumpster from outside, neighbors told DailyMail.com.
At the time of writing, Fletcher, 34, a wife and mother-of-two remains missing.
One neighbor, April, told DailyMail.com that she also saw police take the brother into custody Saturday afternoon, and then work until dawn searching the complex. They returned later in the day Sunday.
At 2 p.m., several police cars were parked outside. Daily Mail.com witnessed investigators taking photographs of a brown stain near a curb, and searched debris beneath the dumpster they'd removed.
April said she'd seen Abston at his brother's apartment nearly every day in recent months.
She described him as a 'pervert,' who once snuck up behind her and propositioned her for sex. He did the same to other women in the complex, and at times would sit in his black SUV gawking at women walking by or sitting on stoops.
'When women were around, he would sit in the truck and stare,' April said.
'He was a weird pervert,' she added. 'He watched me come on the porch, then came up the stairs behind me and said, 'I will give you $100 to f**k,' she recalled of a creepy encounter she had with the suspect last winter.
'Do you think I'm a h** that needs your money?' she said she replied to him.
'It ain't like that,' she said he responded. 'I just want to have some fun.'
'He approached at least two other girls here with the same line, offering money for sex,' she said.
Abston acknowledged to her that he'd served 20 years in jail.
Missing mother Eliza Fletcher pictured with her husband Richie and their two children
A different resident posted this photo showing members of the Memphis Police Department SWAT Team preparing for a raid in the complex in the search for Eliza Fletcher
April said she last saw Cleotha on Thursday, the day before Fletcher was kidnapped.
Another neighbor, Latoya, 35, said the suspect also propositioned her and her 20-year-old niece earlier this year. 'He kept waving me over to him and was like. 'I've got $100,' Latoya told DailyMail.com.
'He tried to catch my niece too, tried to get her to come into the apartment with him,' she said. 'As far as I know, nobody here have sex with him,' she said. 'He creepy, he really creepy.'
At around 2am May 25, 2000, Abston approached Durand from behind on Beale Street in Memphis then robbed him and forced him into the trunk of his car, according to the Memphis Flyer.
Abston served 20 years for the kidnapping and robbery of lawyer Kemper Durand in Memphis in May 2000. He was released in July 2020
Abston then drove Durand around for several hours, then forced him into an ATM and demanded he draw out cash. While in the ATM Durand
