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

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

0:00
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A beautiful young mom out
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Speaker 1: running at the crack of jawn around four point fifteen
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Speaker 1: four point thirty a m is abducted, raped and murdered.
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Speaker 1: Eliza Fletcher ran so early in the morning so she
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Speaker 1: could fit in all her duties as a mother before
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Speaker 1: she went to work every day like so many of us.
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Speaker 1: Why was she prayed upon? In the Last Days A
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Speaker 1: stunning update and the Memphis murder of Eliza Fletcher. I'm
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Speaker 1: Nancy Grace, this is Crime Stories. Thank you for being
0:47
Speaker 1: with us in the Last Days. A killer surprisingly does
0:53
Speaker 1: one eighty a U turn in court and please guilty
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Speaker 1: to kidnapping and murder an elementary school teacher during her
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Speaker 1: morning run. What makes the prosecution against Cleotha Abstin, aged forty,
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Speaker 1: even more disturbing is that an unprosecuted rape case was
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Speaker 1: pending against him at the time he murdered this young mom,
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Speaker 1: Eliza Fletcher. Why because the DNA had not been examined
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Speaker 1: it was the rape kit was just sitting on a shelf.
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Speaker 1: Had it been examined, cloth Abstin would very likely have
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Speaker 1: been behind bars for a felony rape. But no, he
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Speaker 1: was wandering around free and now Eliza is dead, her
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Speaker 1: children left without a mother. That's right. Kleiotha Absent, aged forty,
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Speaker 1: admits to the September murder of Eliza Fletcher, just thirty
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Speaker 1: four in a Memphis courtroom, a career criminal called evil
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Speaker 1: by Fletcher's family when he was sentenced to life without
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Speaker 1: parole for murder one and aggravated kidnapping. This as we know,
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Speaker 1: the convicted felon is also accused of raping Alicia Franklin
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Speaker 1: back in twenty twenty one. Her rape kit sat there
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Speaker 1: basically unnoticed for over a year. Nothing was done, and
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Speaker 1: while he's out walking free, never jailed or tried on
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Speaker 1: her rape. He finds Eliza Fletcher and doesn't settle with
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Speaker 1: just attacking her. He murders her as well. Again. Cleotha
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Speaker 1: Absen Henderson, age thirty eight, arraigned at the Shelby County
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Speaker 1: Criminal Court on multiple charges, including the rape and kidnap
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Speaker 1: of another woman. Where did it all start?
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Speaker 2: Listen, It's been just over twelve hours since Elijah Fletcher
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Speaker 2: disappeared and multiple agencies have joined forces, and I can
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Speaker 2: tell you there's a lot of concern in the community.
3:00
Speaker 2: As time passes by. Where is Eliza Fletcher. That's the
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Speaker 2: question many are asking across the Mid South after investigators
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Speaker 2: say that Avid Jogger was adducted.
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Speaker 3: It's very important that if anybody knows the whereabouts of
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Speaker 3: miss Fletcher to contact the police immediately.
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Speaker 2: Fletcher was jogging down Central Avenue around four point thirty
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Speaker 2: this morning when investigators say she was approached by someone
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Speaker 2: who forced her into a dark colored suv and drove off.
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Speaker 1: You don't want to hear that that's going on. We
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Speaker 1: want to find her. We don't know what's going on.
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Speaker 2: Hart Robinson is a friend of Fletcher and got the
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Speaker 2: news this morning and immediately came to the area of
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Speaker 2: Central Avenue and Zach Curling Street where she was last seen.
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Speaker 1: Where everybody's desperately.
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Speaker 4: Looking for it.
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Speaker 1: The search was on for the missing mom of to
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Speaker 1: Eliza Fletcher. You were just hearing our friends at WRG
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Speaker 1: Channel three. There were only two clues left behind listen.
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Speaker 2: Fletcher's cell phone and a water bottle were found in
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Speaker 2: front of a home owned by the University of Memphis,
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Speaker 2: and a safety alert sent to students. They say she
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Speaker 2: was reported and missing after not returning home from her run.
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Speaker 2: The suv that she was last seen in was spotted
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Speaker 2: driving westbound down Central Avenue. Multiple agencies, including the FBI,
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Speaker 2: are assisting with the case. Would one goal in mind
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Speaker 2: find Eliza Fletcher.
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Speaker 3: Our concern is to locate miss Fletcher. So if anybody
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Speaker 3: knows where she's at, call the police immediately.
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Speaker 1: Really just think her life could have been spared. I
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Speaker 1: firmly believe it, and then the frantic search. Listen to
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Speaker 1: our friends at NBC.
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Speaker 5: Around seven to fifty am, roughly three hours after the abduction,
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Speaker 5: the suspect's brother and another witness telling investigators they saw
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Speaker 5: him wash his clothes in a sink and clean the
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Speaker 5: inside of the car with floor cleaner, according to an affidavit,
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Speaker 5: the brother also saying he was acting very strange that
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Speaker 5: bizarre scene allegedly unfolding less than a mile from where
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Speaker 5: police discovered the unidentified body late Monday. The affidavit also
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Speaker 5: says Abstin left sandals behind, Authorities using DNA from those
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Speaker 5: shoes to zero in on him.
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Speaker 1: So, while the frantic search throughout the Memphis area is
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Speaker 1: ongoing for the missing mom, you see Cleartha Abstin frantically
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Speaker 1: cleaning the back of his GMC washing his clothes and
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Speaker 1: his brothers sing, wow, isn't that quite the coincidence? And
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Speaker 1: then the gruesome discovery our friend's wrng.
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Speaker 6: A good wrenching discovery in South Memphis, as detectives confirm
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Speaker 6: a body was located a few yards away from where
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Speaker 6: Eliza Fletcher's alleged abductor came hours after her kidnapping. Monday,
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Speaker 6: Memphis police swarmed this area after finding a body in
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Speaker 6: an overgrown lot near a vacant home on Victor Street,
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Speaker 6: The scene just a stone's throwaway from where Memphis police
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Speaker 6: say thirty eight year old Cleota Absent came hours after
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Speaker 6: abducting Fletcher. They believe he cleaned blood from the interior
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Speaker 6: of the suv used in the abduction and washed his
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Speaker 6: clothes and his brother sink in.
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Speaker 7: The past ten minutes, Memphis police confirming those new details,
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Speaker 7: saying that the body they found yesterday is that of
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Speaker 7: missing mother Eliza Fletcher, and now the man they had
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Speaker 7: in custody already charged with her kidnapping, faces murder charges.
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Speaker 1: And this is coming just about sixteen.
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Speaker 8: Hours after they discovered a body here not far, they said,
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Speaker 8: within walking distance to an apartment complex where the thirty
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Speaker 8: eight year old Cleota Absen was seen cleaning his suv
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Speaker 8: shortly after the abduction.
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Speaker 1: Our friends at Fox thirteen joining Wrag. When Eliza went missing,
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Speaker 1: the search ensued the defendant. The suspect caught on video
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Speaker 1: just cleaning, cleaning, scrubbing, scrubbing, trying to get rid of blood.
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Speaker 1: He would need some sort of hydrochloric acid to do
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Speaker 1: that trick. It didn't work. Blood throughout his suv and
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Speaker 1: then a couple hundred yards away, the body of Eliza
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Speaker 1: Fletcher found just discarded in tall grass. Her Lululemon running
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Speaker 1: shorts found in a garbage bag not far away, also discarded.
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Speaker 1: And now today we find out her abduction, her likely rape,
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Speaker 1: her murder could have all been avoided. How take a
8:02
Speaker 1: listen to our friends at wat N.
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Speaker 9: The man accused of kidnapping and killing Eliza Fletcher is
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Speaker 9: facing three new criminal charges tonight. The charges are from
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Speaker 9: another case in twenty twenty one. In this case, he's
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Speaker 9: facing charges for aggravated rape, kidnapping, and unlawful possession of
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Speaker 9: a gun. Memphis Police confirm a sexual assault report was
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Speaker 9: taken on September twenty one of twenty twenty one. The
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Speaker 9: sexual assault kit was submitted to the Tennessee Bureau of
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Speaker 9: Investigations two days later on September twenty third, but that
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Speaker 9: kit was not tested until he was connected to Eliza
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Speaker 9: Fletcher's disappearance.
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Speaker 1: Did you hear that? Another aggravated kidnap and rape? All
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Speaker 1: the way back almost a year ago twenty twenty one,
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Speaker 1: a rape kit was taken, It was sent to the
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Speaker 1: Tennessee Bureau of Investigator the TBI, and not a thing
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Speaker 1: was done. It sat on a shelf and in that
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Speaker 1: Manila evidence bag sealed shut with the investigators initials over
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Speaker 1: it to maintain the chain of custody. Was the evidence
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Speaker 1: that would have put Kleiosa absence behind bars at the
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Speaker 1: time Eliza was kidnapped and murdered. Joining me right now
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Speaker 1: in all Star panel to make sense of what we
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Speaker 1: know right now, But first I want to go to
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Speaker 1: Dave Maattcrimeonline dot Com investigative reporter Dave what went wrong?
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Speaker 10: Nancy?
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Speaker 11: You know we talked about how quickly they were able
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Speaker 11: to identify the DNA of Kleiosa Abstin on the slide
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Speaker 11: that they found at the kidnapping scene for as a pledger.
10:00
Speaker 11: They turned that around in less than eighteen hours from
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Speaker 11: the moment they found the slides to the moment they
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Speaker 11: identified the DNA coming from Cleosa absence. In the case
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Speaker 11: from September twenty first, twenty twenty one, a woman reported
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Speaker 11: the rape, They did a rape kit, and forty eight
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Speaker 11: hours later, on September twenty third, the rape kit was
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Speaker 11: submitted to the TBI DNA case files. The problem is,
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Speaker 11: unless they order a rush on the DNA, it goes
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Speaker 11: into the regular file.
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Speaker 1: Just stop, no offense, Dave Matt But I really don't
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Speaker 1: want to hear that, because that is all BS. I
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Speaker 1: know you're reporting, whether TBI wants me to hear. But
10:49
Speaker 1: when it comes to a life threatening violent crime, why
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Speaker 1: is there a wait? I pay half my paycheck every year,
11:00
Speaker 1: have been since I was a lowly assistant in the
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Speaker 1: District Attorney's office, since before that when I worked at
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Speaker 1: the library at Mercy University. Why do I pay taxes
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Speaker 1: so Cleota Absin can walk free and murder Eliza Fletcher,
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Speaker 1: leaving her two children with no mother. You know how
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Speaker 1: much that screws a kid up forever. And you're telling
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Speaker 1: me it sounds like with a straight face, that it
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Speaker 1: was in line to get analyzed. You know what, I
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Speaker 1: don't want to hear it. She's dead and she endured
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Speaker 1: a horrible death. That sguv was covered in Blood Crime
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Speaker 1: Stories with Nancy Grace with me now, Lisa Daddio for
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Speaker 1: Police Lieutenant New Haven PD and she is the director
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Speaker 1: of the Center for Advanced Policing and Graduate Program coordinator,
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Speaker 1: University New Haven. Lisa, could you please interpret what Dave
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Speaker 1: Matt was just trying to say?
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Speaker 12: Honestly, Nancy, the police department messed up on that one,
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Speaker 12: and you know I really will.
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Speaker 1: Wait, wait, messed up. Let's just analyze what you just said,
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Speaker 1: messed up. This is more than just messing up. They
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Speaker 1: didn't fall through the cracks. They screwed up horribly and
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Speaker 1: Eliza is dead because they couldn't analyze a rape kit.
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Speaker 1: To Rachel D. Fisher joining me Special Guests, registered nurse,
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Speaker 1: sex assault nurse examiner. She's an expert witness. She's author
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Speaker 1: of Taking Back the Pen and you can find a
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Speaker 1: right legal are in consult dot Org. Rachel, do you
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Speaker 1: ever get tired of hearing about one fail after the next.
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Speaker 1: You deal with rape victims every day, and I keep
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Speaker 1: screaming from the rooftops a rape victim is never the
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Speaker 1: same like a child molestation victims. Yes, they can go
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Speaker 1: on about life, they seem like they're having a normal life,
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Speaker 1: but they're never the same after a rape. Maybe you
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Speaker 1: can say it better than me, Rachel.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, the impact that a victim has after being assaulted,
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Speaker 4: it's lifelong. It never goes the way it's a murder
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Speaker 4: is one thing, that's the end result, but there are
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Speaker 4: people living with the effects of this for the rest
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Speaker 4: of their lives. And it comes down to the fact
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Speaker 4: that jurisdictions, communities don't put an emphasis on crimes of
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Speaker 4: violence against women are the vulnerable. These sex crimes are
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Speaker 4: just toss the side. There's not proper funding, we don't
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Speaker 4: adequately staff our law enforcement agency their crime labs. And
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Speaker 4: then the statues. I mean, Tennessee, you don't even have
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Speaker 4: to the law enforcement agency does not even have to
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Speaker 4: turn over the kit until sixty days to the crime lab.
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Speaker 4: So the statutes are showing, okay, there's not a priority.
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Speaker 4: What can happen in sixty days. A lot can happen.
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Speaker 4: Other rates can happen.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, like Eliza Fletcher can get murdered. And you know
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Speaker 1: another thing, Rachel D. Fisher, who is a rape sex
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Speaker 1: assault nurse examiner. It's a very very specialized area. I
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Speaker 1: wonder what that says to the rape victim. Like klotha
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Speaker 1: Absen's other rape victim. I mean, we already know of
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Speaker 1: one when he was nearing adulthood, this one in September
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Speaker 1: twenty twenty one. I wonder how that rape victim felt
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Speaker 1: when she would call and say, what status of my
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Speaker 1: brutal rape case? And she said, oh, and she hears, oh, yeah,
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Speaker 1: well it's in the queue. It's like you're at Target
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Speaker 1: and there's a long line, or you're at Kroger and
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Speaker 1: the line wraps around the cash register.
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Speaker 13: Uh huh.
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Speaker 1: No, she's not buying a dozen apples. She's trying to
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Speaker 1: find out about her rape case that forever altered her life.
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Speaker 1: And she gets told, yeah, you're in the line, they'll
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Speaker 1: analyze it. Meanwhile, this guy is walking free. But am
15:31
Speaker 1: I talking gibberish? Karen start because I feel like I'm
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Speaker 1: not getting through. I don't think I can scream any
15:38
Speaker 1: louder in a studio. Karen start joining me. Now a
15:41
Speaker 1: psychologists out of New York at Karenstark dot com. That's
15:44
Speaker 1: Karen with a C.
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Speaker 10: Karen, help me, please, Nancy, you're not talking Gibrich. This
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Speaker 10: is how it happened.
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Speaker 1: I feel like crying and fighting and hitting someone all
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Speaker 1: at the same time.
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Speaker 10: People don't take it. See enough. Here's something that will
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Speaker 10: damage someone's life forever. And I don't understand because police
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Speaker 10: are supposed to be trained, They're supposed to know that
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Speaker 10: they need to do something right away. And it is outrageous,
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Speaker 10: just outrageous that they did not make sure that that
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Speaker 10: came back as soon as possible. And who knows what
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Speaker 10: else he was up to. Nancy.
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Speaker 1: Oh oh, this is the tip of the iceberg. Karen, Karen,
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Speaker 1: Karen Stark. This guy, Claire Tha Apstin started committing violent
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Speaker 1: felonies at age eleven that we know of. And you know,
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Speaker 1: Matthew Mangino, I'm not asking you to speak. I'm just
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Speaker 1: referring to you former prosecutor, now civil and defense attorney
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Speaker 1: and author. He would argue, Oh, he was just eleven,
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Speaker 1: the sweet little boy.
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Speaker 14: You know.
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Speaker 1: I might buy that at eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, but
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Speaker 1: then at sixteen, seventeen eighteen, I'm not buying it anymore. So, Karen,
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Speaker 1: start when people say he started his one man crime
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Speaker 1: wave at age eleven? How many rapes has this guy committed,
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Speaker 1: culminating in the murder of Eliza Fletcher? I mean, GINO,
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Speaker 1: don't even bother jumping in and say he's innocent until
17:29
Speaker 1: proven guilty. I know that we all know that, and
17:32
Speaker 1: I believe there is a snowballs chance in hell that
17:35
Speaker 1: he may not be guilty. Okay, so that said, what
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Speaker 1: Karen Starr say something so I can quit feeling like
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Speaker 1: I want to kill somebody.
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Speaker 10: You're not going to click the sorry anty, but this
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Speaker 10: is outrageous and people, do you know that psychotest start
17:54
Speaker 10: at an early age, so it doesn't surprise me that
17:57
Speaker 10: this began at eleven lageious. Part of this is that
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Speaker 10: he is not already under lock and.
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Speaker 1: Key walking free to grab a lies. Okay, so what
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Speaker 1: is the excuse? Take a listen to our friend Marcus Hunter.
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Speaker 15: Scientists pulled the recently tested KITS matching Gabson Henderson for
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Speaker 15: analysis nine months after it was received on June twenty
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Speaker 15: fourth of this year, and completed an initial report of
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Speaker 15: the results on August twenty ninth. The sample was then
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Speaker 15: entered into kotis, which we turned a match on September fifth,
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Speaker 15: which was within hours of Memphis police finding Fletcher's body
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Speaker 15: on Victor Street, and forty nine weeks after MPD submitted
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Speaker 15: the rape kit to TBI, the match of the September
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Speaker 15: twenty one as SOULD came back to Cleota Abson Henderson.
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Speaker 15: The results were then reported to Memphis police, according to
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Speaker 15: court documents, Thursday, he was indicted all the org is
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Speaker 15: of aggravated rape, especially aggravated kidnapping, and gun charges in
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Speaker 15: connection to the crime from a year ago.
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Speaker 1: You know, it's just all blah blah blah words. Now
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Speaker 1: am I supposed to believe Matthew Mangino. I'm coming to
19:16
Speaker 1: you just as a legal expert. Don't put on your
19:20
Speaker 1: defense had yet, Okay, because we all know you're a
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Speaker 1: former prosecutor, former parole board member, author of the executioners
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Speaker 1: told so please don't start telling me he was only
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Speaker 1: eleven years old when he committed his first felony. I'll
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Speaker 1: just say that for the shrink what you know, all
19:38
Speaker 1: this is bs right because they're saying that what it
19:42
Speaker 1: was just a coincidence that when Eliza Fletcher goes missing
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Speaker 1: and they go, oh, you know what, you're at the
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Speaker 1: front of the line. Now, let's do that DNA kit. No,
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Speaker 1: that's not a coincidence. There's no such thing in criminal law.
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Speaker 1: So they're trying to tell me that a ISAA goes missing,
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Speaker 1: and then they go, wow, I think it's time that
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Speaker 1: we do the DNA on that file way back there
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Speaker 1: on the shelf. What really happened, man Gino, Well.
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Speaker 13: I think what really happened is they were able to
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Speaker 13: find DNA on the sandals that were found at the
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Speaker 13: crime scene, and they immediately did an analysis.
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Speaker 1: I'm not talking about that Matthew claritha Austin DNA is
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Speaker 1: on a September twenty twenty one rape victim. Okay, so
20:36
Speaker 1: why when Eliza gets kidnapped and there's a search going on,
20:41
Speaker 1: do they go wow, I think I think I'll run
20:45
Speaker 1: that DNA test. That's total bs. Why did they suddenly
20:49
Speaker 1: decide to run it then.
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Speaker 13: To cover their butts? I mean, they failed. This was
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Speaker 13: a systemic failure to test DNA that was found at
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Speaker 13: a crime scene, as simple as just running a code.
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Speaker 1: Of combined DNA index system exactly. It was cover your ass,
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Speaker 1: That's what it was. And I'm just wondering Matthew Mangino.
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Speaker 1: Why did they select that particular rape kit to suddenly test.
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Speaker 1: I'm guessing that that rape occurred in the same mo
21:29
Speaker 1: modus operandi method of operation as Eliza's kidnapp that the
21:36
Speaker 1: victim may have described the same kind of vehicle. Something
21:41
Speaker 1: about that rape kit, about that rape maybe it was
21:44
Speaker 1: in the same area. Just I don't know. Crime stories
21:55
Speaker 1: with Nancy Grace, the prime suspect in the murder of
22:03
Speaker 1: a young mom, Eliza Fletcher, pleads guilty. Fletcher's family devastated
22:10
Speaker 1: in court. They read a statement and it partially says, quote,
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Speaker 1: we have no idea what happened to you to turn
22:18
Speaker 1: you into someone so filled with a desire to hurt people.
22:22
Speaker 1: Whatever it was, it does not excuse or explain what
22:26
Speaker 1: you've done. You've changed our lives forever, and nothing will
22:30
Speaker 1: ever be the same. Your actions were evil. There's no
22:35
Speaker 1: other word for it. You murdered Eliza, even though she
22:39
Speaker 1: did nothing to deserve it. She didn't hurt you. In fact,
22:43
Speaker 1: she would have been the first to help if you
22:46
Speaker 1: needed it. Remember, Eliza was kidnapped off the street while
22:52
Speaker 1: jogging near University Memphis back on September two. She was
22:57
Speaker 1: forced into an suv. Her body was found days later
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Speaker 1: near a vacant duplex. Abstin, who goes by the name CLEOTHA. Henderson,
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Speaker 1: was arrested after police found his DNA on sandals found
23:18
Speaker 1: near the location where Eliza was last seen. An autopsy
23:25
Speaker 1: showed Eliza, a young mom, died of a gunshot wound
23:31
Speaker 1: to the head. Before I go to special guest doctor
23:35
Speaker 1: Kristin Middleman from authram Labs, I want to circle back
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Speaker 1: to Rachel D. Fisher, registered sex assault nurse examiner. Rachel,
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Speaker 1: could you please describe what is the procedure that you
23:50
Speaker 1: go through when you examine a rape victim and what
23:54
Speaker 1: is a rape hit.
23:55
Speaker 4: When rape fickmam comes to the hospital, we do a
23:58
Speaker 4: headed two assessment and till general examer re collect evidence
24:02
Speaker 4: from all the intimate parts of the body anywhere based
24:05
Speaker 4: on the history, we submit this kit to law enforcement
24:10
Speaker 4: and law enforcement.
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Speaker 1: Slow down place. As I like to say, Rachel, we're
24:16
Speaker 1: not having tea at high grow with King Charles. Okay,
24:21
Speaker 1: when you say we connect, we collect DNA from all
24:25
Speaker 1: parts of the body that is certainly putting perfume on
24:30
Speaker 1: the pig. The rape victim who has already been brutally raped,
24:35
Speaker 1: probably beaten, terrified, then has to go for a rape kit.
24:41
Speaker 1: Then it's basically a pelvic exam and it takes a
24:46
Speaker 1: long time. What do you have to do.
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Speaker 4: It's a very intrusive exam. We spread their legs, we touch,
24:54
Speaker 4: we look, we examine, We go into all the genitalia,
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Speaker 4: We swabbed, we in search speculum. It's retraumatizing for the
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Speaker 4: victim essentially, is what it is, because we're going back
25:06
Speaker 4: into these places.
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Speaker 1: Okay, wait a minute. See you are an expert, and
25:10
Speaker 1: when you just roll off comments like that, not everybody
25:15
Speaker 1: knows what you mean when you say a speculum. Isn't
25:19
Speaker 1: that kind of like a reverse eyelash curler where you
25:25
Speaker 1: squinch the curler together instead, A speculum is something you
25:29
Speaker 1: stick inside the ladies vagina and anus and then you
25:34
Speaker 1: open up those cat female cavities and then you go
25:38
Speaker 1: in there basically with a search light like a flashlight,
25:42
Speaker 1: and you look around with a really long queue tip,
25:46
Speaker 1: and you look in there and you try and find
25:51
Speaker 1: with a swab. Yeah, everybody in the studio is grimacing
25:55
Speaker 1: and looking away right now for a reason. And you
25:59
Speaker 1: swab around inside the anus and the vagina and hopefully
26:05
Speaker 1: you will get naked to the human eye sperm DNA. Right.
26:14
Speaker 4: That's the intent to get any any sort of DNA
26:17
Speaker 4: off of the internal orifices of the patients.
26:19
Speaker 1: Here, and that includes the anus. Correct.
26:23
Speaker 4: We do also swab the anis yes, And.
26:26
Speaker 1: Then you have the rape kit combing as if I
26:30
Speaker 1: would comb my hair, what is that.
26:32
Speaker 4: We take a comb and we go through the head hair,
26:36
Speaker 4: pubic hair, getting any debris that can link it back
26:39
Speaker 4: to potentially the scene of where it happened to corroborate
26:43
Speaker 4: that as well. Sometimes we do plucking of the hair
26:48
Speaker 4: in order to get DNA as well. So it's a
26:50
Speaker 4: very painful, intrusive examine in some points of it. But
26:54
Speaker 4: when the victims are that brave enough to come in
26:57
Speaker 4: for that, that's right there to step in their healing.
27:01
Speaker 4: And the first victim of this case with a positive
27:03
Speaker 4: hit was brave enough to do that. So I can
27:05
Speaker 4: only imagine her seeing this that she was brave enough
27:08
Speaker 4: to go in and then nobody tested it until it
27:11
Speaker 4: was too late. I can only imagine what she's feeling
27:14
Speaker 4: right now. She was brave enough to do that initial
27:17
Speaker 4: rape kit back then and here we are.
27:19
Speaker 1: And the only way her case was finally processed was
27:24
Speaker 1: because Eliza was murdered. It took a murder to get
27:29
Speaker 1: her rape kit done. That's the harsh truth of what
27:33
Speaker 1: we're dealing with. Rachel D. Fisher, could you please describe
27:37
Speaker 1: the spectrum of demeanors your right victim patients have displayed.
27:44
Speaker 4: They come in sometimes completely with no affect, meaning their
27:48
Speaker 4: face is a smile, they don't frown, they're just quiet,
27:50
Speaker 4: they don't make eye contact. Sometimes they laughed and distracted themselves.
27:54
Speaker 4: Sometimes they're crying. Trauma presents in very different ways, and
27:59
Speaker 4: each victim is different. And I've seen law enforcement or
28:02
Speaker 4: even say, well, she doesn't seem like anything happened. We're
28:05
Speaker 4: not even sure if it's real because of her demeanor.
28:07
Speaker 4: Like you, I've heard it all. But each victim processes
28:11
Speaker 4: their trauma differently. So regardless of how they respond to it,
28:16
Speaker 4: if they're brave enough to come get an intrusive exam
28:18
Speaker 4: in a busy er and have an examiner stick things
28:23
Speaker 4: into their bodies, something happened, nobody willingly does that regardless
28:28
Speaker 4: of what their demeanor is. They're there for help and
28:31
Speaker 4: we help them all the same, and we prioritize it
28:34
Speaker 4: on our end, and then we do the next step
28:36
Speaker 4: in our process is handed over to law enforcement for
28:39
Speaker 4: them to do their due diligence, which is supposed to
28:42
Speaker 4: me to take it to the crime lab. But Tennessee
28:44
Speaker 4: has a statute, but they have sixty days for it
28:47
Speaker 4: to sit on their shelf before they're mandated to give
28:49
Speaker 4: it to the crime lab.
28:50
Speaker 1: Sharon start As Rachel day fish er our sex assault
28:55
Speaker 1: in nurse examiner was speaking, it's so painful, as you
28:59
Speaker 1: would just hearing Rachel Fisher describing some women might giggle.
29:03
Speaker 1: You know, I'm thinking of these rape victims when it's
29:06
Speaker 1: so horrible, they can't even begin to grapple with it.
29:11
Speaker 1: Karen Starr, that's.
29:13
Speaker 10: Right, Nancy, it is they disassociate. And you really can't
29:18
Speaker 10: pay attention to how someone reacts to trauma and to
29:22
Speaker 10: death because everyone, each one of us, is very, very different,
29:27
Speaker 10: and there are people that cry. Think about you know,
29:30
Speaker 10: when people sometimes get nervous and they start laughing, and
29:34
Speaker 10: they're not laughing because it's funny, it's just their response
29:38
Speaker 10: that they have no choice. That's how they deal with
29:42
Speaker 10: that kind of a situation and that's what you're describing.
29:45
Speaker 10: I've been to funerals where somebody was so angry at
29:50
Speaker 10: the death of their spouse. They were furious, and you
29:56
Speaker 10: would never know that this was happening because they're grieving
30:00
Speaker 10: and loving and pain and it all gets mixed up
30:05
Speaker 10: when they have to deal with this kind of a situation. Terrible.
30:09
Speaker 1: Having spoken to the rest of our panel, I'm going
30:14
Speaker 1: to lay it all in your lap. Doctor Crystal Kristen Middleman.
30:20
Speaker 1: She is this chief development officer at the highly respected
30:26
Speaker 1: author ram Inc. You can find them at dnasolves dot com.
30:32
Speaker 1: One of their specialties, I have learned is taking old
30:37
Speaker 1: or degraded DNA and somehow pulling a miracle and getting
30:44
Speaker 1: a match. I'm talking about DNA that's been in mud,
30:47
Speaker 1: been under water, been through a fire, fifty sixty years old.
30:53
Speaker 1: And first of all, I want to know how they
30:55
Speaker 1: made the match and what likely statistical identification we have
31:00
Speaker 1: of Cleota Abstin and any insight you can give us
31:05
Speaker 1: as to why they so horribly failed the first rate victim, well,
31:13
Speaker 1: the last rate victim that we know of, and Eliza,
31:17
Speaker 1: how did that happen? I mean, you deal with this
31:20
Speaker 1: kind of thing every.
31:21
Speaker 14: Day, and we are We're going to deal with this
31:23
Speaker 14: kind of thing every single day, and I, like you
31:27
Speaker 14: and everyone here at at THEM, believe that it's an
31:29
Speaker 14: outrage that we do not have the technology implemented that
31:35
Speaker 14: would be able to stop this from happening. You know,
31:38
Speaker 14: we talked about this every single day, but the Code
31:41
Speaker 14: of Testing system was created thirty years ago and nothing
31:45
Speaker 14: new has come to forensic since in order to help
31:48
Speaker 14: these investigators. You know, you say the investigators might have failed.
31:52
Speaker 14: I don't think the investigators are failing. We work with
31:55
Speaker 14: these guys every single day. In fact, we worked with
31:57
Speaker 14: CBI and they work day and night trying to make
32:00
Speaker 14: things work. They're not given the technology that's necessary to
32:04
Speaker 14: be able to clear these cases at scale. The government
32:08
Speaker 14: is who's failing. The government has failed to fund and
32:11
Speaker 14: adopt new technologies that would allow us the backlogs to
32:16
Speaker 14: truly clear. We have backlogs everywhere because this technology is
32:20
Speaker 14: the way that it's written right now, is not scalable.
32:23
Speaker 14: You can't hire enough people to do on every single
32:27
Speaker 14: test immediately and have a result in eight hours. It's
32:29
Speaker 14: just not possible. But there is new technologies here are
32:33
Speaker 14: this one of the new technologies that could help clear
32:37
Speaker 14: a lot of the backlock that gets stuck when there's
32:39
Speaker 14: no DNA answer. But there are other new technologies here.
32:42
Speaker 14: Could you imagine doing this podcast on computers from thirty
32:47
Speaker 14: years ago? No, you wouldn't. You would get the new computer,
32:50
Speaker 14: you would get the best mic, you would do the
32:52
Speaker 14: next best thing. You would do it just for your business.
32:54
Speaker 14: Why isn't friends that's changing?
32:57
Speaker 1: Okay? Hold on, doctor Mentelman, is far far beyond me
33:04
Speaker 1: your knowledge regarding DNA and scientific testing. But I'm not
33:10
Speaker 1: asking for a result in eight hours? What about eight days?
33:15
Speaker 1: What about eight weeks? What about eight months? This was
33:18
Speaker 1: a year. The last rape victim that we know of
33:23
Speaker 1: of Cleotha Auston's was September twenty twenty one. You're preaching
33:28
Speaker 1: to the choir, doctor Mettleman. I spent a third of
33:32
Speaker 1: my time as a prosecutor at the Georgia State Crime Lab.
33:37
Speaker 1: And can I tell you those people worn't like dogs.
33:41
Speaker 1: Scientists in ballistics, in fiber analysis, hair analysis, DNA, blood,
33:48
Speaker 1: you name it. They weren't like dogs. They already were
33:52
Speaker 1: over time. What more do we want them to do? So?
33:55
Speaker 1: Where is the fail? And I guarantee you the tb
33:59
Speaker 1: I Tennessee of your investigation crime lab is the same.
34:03
Speaker 1: So how is it he's walking the street to murder Eliza.
34:09
Speaker 14: Because the system has failed to implement all the necessary tools.
34:13
Speaker 14: You know, let me tell you, Nancy, It's just like
34:16
Speaker 14: if I gave you a bicycle and I told you
34:18
Speaker 14: go ahead and deliver mail all over the United States. Well,
34:22
Speaker 14: how could you possibly deliver mail all over the United
34:25
Speaker 14: States of that bicycle. It would never happen. It's not possible.
34:28
Speaker 14: But if there were cars and planes and roads and
34:31
Speaker 14: everything else there and the infrastructure put all together, then
34:34
Speaker 14: you could deliver that mail all over the United States. Unfortunately,
34:39
Speaker 14: we are at the bicycle state of forensic science when
34:42
Speaker 14: it comes to solving these backlogs with textical to murders.
34:45
Speaker 14: We are DNA testing. Is that it's infancy still and
34:49
Speaker 14: there are so many ways. I mean, our technology, we
34:53
Speaker 14: don't need a code of database to identify someone. You
34:56
Speaker 14: don't have to have raped someone else in order for
34:58
Speaker 14: us to identify you. The biggest key you can rate
35:01
Speaker 14: one person and get identified the very very first time.
35:05
Speaker 14: Yet our technology isn't widely used everywhere because.
35:09
Speaker 10: People scream all sorts of stuff.
35:11
Speaker 14: Oh well, it's new. We don't know if the works.
35:12
Speaker 14: Oh my god, privacy, oh this, oh well, the government's
35:15
Speaker 14: slow and funding it. I want to perpetrate her in
35:18
Speaker 14: jail the first time they commit a crime. I don't
35:20
Speaker 14: want to have to wait till the second victim and
35:22
Speaker 14: the third victim, or the eleventh or twelfth victim.
35:24
Speaker 1: And trust me, we've.
35:25
Speaker 14: Identified those as well. They're in coded so many many
35:29
Speaker 14: times then no one's ever identified them. They come to
35:31
Speaker 14: us finally, and now they're identified and all these crimes
35:34
Speaker 14: are solved. That's devastating.
35:36
Speaker 1: You're hearing the voice of doctor Kristen Middleman, chief development
35:40
Speaker 1: officer at all Ram Lab. You can find her at
35:44
Speaker 1: dnasolves dot com explaining how we don't even need another
35:51
Speaker 1: rate or murder to identify cloth Aston from his last right,
35:56
Speaker 1: but it was never done. Take a listen to more
36:00
Speaker 1: arcus Hunter WRG.
36:02
Speaker 15: The TBI accepts RUSH DNA cases when requested by a
36:07
Speaker 15: local investigative agency, as we did in the recent Eliza
36:11
Speaker 15: Fletcher case. It went on to say, our scientists identified
36:15
Speaker 15: Cleyota Apston as a suspect less than eighteen hours after
36:19
Speaker 15: receiving a key evidence. The agency said the sample they
36:23
Speaker 15: received in September of last year was not submitted as
36:27
Speaker 15: a rush case. Therefore it was placed with the standard
36:31
Speaker 15: case work, which can have an average turnaround of thirty
36:35
Speaker 15: three to forty nine weeks.
36:37
Speaker 1: So, Lisa, Daddy, what does it take to be a
36:40
Speaker 1: rush case? I mean, Coleota Abstin in court today are
36:46
Speaker 1: new charges of a violent rape and as they say,
36:50
Speaker 1: especially dangerous kidnap. Why was that not a rush case
36:53
Speaker 1: back in September twenty twenty one?
36:55
Speaker 12: It should have been when you have a stranger repe
37:00
Speaker 12: and given the circumstances of what we know, that should
37:03
Speaker 12: have been a rush because we know they're going to
37:07
Speaker 12: hit again. It's not just one and done. So I
37:10
Speaker 12: don't understand how a year ago that case was not
37:14
Speaker 12: rushed to try to identify the who.
37:17
Speaker 1: A violent rate, a brutal kidnapping is not a rush
37:21
Speaker 1: then what is? In a statement Eliza's family say they
37:25
Speaker 1: quote missed the bright light of Eliza's life every day.
37:32
Speaker 1: Can you even imagine what this has done to her children? Now?
37:39
Speaker 1: Abstin was sentenced to eighty years behind bars in May
37:44
Speaker 1: for raping a woman a year before he's charged in
37:47
Speaker 1: Eliza's murder. He was convicted of raping the woman while
37:52
Speaker 1: holding her at gunpoint. Then Eliza is murdered with a
37:59
Speaker 1: gun absence. Criminal history, as I have mentioned, goes all
38:03
Speaker 1: the way back to the nineties when he was a juvenile.
38:06
Speaker 1: He had not been charged in the rape until after
38:10
Speaker 1: being charged a year later for murdering Fletcher because of
38:14
Speaker 1: a as they say, long delay in processing the sex
38:18
Speaker 1: assault kit. Now, after Eliza was murdered, the Tennessee legislature
38:25
Speaker 1: passed a law requiring the TBI to issue a quarterly
38:30
Speaker 1: report on sex assault kit testing times. That was a
38:36
Speaker 1: good move. Our prayers, of course, with Eliza Fletcher's family
38:43
Speaker 1: as justice un false. Goodbye for him.