Billionaire heiress abducted during her Friday morning run in Memphis

[Anonymous]

He allegedly dumped her clothes in a different location. Does that suggest something more than a random act?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cleotha Abston was only 16 when he kidnapped the lawyer, Kemper Durand. According to Durand, Abston had a documented criminal history for violent crime beginning at age 12:

"Durand also detailed Abston's lengthy history in the juvenile court system prior to his conviction for the kidnapping, the earliest of which, Durand said, dated back to 1995 when he was no older than 12-years-old. Abston also appeared in juvenile court records in 1996, 1997, 1998, and 1999 for charges including theft, aggravated assault, aggravated assault with a weapon, and rape, according to Durand's statement.

Durand died in early February 2013, seven years before Abston would be released in November 2020 at age 36. In the two years since his release, there are no further documented charges against Abston in Shelby County."

https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/news/local/2022/09/04/eliza-fletcher-disappearance-what-we-know-arrest-affidavit-cleothra-abston/7993164001/

Cleothra Abston's life should be under the microscope now, not the tattooed spouse (unless we learn more...)

Yes, someone who has been committing crimes since at least the age of 12, and violent crimes at that, could be living among us. Prison did not reform or deter. This is a concern.

And once this person strays away from his socioeconomic sphere and commits a crime against persons of a different status and color, without criminal backgrounds, people take note (the Yale criminal defense lawyer in 2000 and now this poor woman).

So? We should ignore it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He allegedly dumped her clothes in a different location. Does that suggest something more than a random act?

Have her clothes been found? I hadn't seen that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Rich Southern debutantes are married by early 20s, either to a boy she went to high school with or some rich Christian boy she would meet at Baylor University. It’s not like she was away in Manhattan too busy as a corporate lawyer. She’s a pre-k teacher. How’d she end up with this sketchy bum in her late 20s?

You're all making a lot of assumptions about the way she was raised. How do you know she was a debutante, by the way? Many wealthy families choose to raise their children in a very middle-class manner, and they want to instill a strong work ethic in them. How do you now that she even had money - it was her grandfather's money and his business, she likely didn't even have access to it, she was an "heiress" that doesn't mean she's already rich. Maybe she has a trust until she's 45 or something. You have no idea. So many absurd assumptions here.

The high school she went to.

B/c she went to a certain high school she made her "debut" as a debutante?

Are you trolling or actually this thick? She's a billionaire heiress with high-status family in the South and went to the most elite private day school in the region. Presumably all of her female classmates were debutantes.

How do you know this? Family business is worth billions. We have no knowledge at all whether she would get anything. She was raised UMC it seems not more. Even if she were to get family business --- it would have to be sold to get any money. Not an easy task. Other family members may own. Just a lot of dumb assumptions here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:A woman running in Memphis, no matter the time of day, should be carrying a tiny pistol with no safety. But really, you shouldn’t be running in Memphis at all. No husband worth a damn lets his wife run solo in such a God forsaken town.

Lets? If he stopped her by force, he’d be abusive. If he stopped her with words, he’d be manipulative and controlling. “And he was known to be controlling—he wouldn’t ‘let’ her exercise! Look at all the warning signs, and she still didn’t leave him…”

Marriages are full of compromising. Running in Memphis at 4am is not sane or rational. If she forced the issue, he could run with her, follow in an SUV, get her a pistol, get her a trained German Shepard to run with. They could afford a body guard to follow in an SUV. All sorts of ways for an actually loving and caring husband to avoid this tragedy.

You think someone who works FT for 50k will spend a good chunk of that on a bodyguard.

They lived in a $600k+ house and drove at least one $100k new SUV. They had access to far more money than her $50k teaching income and whatever the sketchy husband made at some ATV dealership. But I wouldn’t expect her to handle something involving the university. I would expect a caring husband to ask the in-laws to handle it.

LOL is a 600k house supposed to be expensive? My home is 3.5 million and I an no heiress.

$600K buys more of a house in Memphis than $3.5M in a desirable area within the Beltway.

https://www.staciarosatti.com/memphis/memphis-600000-700000/

WOW, why do I live in DC when I could live in a mansion for the price of my condo!

600k does not get you 3.5 here. Maybe 2 million gets what would be 3.5 here. You have been awqay from mephis too long

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cleotha Abston was only 16 when he kidnapped the lawyer, Kemper Durand. According to Durand, Abston had a documented criminal history for violent crime beginning at age 12:

"Durand also detailed Abston's lengthy history in the juvenile court system prior to his conviction for the kidnapping, the earliest of which, Durand said, dated back to 1995 when he was no older than 12-years-old. Abston also appeared in juvenile court records in 1996, 1997, 1998, and 1999 for charges including theft, aggravated assault, aggravated assault with a weapon, and rape, according to Durand's statement.

Durand died in early February 2013, seven years before Abston would be released in November 2020 at age 36. In the two years since his release, there are no further documented charges against Abston in Shelby County."

https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/news/local/2022/09/04/eliza-fletcher-disappearance-what-we-know-arrest-affidavit-cleothra-abston/7993164001/

Cleothra Abston's life should be under the microscope now, not the tattooed spouse (unless we learn more...)

Yes, someone who has been committing crimes since at least the age of 12, and violent crimes at that, could be living among us. Prison did not reform or deter. This is a concern.

And once this person strays away from his socioeconomic sphere and commits a crime against persons of a different status and color, without criminal backgrounds, people take note (the Yale criminal defense lawyer in 2000 and now this poor woman).

So? We should ignore it?

No, but we shouldn't only care when it happens to certain people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t want to jump to conclusions here but the fact that the spouse is usually responsible and that they were very public about marital problems does not bode well for the DH.

I know what it is about social media oversharers but it communicates a certain level of instability, drama, and impulsivity. Of course most of these people don’t murder their spouses but imo it adds to the perception that they were highly emotional people in a volition relationship.

It doesn't appear to me to be a planned abduction with the spouse hiring this person to do it. If so, it wasn't planned very carefully. It took police very little time to track down the vehicle and the driver, as the driver left his shoes there at the scene and returned the vehicle to the house of the person to whom the vehicle was registered.

I am on the fence on whether or not the husband was involved. Lipstick Alley posters seem to think he is. They say he appears to be “tweaking” in that lawyer video and looks like a “scam artist.”

According to evidence, the perp allegedly waited 24 minutes in his truck for her to jog by. That certainly seems to lean towards this being far more than a random act.

But as you said, he left behind not shoes per se, but flip-flop slide-style sandals, which he apparently lost during the struggle to get her into the truck. Wearing slide sandals to perform this crime suggests crime of opportunity. Or maybe those slide sandals were just in the truck and fell out when he was struggling to put her in there?

It sounds like the perp's brother is a drug dealer...

Memphis Police twitter: "Mario Abston, 36, was charged w/ Possession of a Controlled Substance w/ Intent to Manufacture & Sell Fentanyl, Possession of a Controlled Substance w/ Intent to Manufacture and Sell Heroin, & Convicted Felon in Possession of a Firearm During the Commission of a Dangerous Felony."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does this remind anyone else of the movie Fargo? Down to the nitwit husband being an unscrupulous salesman. If the billionaire in-laws thought he was worth a damn he wouldn’t be wasting his working prime at boat dealership. They’d groom him for corporate life, like the Woody Allen movie Match Point.

What are you talking about? The granddaughter was not involved in the business. So why would her husband be given a job? You have to stop watching so much tv. It’s a hardware business that is family owned. The business had 3 billion in revenues. Operating margin at Home Depot are 15%. The grandfather co-ran the business with other people. This means there are other family members, the business is not liquid and the grandfather is not a billionaire. He may be worth a few million. She is not an heiress.

I’m just bumping this smart post about the money angle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rich Southern debutantes are married by early 20s, either to a boy she went to high school with or some rich Christian boy she would meet at Baylor University. It’s not like she was away in Manhattan too busy as a corporate lawyer. She’s a pre-k teacher. How’d she end up with this sketchy bum in her late 20s?

You're all making a lot of assumptions about the way she was raised. How do you know she was a debutante, by the way? Many wealthy families choose to raise their children in a very middle-class manner, and they want to instill a strong work ethic in them. How do you now that she even had money - it was her grandfather's money and his business, she likely didn't even have access to it, she was an "heiress" that doesn't mean she's already rich. Maybe she has a trust until she's 45 or something. You have no idea. So many absurd assumptions here.

The high school she went to.

B/c she went to a certain high school she made her "debut" as a debutante?

NP. All the women at that school do the whole debutante thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He allegedly dumped her clothes in a different location. Does that suggest something more than a random act?

No, just a violent repeat criminal trying to hide his tracks and dispose of evidence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cleotha Abston was only 16 when he kidnapped the lawyer, Kemper Durand. According to Durand, Abston had a documented criminal history for violent crime beginning at age 12:

"Durand also detailed Abston's lengthy history in the juvenile court system prior to his conviction for the kidnapping, the earliest of which, Durand said, dated back to 1995 when he was no older than 12-years-old. Abston also appeared in juvenile court records in 1996, 1997, 1998, and 1999 for charges including theft, aggravated assault, aggravated assault with a weapon, and rape, according to Durand's statement.

Durand died in early February 2013, seven years before Abston would be released in November 2020 at age 36. In the two years since his release, there are no further documented charges against Abston in Shelby County."

https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/news/local/2022/09/04/eliza-fletcher-disappearance-what-we-know-arrest-affidavit-cleothra-abston/7993164001/

Cleothra Abston's life should be under the microscope now, not the tattooed spouse (unless we learn more...)

His juvenile record would not have been considered, I guess, when tried as an adult at age 16. Maybe it should play a role?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t want to jump to conclusions here but the fact that the spouse is usually responsible and that they were very public about marital problems does not bode well for the DH.

I know what it is about social media oversharers but it communicates a certain level of instability, drama, and impulsivity. Of course most of these people don’t murder their spouses but imo it adds to the perception that they were highly emotional people in a volition relationship.

It doesn't appear to me to be a planned abduction with the spouse hiring this person to do it. If so, it wasn't planned very carefully. It took police very little time to track down the vehicle and the driver, as the driver left his shoes there at the scene and returned the vehicle to the house of the person to whom the vehicle was registered.

I am on the fence on whether or not the husband was involved. Lipstick Alley posters seem to think he is. They say he appears to be “tweaking” in that lawyer video and looks like a “scam artist.”

According to evidence, the perp allegedly waited 24 minutes in his truck for her to jog by. That certainly seems to lean towards this being far more than a random act.

But as you said, he left behind not shoes per se, but flip-flop slide-style sandals, which he apparently lost during the struggle to get her into the truck. Wearing slide sandals to perform this crime suggests crime of opportunity. Or maybe those slide sandals were just in the truck and fell out when he was struggling to put her in there?

It sounds like the perp's brother is a drug dealer...

Memphis Police twitter: "Mario Abston, 36, was charged w/ Possession of a Controlled Substance w/ Intent to Manufacture & Sell Fentanyl, Possession of a Controlled Substance w/ Intent to Manufacture and Sell Heroin, & Convicted Felon in Possession of a Firearm During the Commission of a Dangerous Felony."

Fent/H dealers make good money and there is no shortage of female junkies for sex. Kidnapping a random woman seems strange.

[Anonymous]

How spooky is it that she loved true crime podcasts and now she's probably going to be the subject of one.

In a post from 2020, Fletcher asked her Facebook friends for recommendations for their favorite true crime podcast.

“Loved Tom Brown’s Body,” she commented about the show that investigated the 2016 disappearance of a popular high school senior.

“We like true crime,” she wrote in another comment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t want to jump to conclusions here but the fact that the spouse is usually responsible and that they were very public about marital problems does not bode well for the DH.

I know what it is about social media oversharers but it communicates a certain level of instability, drama, and impulsivity. Of course most of these people don’t murder their spouses but imo it adds to the perception that they were highly emotional people in a volition relationship.

It doesn't appear to me to be a planned abduction with the spouse hiring this person to do it. If so, it wasn't planned very carefully. It took police very little time to track down the vehicle and the driver, as the driver left his shoes there at the scene and returned the vehicle to the house of the person to whom the vehicle was registered.

I am on the fence on whether or not the husband was involved. Lipstick Alley posters seem to think he is. They say he appears to be “tweaking” in that lawyer video and looks like a “scam artist.”

According to evidence, the perp allegedly waited 24 minutes in his truck for her to jog by. That certainly seems to lean towards this being far more than a random act.

But as you said, he left behind not shoes per se, but flip-flop slide-style sandals, which he apparently lost during the struggle to get her into the truck. Wearing slide sandals to perform this crime suggests crime of opportunity. Or maybe those slide sandals were just in the truck and fell out when he was struggling to put her in there?

It sounds like the perp's brother is a drug dealer...

Memphis Police twitter: "Mario Abston, 36, was charged w/ Possession of a Controlled Substance w/ Intent to Manufacture & Sell Fentanyl, Possession of a Controlled Substance w/ Intent to Manufacture and Sell Heroin, & Convicted Felon in Possession of a Firearm During the Commission of a Dangerous Felony."

Fent/H dealers make good money and there is no shortage of female junkies for sex. Kidnapping a random woman seems strange.

Review his record. He's been committing crimes since the age of 12.

[Anonymous]

I wonder if this is another UVA Jesse Matthew thing. As in the perp has done this more than once in the last two years and it just takes a viral high profile victim to crack open the whole thing.