Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / DEATH PENALTY SOUGHT FOR PERV IN MEMPHIS-MOM-JOGGER MURDER

Transcript

DEATH PENALTY SOUGHT FOR PERV IN MEMPHIS-MOM-JOGGER MURDER · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A beautiful young mom, a
0:17
Speaker 1: school teacher, goes out early early in the morning, around
0:21
Speaker 1: four a m. To jog so she can get back
0:24
Speaker 1: to take care of her tiny children and get to
0:28
Speaker 1: work on time, not waking up a soul, including her husband.
0:33
Speaker 1: As she leaves in the darkened morning hours for her run.
0:38
Speaker 1: Eliza Fletcher never makes it home. She is kidnapped. I believe,
0:44
Speaker 1: sex assaulted and murdered. In the last hours we learned
0:50
Speaker 1: the state has announced it will seek the death penalty.
0:55
Speaker 1: I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for
0:58
Speaker 1: being with us here at five station and serious XM
1:01
Speaker 1: one eleven. First of all, take a listen to our
1:05
Speaker 1: friends WRG if it's levin.
1:07
Speaker 2: The absolute control of this court. In this case, we
1:09
Speaker 2: tried forty end of twenty twenty three.
1:12
Speaker 3: But things could take a while longer as the prosecution
1:15
Speaker 3: is asking the TBI to release more evidence, which could
1:18
Speaker 3: lead to more time before the case goes to trial.
1:21
Speaker 4: But what is certain and just made public.
1:24
Speaker 3: Is the prosecution's plan to seek the death penalty if
1:27
Speaker 3: absent Henderson were found guilty.
1:30
Speaker 2: This return is obs indicating that to feel this with
1:32
Speaker 2: the factory of classic murders, especially hanous, atrocious or cruel trays.
1:37
Speaker 5: Heinous, atrocious, and cruel is a term of art, and
1:41
Speaker 5: what it refers to is a level of violence that
1:47
Speaker 5: goes above and beyond that necessary in order to cause
1:50
Speaker 5: the death.
1:51
Speaker 4: That's right.
1:51
Speaker 1: Prosecutors announce they are seeking the death penalty for the
1:54
Speaker 1: man accused of abducting a Memphis mom, Eliza Fleas, during
2:00
Speaker 1: her early morning routine run, and killing her. The Shelby
2:07
Speaker 1: County District Attorney named Steve Mulroy filed that official notice
2:12
Speaker 1: he will seek the DP on Kleotha Abstin. Now, get this,
2:19
Speaker 1: Cleota Abstin already had one rape charge against him that
2:26
Speaker 1: had never been prosecuted because the rape kit sat on
2:31
Speaker 1: a shelf at the crime lab and had not been
2:35
Speaker 1: analyzed until after Eliza Fletcher was murdered, which leads me
2:41
Speaker 1: to speculation if he had been prosecuted for the earlier rape,
2:46
Speaker 1: he would likely have been behind bars because there's a
2:49
Speaker 1: DNA match and Eliza Fletcher would be alive today. Okay,
2:55
Speaker 1: that said, wait for it, there was another attack years
3:00
Speaker 1: ago by this guy, Kleotha Abstin, and yet he's out
3:06
Speaker 1: walking free.
3:08
Speaker 4: Where did it all start?
3:10
Speaker 6: Listen, It's been just over twelve hours since Elijah Fletcher
3:13
Speaker 6: disappeared and multiple agencies have joined forces, and I can
3:17
Speaker 6: tell you there's a lot of concern in the community
3:19
Speaker 6: as time passes by.
3:21
Speaker 4: Where is Eliza Fletcher?
3:23
Speaker 6: That's the question many are asking across the Mid South
3:25
Speaker 6: after investigators say that Avid Jogger was adducted.
3:29
Speaker 7: It's very important that if anybody knows the whereabouts of
3:33
Speaker 7: miss Fletcher to contact the police immediately.
3:35
Speaker 6: Fletcher was jogging down Central Avenue around four point thirty
3:38
Speaker 6: this morning when investigators say she was approached by someone
3:42
Speaker 6: who forced her into a dark colored suv and drove off.
3:46
Speaker 4: You don't want to hear that that's going on. We
3:51
Speaker 4: want to find her. We don't know what's going on.
3:54
Speaker 6: Hart Robinson is a friend of Fletcher and got the
3:56
Speaker 6: news this morning and immediately came to the area of
3:59
Speaker 6: Central Abbas and Zach Curling Street where she was last seen.
4:03
Speaker 4: Where everybody's destinally looking for it.
4:05
Speaker 1: The search was on for the missing mom of to
4:09
Speaker 1: Eliza Fletcher. You were just hearing our friends at WRG
4:14
Speaker 1: Channel three there were only two clues left behind.
4:19
Speaker 6: Listen Fletcher's cell phone and a water bottle were found
4:22
Speaker 6: in front of a home owned by the University of
4:24
Speaker 6: Memphis and a safety alert cent to students. They say
4:27
Speaker 6: she was reported and missing after not returning home from
4:30
Speaker 6: her run. The suv that she was last seen in
4:34
Speaker 6: was sponded driving westbound down Central Avenue. Multiple agencies, including
4:40
Speaker 6: the FBI or assisting with the case, would one goal
4:43
Speaker 6: in mind, find Eliza Fletcher.
4:45
Speaker 7: Our concern is to locate miss Fletcher. So if anybody
4:48
Speaker 7: knows where she's at, call the police immediately.
4:50
Speaker 1: Really just think her life could have been spared. I
4:56
Speaker 1: firmly believe it, and then the frantic search. Listen to
5:00
Speaker 1: our friends at NBC.
5:01
Speaker 8: Around seven to fifty am, roughly three hours after the abduction,
5:05
Speaker 8: the suspect's brother and another witness telling investigators they saw
5:09
Speaker 8: him wash his clothes in a sink and clean the
5:11
Speaker 8: inside of the car with floor cleaner, according to an affidavit,
5:15
Speaker 8: the brother also saying he was acting very strange that
5:18
Speaker 8: bizarre scene allegedly unfolding less than a mile from where
5:21
Speaker 8: police discovered the unidentified body late Monday. The affidavit also
5:25
Speaker 8: says abstin left sandals behind authorities using DNA from those
5:29
Speaker 8: shoes to zero in on him.
5:31
Speaker 1: So, while the frantic search throughout the Memphis area is
5:36
Speaker 1: ongoing for the missing mom, you see Cleota Abstin frantically
5:42
Speaker 1: cleaning the back of his GMC, washing his clothes, and
5:48
Speaker 1: his brothers sink. Wow, isn't that quite the coincidence? And
5:54
Speaker 1: then the gruesome discovery our friend's wr.
6:00
Speaker 9: A good wrenching discovery in South Memphis, as detectives confirm
6:04
Speaker 9: a body was located a few yards away from where
6:07
Speaker 9: Eliza Fletcher's alleged abductor came hours after her kidnapping. Monday,
6:12
Speaker 9: Memphis police swarmed this area after finding a body in
6:16
Speaker 9: an overgrown lot near a vacant home on Victor Street,
6:20
Speaker 9: The scene just a stone's throw away from where Memphis
6:23
Speaker 9: police say thirty eight year old Cleota Absent came hours
6:26
Speaker 9: after abducting Fletcher. They believe he cleaned blood from the
6:29
Speaker 9: interior of the suv used in the abduction and washed
6:33
Speaker 9: his clothes, and his brothers sink.
6:35
Speaker 10: In the past ten minutes, Memphis police confirming those new details,
6:39
Speaker 10: saying that the body they found yesterday is that of
6:43
Speaker 10: missing mother Eliza Fletcher, and now the man they had
6:47
Speaker 10: in custody, already charged with her kidnapping, faces murder charges.
6:51
Speaker 10: And this is coming just about sixteen hours after they
6:54
Speaker 10: discovered a body here not far they said, within walking
6:59
Speaker 10: distance to apartment complex where the thirty eight year old
7:02
Speaker 10: Cleota Absen was seen cleaning his suv shortly after the abduction.
7:09
Speaker 1: Our friends at Fox thirteen joining WRG when Eliza went missing,
7:15
Speaker 1: the search ensued. You see the defendant, the suspect caught
7:22
Speaker 1: on video just cleaning, cleaning, scrubbing, scrubbing, trying to get
7:30
Speaker 1: rid of blood. He would need some sort of hydrochloric
7:35
Speaker 1: acid to do that trick. It didn't work, blood throughout
7:39
Speaker 1: his suv. And then a couple hundred yards away, the
7:45
Speaker 1: body of Eliza Fletcher found just discarded in tall grass.
7:51
Speaker 1: Her Lululemon running shorts found in a garbage bag not
7:57
Speaker 1: far away, also discarded. And now today we find out
8:07
Speaker 1: her abduction, her likely rape, her murder could have all
8:16
Speaker 1: been avoided. How take a listen to our friends at
8:23
Speaker 1: wat N.
8:25
Speaker 11: The man accused of kidnapping and killing Eliza Fletcher is
8:28
Speaker 11: facing three new criminal charges tonight. The charges are from
8:32
Speaker 11: another case in twenty twenty one. In this case, he's
8:36
Speaker 11: facing charges for aggravated rape, kidnapping, and unlawful possession of
8:41
Speaker 11: a gun. Memphis Police confirm a sexual assault report was
8:44
Speaker 11: taken on September twenty one of twenty twenty one. The
8:48
Speaker 11: sexual assault kit was submitted to the Tennessee Bureau of
8:51
Speaker 11: Investigations two days later on September twenty third, but that
8:55
Speaker 11: kit was not tested until he was connected to Eliza
8:58
Speaker 11: Fletcher's disappearance.
9:00
Speaker 4: Did you hear that? Another aggravated kidnap and rape?
9:06
Speaker 12: All the way back almost a year ago twenty twenty one,
9:11
Speaker 12: a rape kit was taken, it was sent to the
9:16
Speaker 12: Tennessee Bureau of Investigations the TBI, and not a thing
9:23
Speaker 12: was done.
9:24
Speaker 4: It sat on a shelf.
9:28
Speaker 1: And in that Manila evidence bag sealed shut with the
9:35
Speaker 1: investigators initials over it.
9:39
Speaker 4: To maintain the chain of custody.
9:43
Speaker 1: Was the evidence that would have put Cleova absent behind
9:49
Speaker 1: bars at the time Eliza was kidnapped and murdered. Joining
9:55
Speaker 1: me right now an all star panel to make sense
9:57
Speaker 1: of what we know right now. But first I want
10:00
Speaker 1: to go to Dave Matt Crimeoline dot Com investigative reporter Dave,
10:04
Speaker 1: what went wrong?
10:05
Speaker 13: Nancy.
10:07
Speaker 14: You know, we talked about how quickly they were able
10:10
Speaker 14: to identify the DNA of Kleotha Abstin on the slides
10:15
Speaker 14: that they found at the kidnapping scene for Eliza Fledger.
10:19
Speaker 14: They turned that around in less than eighteen hours from
10:23
Speaker 14: the moment they found the slides to the moment they
10:25
Speaker 14: identified the DNA coming from Kleiosa absince. In the case
10:30
Speaker 14: from September twenty first, twenty twenty one, a woman reported
10:34
Speaker 14: the rape, They did a rape kit, and forty eight
10:37
Speaker 14: hours later, on September twenty third, the rape kit was
10:40
Speaker 14: submitted to the TBI DNA case files. The problem is,
10:47
Speaker 14: unless they order a rush on the DNA, it goes
10:52
Speaker 14: into the regular file.
10:54
Speaker 1: Just stop, no offense, Dave Matt But I really don't
10:58
Speaker 1: want to hear that, because that is all BS. I
11:03
Speaker 1: know you're reporting, whether TBI wants me to hear. But
11:08
Speaker 1: when it comes to a life threatening violent crime, why
11:13
Speaker 1: is there a wait? I pay half my paycheck every
11:18
Speaker 1: year and have been since I was a lowly assistant
11:22
Speaker 1: in the District Attorney's office since before that when I
11:25
Speaker 1: worked at the library at Mercy University. Why do I
11:30
Speaker 1: pay taxes? So Cleota Absence can walk free and murder
11:36
Speaker 1: Eliza Fletcher, leaving her two children with no mother. You
11:42
Speaker 1: know how much that screws a kid up forever. And
11:47
Speaker 1: you're telling me it sounds like with a straight face
11:51
Speaker 1: that it was in line.
11:52
Speaker 4: To get analyzed. You know what, I don't want to
11:56
Speaker 4: hear it.
11:57
Speaker 1: She's dead and she endured a horrible death that sguv
12:03
Speaker 1: was covered in blood.
12:06
Speaker 4: I put money on it.
12:08
Speaker 1: She was forcibly raped, likely sodomized as well. Why because
12:14
Speaker 1: of a ligne a cue for evidence crime stories with
12:27
Speaker 1: Nancy Grace In the last days, the District Attorney has
12:32
Speaker 1: announced the state will seek the death penalty against Cleotha Abstin.
12:38
Speaker 1: This guy is a one man crime wave. And I
12:42
Speaker 1: don't mean shot lifting or stealing a car, which of course,
12:45
Speaker 1: in themselves are crimes that need to be prosecuted. I'm
12:48
Speaker 1: talking about violent crimes where people are hurt, they are raped,
12:53
Speaker 1: they are assaulted, and in this case, murdered. This young
12:57
Speaker 1: mom minding her own business, trying to get out and
13:00
Speaker 1: jog and keep up with her schedule of taking care
13:04
Speaker 1: of her children and getting to work. You know a
13:07
Speaker 1: lot of people have said, why is she out so
13:09
Speaker 1: early in the morning. You know what, you're wrong. This
13:13
Speaker 1: woman is trying to do it all. Exercise, take care
13:17
Speaker 1: of children, work, take care of her home, the whole shebang.
13:23
Speaker 1: So don't even start about why is she out so
13:27
Speaker 1: early in the morning. I get up at five o'clock
13:29
Speaker 1: every day without fail, so I can get everything done
13:34
Speaker 1: before I take the twins to school and get to
13:36
Speaker 1: the studio, to get to work, go to a crime scene,
13:40
Speaker 1: go to a courthouse.
13:41
Speaker 4: I want to do it all.
13:43
Speaker 1: And so did she, and now she's dead and her
13:47
Speaker 1: children are sentenced to life without their mother. Why, according
13:53
Speaker 1: to prosecutors, because of Cleotha Abson. So Lisa Daddy, the
13:58
Speaker 1: director of the Center for Advanced Policing and Graduate program coordinator,
14:03
Speaker 1: University New Haven, Lisa, could you please interpret what Dave
14:09
Speaker 1: Matt was just trying to say.
14:10
Speaker 7: Honestly, Nancy, the police department messed up on that one,
14:14
Speaker 7: and you know, I really.
14:15
Speaker 1: Will wait, wait, messed up. Let's just analyze what you
14:20
Speaker 1: just said.
14:21
Speaker 4: Messed up.
14:23
Speaker 1: This is more than just messing up. They didn't fall
14:27
Speaker 1: through the cracks. They screwed up horribly, and Eliza is
14:33
Speaker 1: dead because they couldn't analyze a rape kit to Rachel D.
14:40
Speaker 1: Fisher joining me Special guests, registered nurse, sex assault nurse examiner.
14:46
Speaker 4: She's an expert witness.
14:48
Speaker 1: She's author of Taking Back the Pen and you can
14:52
Speaker 1: find her at legal r in consult dot org. Rachel,
14:57
Speaker 1: did you ever get tired of he hearing about one
15:01
Speaker 1: fail after the next? You deal with rape victims every
15:07
Speaker 1: day and I keep screaming from the rooftops. A rape
15:12
Speaker 1: victim is never the same like a child molestation victims. Yes,
15:17
Speaker 1: they can go on about life, they seem like they're
15:19
Speaker 1: having a normal life, but they're never the same after
15:24
Speaker 1: a rape. Maybe you can say it better than me, Rachel.
15:27
Speaker 15: Yeah, the impact that a victim has after being assaulted,
15:32
Speaker 15: it's lifelong. It never goes away. A murder is one
15:36
Speaker 15: thing that's the end result, but there are people living
15:39
Speaker 15: with the effects of this for the rest of their lives.
15:42
Speaker 15: And it comes down to the fact that jurisdictions, communities
15:46
Speaker 15: don't put an emphasis on crimes of violence against women
15:50
Speaker 15: are the vulnerable. These sex crimes are just tossed the side.
15:53
Speaker 15: There's not proper funding, we don't adequately staff our law
15:57
Speaker 15: enforcement agency their crime labs, and then the statues I
16:00
Speaker 15: mean Tennessee, you don't even have to the law enforcement
16:03
Speaker 15: agency does not even have to turn over the kit
16:05
Speaker 15: until sixty days to the crime lab. So the statutes
16:11
Speaker 15: are showing, Okay, there's not a priority. What can happen
16:14
Speaker 15: in sixty days. A lot can happen. Other rates can happen.
16:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, like Eliza Fletcher can get murdered. And you know
16:20
Speaker 1: another thing, Rachel D. Fisher, who is a rape sex
16:24
Speaker 1: assault nurse examiner. It's a very very specialized area. I
16:30
Speaker 1: wonder what that says to the rape victim. Like Klotha
16:34
Speaker 1: Absten's other rape victim. I mean, we already know of
16:38
Speaker 1: one when he was nearing adulthood, this one in September
16:42
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one. I wonder how that rape victim felt
16:47
Speaker 1: when she would call and say what status of my
16:53
Speaker 1: brutal rape case? And she said, oh and she hears, oh, yeah,
16:57
Speaker 1: Well it's in the queue. It's like you're at Target
17:00
Speaker 1: and there's a long line, or are at Kroger on
17:02
Speaker 1: the line wraps around the cash register. Uh huh. No,
17:07
Speaker 1: she's not buying a dozen apples. She's trying to find
17:11
Speaker 1: out about her rape case that forever altered her life,
17:16
Speaker 1: and she gets told, yeah, you're in the line, they'll
17:20
Speaker 1: analyze it. Meanwhile, this guy is walking free. But am
17:23
Speaker 1: I talking gibberish? Karen start because I feel like I'm
17:27
Speaker 1: not getting through. I don't think I can scream any
17:30
Speaker 1: louder in a studio. Karen start joining me now a
17:34
Speaker 1: psychologists out of New York at Karenstark dot com.
17:36
Speaker 4: That's Karen with the CE. Karen, help me, please.
17:40
Speaker 13: Nancy, you're not talking gibberis. This is how it happened.
17:44
Speaker 1: I feel like crying and fighting and hitting someone all
17:48
Speaker 1: at the same time.
17:50
Speaker 13: People don't take it seriously enough. Here's something that will
17:55
Speaker 13: damage someone's life forever. And I don't understand the because
18:00
Speaker 13: police are supposed to be trained, they're supposed to know
18:05
Speaker 13: that they need to do something right away. And it
18:08
Speaker 13: is outrageous, just outrageous that they did not make sure
18:14
Speaker 13: that that came back as soon as possible. And who
18:18
Speaker 13: knows what else he was up to.
18:20
Speaker 4: Nancy, Oh oh, this is the tip of the iceberg. Karen, Karen,
18:24
Speaker 4: Karen Starr.
18:26
Speaker 1: This guy, Claire Tha Apston, started committing violent felonies at
18:30
Speaker 1: age eleven that we know of, and you know, Matthew Mangino.
18:37
Speaker 1: I'm not asking you to speak, I'm just referring to
18:41
Speaker 1: you former prosecutor, now civil and defense attorney and author.
18:47
Speaker 1: He would argue, Oh, he was just eleven, the sweet
18:52
Speaker 1: little boy. You know, I might buy that at eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen,
18:58
Speaker 1: but then at sixteen, seventeen eighteen, I'm not buying it anymore. So,
19:04
Speaker 1: Karen start, when people say he started his one man
19:07
Speaker 1: crime wave at age eleven, how many rapes has this
19:12
Speaker 1: guy committed? Culminating in the murder of Eliza Fletcher? I mean, gino,
19:18
Speaker 1: don't even bother jumping in and saying he's innocent until
19:21
Speaker 1: proven guilty. I know that we all know that, and
19:24
Speaker 1: I believe there is a snowballs chance in hell that
19:27
Speaker 1: he may not be guilty.
19:29
Speaker 4: Okay, So that said, what Karen start?
19:34
Speaker 13: This is outrageous and people, do you know that psychotest
19:38
Speaker 13: start at an early age, so it doesn't surprise me
19:42
Speaker 13: that this began at eleven. The outrageous part of this
19:46
Speaker 13: is that he is not already under.
19:49
Speaker 1: Lock and Keith walking free to grab Elisa. Okay, so
19:53
Speaker 1: what is the excuse. Take a listen to our friend
19:57
Speaker 1: Marcus Hunter.
20:00
Speaker 16: Pulled the recently tested kits matching Gabson Henderson for analysis
20:05
Speaker 16: nine months after it was received on June twenty fourth,
20:10
Speaker 16: and completed an initial report of the results on August
20:13
Speaker 16: twenty ninth. The sample was then entered into kotis, which
20:18
Speaker 16: returned a match on September fifth, which was within hours
20:22
Speaker 16: of Memphis police finding Fletcher's body on Victor Street, and
20:27
Speaker 16: forty nine weeks after MPD submitted the rape kit to TBI,
20:32
Speaker 16: the match of the September twenty one as sold came
20:34
Speaker 16: back to Cleota Abson Henderson. The results were then reported
20:39
Speaker 16: to Memphis police. According to court documents, he was indicted
20:43
Speaker 16: all the charges of aggravated rape, especially aggravated kidnapping, and
20:48
Speaker 16: gun charges in connection to the crime.
20:50
Speaker 1: You know, it's just all blah blah blah words time
21:08
Speaker 1: stories with Nancy Grace. When I look at this woman's face,
21:13
Speaker 1: it just it makes my stomach hurt. I'm looking at
21:18
Speaker 1: a smiling face of Eliza Fletcher, a young mom, a teacher,
21:24
Speaker 1: a wife, a daughter, beloved by all. Why did he
21:31
Speaker 1: have to take her? Why did he have to take anybody,
21:34
Speaker 1: not just her, but anybody. Why was he out walking free?
21:39
Speaker 1: This guy is a node sex attacker. He has viciously
21:44
Speaker 1: attacked before. Now am I supposed to believe Matthew Mangino.
21:50
Speaker 1: I'm coming to you just as a legal expert. Don't
21:54
Speaker 1: put on your defense hand yet, okay, because we all
21:57
Speaker 1: know you're a former prosecutor, former parole board member, author
22:01
Speaker 1: of the executioners told so please don't start telling me
22:04
Speaker 1: he was only eleven years old when he committed his
22:06
Speaker 1: first felony.
22:07
Speaker 4: Lets just save that for the shrink.
22:11
Speaker 1: What you know, all this is bs right because they're
22:14
Speaker 1: saying that what it was just a coincidence that when
22:18
Speaker 1: Eliza Fletcher goes missing, and they go, oh, you know what,
22:22
Speaker 1: you're at the front of the line. Now, let's do
22:24
Speaker 1: that DNA kit. No, that's not a coincidence. There's no
22:30
Speaker 1: such thing in criminal law. So they're trying to tell
22:33
Speaker 1: me that Eliza goes missing and then they go, Wow,
22:38
Speaker 1: I think it's time that we do the DNA on
22:41
Speaker 1: that file way back there on the shelf.
22:43
Speaker 4: What really happened, man Gino, Well, I.
22:45
Speaker 17: Think what really happened is they were able to find
22:50
Speaker 17: DNA on the sandals that were found at the crime scene,
22:56
Speaker 17: and they immediately did an analysis.
22:58
Speaker 1: I'm not talking about that, Matthew claith Austin DNA is
23:05
Speaker 1: on a September twenty twenty one rape victim. Okay, so
23:10
Speaker 1: why when Eliza gets kidnapped and there's a search going on,
23:16
Speaker 1: do they go, Wow, I think, I think I'll run
23:19
Speaker 1: that DNA test. That's total bs. Why did they suddenly
23:24
Speaker 1: decide to run it then.
23:26
Speaker 17: To cover their bites? I mean, they failed. This was
23:30
Speaker 17: a systemic failure to test DNA that was found at
23:36
Speaker 17: a crime scene, as simple as just running a.
23:40
Speaker 1: Code of combined DNA index system exactly. It was cover
23:46
Speaker 1: your ass, That's what it was. And I'm just wondering,
23:52
Speaker 1: Matthew Mangino, why did they select that particular RATEE kit
23:57
Speaker 1: to suddenly test. I'm guessing that that rape occurred in
24:02
Speaker 1: the same mo modus operandi method of operation as Eliza's kidnap,
24:08
Speaker 1: that the victim may have described the same kind of vehicle.
24:15
Speaker 1: Something about that rape kit, about that rape, maybe it
24:18
Speaker 1: was in the same area, just I don't know, but
24:23
Speaker 1: something made them reach back on that shelf and pull
24:26
Speaker 1: out that file and perform that DNA test. Is submitted
24:31
Speaker 1: to CODIS. The combined DNA index system. Before I go
24:35
Speaker 1: to special guest doctor Kristin Middleman from authorm Labs, I
24:40
Speaker 1: want to circle back to Rachel D. Fisher, registered sex
24:45
Speaker 1: assault nurse examiner. Rachel, could you please describe what is
24:50
Speaker 1: the procedure that you go through when you examine a
24:54
Speaker 1: rape victim and what is a rape kit?
24:57
Speaker 15: I want to rape victim comes to the hospital. We
25:00
Speaker 15: do a head to assessment in the detailed genital examer
25:03
Speaker 15: reflect evidence from all the intimate parts of the body
25:06
Speaker 15: anywhere based on the history. We submit this kit to
25:11
Speaker 15: law enforcement, and law enforcement.
25:13
Speaker 4: Slow down place.
25:14
Speaker 1: As I like to say, Rachel, we're not having tea
25:18
Speaker 1: at high grow with King Charles. Okay, when you say
25:24
Speaker 1: we connect, we collect DNA from all parts of the
25:27
Speaker 1: body that is certainly putting perfume on the pig. The
25:33
Speaker 1: rape victim, who has already been brutally raped, probably beaten, terrified,
25:40
Speaker 1: then has to go for a rape kit. Then it's
25:44
Speaker 1: basically a pelvic exam and it takes a long time.
25:49
Speaker 4: What do you have to do?
25:50
Speaker 15: It's a very intrusive exam. We spread their legs, we touch,
25:55
Speaker 15: we look, we examine, We go into all the genitalia,
25:59
Speaker 15: We swab we in search speculum. It's retraumatizing for the
26:05
Speaker 15: victim essentially, is what it is, because we're going back
26:07
Speaker 15: into these places.
26:08
Speaker 4: Okay, wait a minute.
26:09
Speaker 1: See, See you are an expert, and when you just
26:14
Speaker 1: roll off comments like that, not everybody knows what you
26:17
Speaker 1: mean when you.
26:18
Speaker 4: Say a speculum.
26:20
Speaker 1: Isn't that kind of like a reverse eyelash curler where
26:26
Speaker 1: you squinch the curler together Instead, A speculum is something
26:30
Speaker 1: you stick inside the ladies vagina and anus, and then
26:34
Speaker 1: you open up those cat female cavities and then you
26:39
Speaker 1: go in there basically with a search light like a flashlight,
26:43
Speaker 1: and you look around with a really long queue tip,
26:48
Speaker 1: and you look in there and you.
26:50
Speaker 4: Try and find with a swab.
26:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, everybody in the studio is grimacing and looking away
26:58
Speaker 1: right now for a real and you swab around inside
27:02
Speaker 1: the anus and the vagina and hopefully you will get
27:08
Speaker 1: naked to the human eye sperm DNA.
27:15
Speaker 15: Right, that's the intent to get any sort of DNA
27:18
Speaker 15: off of the internal orifices of the patients.
27:21
Speaker 4: Yes, and that includes the anus. Correct.
27:25
Speaker 15: We do also swab the anus, yes, and.
27:27
Speaker 1: Then you have the righte kit combing as if I
27:31
Speaker 1: would comb my hair.
27:33
Speaker 4: What is that We take.
27:35
Speaker 15: A comb and we go through the head, hair, the
27:38
Speaker 15: pubic hair, getting any debris that can link it back
27:41
Speaker 15: to potentially the scene of where it happened to corroborate
27:44
Speaker 15: that as well. Sometimes we do plucking of the hair
27:49
Speaker 15: in order to get DNA as well. So it's a
27:52
Speaker 15: very painful, intrusive examine in some points of it. But
27:56
Speaker 15: when the victims are that brave enough to come etn
27:58
Speaker 15: for that, that's right there, the first step in they're healing.
28:02
Speaker 15: And the first victim of this case with the positive
28:05
Speaker 15: hit was brave enough to do that. So I can
28:07
Speaker 15: only imagine her seeing this that she was brave enough
28:10
Speaker 15: to go in and then nobody tested it until it
28:13
Speaker 15: was too late. I can only imagine what she's feeling
28:16
Speaker 15: right now. She was brave enough to do that initial
28:18
Speaker 15: rape kit back then O a hear ago and here.
28:21
Speaker 1: We are, and the only way her case was finally
28:25
Speaker 1: processed was because Eliza was murdered. It took a murder
28:31
Speaker 1: to get her rape kit done. That's the harsh truth
28:36
Speaker 1: of what we're dealing with. Rachel Dave Fisher, could you
28:39
Speaker 1: please describe the spectrum of demeanors your right. Victim patients
28:46
Speaker 1: have displayed.
28:47
Speaker 15: They come in sometimes completely with no affect, meaning their
28:51
Speaker 15: face isn't smile, they don't frown, they're just quiet, they
28:53
Speaker 15: don't make eye contact. Sometimes they laughed and distracted themselves.
28:57
Speaker 15: Sometimes they're crying. Trauma presents in very different ways, and
29:02
Speaker 15: each victim is different. And I've seen law enforcement or
29:05
Speaker 15: even say, well, she doesn't seem like anything happened. We're
29:07
Speaker 15: not even sure if it's real because of her demeanor.
29:10
Speaker 15: Like you, I've heard it all. But each victim processes
29:14
Speaker 15: their trauma differently.
29:15
Speaker 18: So regardless of.
29:16
Speaker 15: How they respond to it, if they're brave enough to
29:19
Speaker 15: come get an intrusive exam in a busy er and
29:23
Speaker 15: have an examiner stick things into their bodies, something happened.
29:27
Speaker 15: Nobody willingly does that, regardless of what their demeanor is.
29:32
Speaker 15: They're there for help, and we help them all the same,
29:35
Speaker 15: and we prioritize it on our end, and then we
29:38
Speaker 15: do the next step in our process is handed over
29:41
Speaker 15: to law enforcement for them to do their due diligence,
29:44
Speaker 15: which is supposed to me to take it to the
29:46
Speaker 15: crime lab. But Tennessee has a statute, but they have
29:48
Speaker 15: sixty days for it to sit on their shelf before
29:51
Speaker 15: they're mandated to give it to the crime lab.
29:53
Speaker 4: Sharon start, you know, I'm thinking of these right victims
29:58
Speaker 4: when it's so horrible, they can't even begin to grapple
30:03
Speaker 4: with it. Karen Start, that's right, Nancy.
30:06
Speaker 13: Is they disassociate and you really can't pay attention to
30:11
Speaker 13: how someone reacts to trauma and to death because everyone,
30:16
Speaker 13: each one of us is very, very different, and there
30:19
Speaker 13: are people that cry. Think about you know when people
30:22
Speaker 13: sometimes get nervous and they start laughing, and they're not
30:27
Speaker 13: laughing because it's funny. It's just their response that they
30:31
Speaker 13: have no choice. That's how they deal with that kind
30:34
Speaker 13: of a situation. And that's what you're describing. I've been
30:37
Speaker 13: to funerals where somebody was so angry at the death
30:43
Speaker 13: of their spouse. They were furious, and you would never
30:49
Speaker 13: know that this was happening because they're grieving and loving
30:53
Speaker 13: and in pain, and it all gets mixed up when
30:57
Speaker 13: they have to deal with this kind of a situation terrible.
31:01
Speaker 1: And now, having spoken to the rest of our panel,
31:07
Speaker 1: I'm going to lay it all in your lap, doctor
31:10
Speaker 1: Kristin Middleman. She is this chief development officer at the
31:16
Speaker 1: highly respected authorm ink. You can find them at dnasolvs
31:22
Speaker 1: dot com. One of their specialties I have learned is
31:27
Speaker 1: taking old or degraded DNA and somehow pulling a miracle
31:36
Speaker 1: and getting a match.
31:37
Speaker 4: I'm talking about DNA that's.
31:39
Speaker 1: Been in mud, been under water, been through a fire,
31:43
Speaker 1: fifty sixty years old. I'm going to lay it all
31:48
Speaker 1: in your lap, doctor Kristen Middleman. She is this chief
31:53
Speaker 1: development officer at the highly respected authorm ink. You can
32:00
Speaker 1: find them at dnasolves dot com. One of their specialties
32:05
Speaker 1: I have learned is taking old or degraded DNA and
32:12
Speaker 1: somehow pulling a miracle and getting a match.
32:16
Speaker 4: I'm talking about DNA that's.
32:18
Speaker 1: Been in mud, been underwater, been through a fire, fifty
32:23
Speaker 1: sixty years old, Doctor Kristen Middleman. First of all, I
32:27
Speaker 1: want to know how they made the match, and what
32:30
Speaker 1: likely statistical identification we have of cleotha abstin and any
32:37
Speaker 1: insight you can give us as to why they so
32:41
Speaker 1: horribly failed the first rate victim, well, the last.
32:47
Speaker 4: Rate victim that we know of, and Eliza, how did
32:51
Speaker 4: that happen?
32:52
Speaker 1: I mean, you deal with this kind of thing every
32:54
Speaker 1: day and we are.
32:55
Speaker 18: We're going to deal with this kind of thing every
32:58
Speaker 18: single day, and I, like you and everyone's here at
33:01
Speaker 18: of them, believe that it's an outrage that we do
33:04
Speaker 18: not have the technology implemented that would be able to
33:09
Speaker 18: stop this from happening. You know, we talk about this
33:12
Speaker 18: every single day, but the Code of Testing system was
33:16
Speaker 18: created thirty years ago and nothing new has come to
33:19
Speaker 18: forensic since in order to help these investigators. You know,
33:22
Speaker 18: you say the investigators might have failed. I don't think
33:25
Speaker 18: the investigators are failing. We work with these guys every
33:29
Speaker 18: single days. ACT We work with CBI, and they work
33:32
Speaker 18: day and night trying to make things work. They're not
33:34
Speaker 18: given the technology that's necessary to be able to clear
33:39
Speaker 18: these cases at scale. The government is who's failing. The
33:42
Speaker 18: government has failed to fund and adopt new technologies that
33:47
Speaker 18: would allow us the backlogs to truly clear. We have
33:51
Speaker 18: backlogs everywhere because this technology is the way that it's
33:54
Speaker 18: written right now, it is not stalable. You can't hire
33:58
Speaker 18: enough people to do every single test immediately and have
34:01
Speaker 18: a result in eight hours is just not possible. But
34:05
Speaker 18: there is new technologies here. Are is this one of
34:08
Speaker 18: the new technologies that could help clear a lot of
34:10
Speaker 18: the backdop that gets stuck when there's no DNA answer.
34:13
Speaker 18: But there are other new technologies here. Could you imagine
34:16
Speaker 18: doing this podcast on computers from thirty years ago? No,
34:21
Speaker 18: you wouldn't. You would get the new computer, You would
34:23
Speaker 18: get the best mike, You would do the next best thing.
34:26
Speaker 18: You would do it just for your business. Why isn't
34:29
Speaker 18: forensic changing?
34:30
Speaker 4: Okay, hold on, Dodger, Mettlelman. It is far far.
34:36
Speaker 1: Beyond me your knowledge regarding DNA and scientific testing. But
34:43
Speaker 1: I'm not asking for a result in eight hours? What
34:47
Speaker 1: about eight days? What about eight weeks? What about eight months?
34:51
Speaker 1: This was a year. The last rape victim that we
34:55
Speaker 1: know of cloth Aston's was September twenty twenty one.
35:00
Speaker 4: You're preaching to the choir, doctor Middleman.
35:04
Speaker 1: I spent a third of my time as a prosecutor
35:08
Speaker 1: as a Georgia State crime lab. And can I tell
35:11
Speaker 1: you those people weren't like dogs. Scientists in ballistics, in
35:17
Speaker 1: fiber analysis, hair analysis, DNA, blood, you name it. They
35:22
Speaker 1: weren't like dogs. They already were over time. What more
35:26
Speaker 1: do we want them to do?
35:28
Speaker 6: So?
35:28
Speaker 4: Where is the fail?
35:30
Speaker 1: And I guarantee you the tb I, Tennessee of your
35:33
Speaker 1: investigation crime lab.
35:35
Speaker 4: Is the same.
35:36
Speaker 1: So how is it he's walking the street to murder Eliza.
35:42
Speaker 18: Because the system has failed to implement all the necessary tools.
35:46
Speaker 18: You know, let me tell you, Nancy, It's just like
35:49
Speaker 18: if I gave you a bicycle and I told you
35:52
Speaker 18: go ahead and deliver mail all over the United States. Well,
35:56
Speaker 18: how do you possibly deliver mail all over the United
35:58
Speaker 18: States that bicycle? It would never happened. It's not possible.
36:02
Speaker 18: But if there were cars and planes and roads and
36:05
Speaker 18: everything else there and the infrastructure put all together, then
36:08
Speaker 18: you could deliver that mail all over the United States. Unfortunately,
36:12
Speaker 18: we are at the bicycle state of forensic science when
36:15
Speaker 18: it comes to solving these backlogs with texticals and murders.
36:19
Speaker 18: We are DNA testing. Is that it's infancy still and
36:23
Speaker 18: there are so many ways. I mean, our technology, we
36:26
Speaker 18: don't need a code of database to identify someone. You
36:29
Speaker 18: don't have to have raped someone else in order for
36:31
Speaker 18: us to identify you. That's the biggest key. You can
36:34
Speaker 18: rate one person and get identified the very very first time.
36:39
Speaker 18: Yet our technology isn't widely used everywhere because people scream
36:43
Speaker 18: all sorts of stuff. Oh well, it's new, we don't
36:45
Speaker 18: know if it works. Oh my god, privacy, Oh oh well,
36:48
Speaker 18: the government's slow and funding it. I want to perpetrateor
36:51
Speaker 18: and jail the first time they commit a crime. I
36:53
Speaker 18: don't want to have to wait till the second victim
36:55
Speaker 18: and a third victim, or the eleventh or twelfth victim.
36:57
Speaker 18: And trust me, we've identified those as well. They're encoded
37:01
Speaker 18: so many many times that no one's ever identified them.
37:04
Speaker 18: They come to us finally, and now they're identified in
37:06
Speaker 18: all these crimes are solved. That's devastating.
37:10
Speaker 4: Take a listen to Marcus Hunter WRG.
37:13
Speaker 16: The TBI accepts rush DNA cases when requested by a
37:18
Speaker 16: local investigative agency, as we did in the recent Eliza
37:22
Speaker 16: Fletcher case. It went on to say, our scientists identified
37:26
Speaker 16: Cleota Apston as a suspect less than eighteen hours after
37:30
Speaker 16: receiving a key evidence. The agency said the sample they
37:34
Speaker 16: received in September of last year was not submitted as
37:38
Speaker 16: a rush case. Therefore it was placed with the standard
37:42
Speaker 16: case work, which can have an average turnaround of thirty
37:46
Speaker 16: three to forty nine weeks.
37:48
Speaker 4: Let's star our friends at Fox thirteen.
37:50
Speaker 19: And Affid David reveals new details about Fletcher's final moments.
37:54
Speaker 4: Investigators say data.
37:56
Speaker 19: From the FBI CAST team, which is used to track
37:59
Speaker 19: cell phones, led them to East Person Avenue and Victor Street.
38:04
Speaker 19: While searching that area Monday, just after five, they say
38:07
Speaker 19: officers noticed high grass at a vacant home, as well
38:11
Speaker 19: as vehicle tracks. In the high grass. Officers also smelled
38:15
Speaker 19: and older of decay. We're told the officers fanned out
38:19
Speaker 19: and walked to the back of the property. Immediately to
38:23
Speaker 19: the right of the steps, they say they found a
38:26
Speaker 19: woman's body. To give you an idea why it was
38:30
Speaker 19: so hard for officials to find her is because even
38:33
Speaker 19: though they're in the middle of a neighborhood, you can
38:36
Speaker 19: see there's very tall grass shielding the view from the street.
38:40
Speaker 4: I'm five to five. Take a look at this grass.
38:42
Speaker 4: It's towering over me.
38:44
Speaker 20: Then there's this abandoned home and we're told Fletcher's remains
38:49
Speaker 20: were found behind this house. Walk with me, so you
38:51
Speaker 20: can see beside these steps here and you can even
38:55
Speaker 20: see an imprint in the dirt right here.
39:00
Speaker 1: Kleiotha Abstin faces murder and abduction charges. I'm waiting to
39:05
Speaker 1: find out if rape charges are going to be added
39:08
Speaker 1: to that. Eliza's body found days after she was abducted
39:13
Speaker 1: on her morning run in a wooded area in southern Memphis,
39:17
Speaker 1: not too far from where police say Abstin was caught
39:21
Speaker 1: on surveillance footage frantically cleaning out his car. I got
39:26
Speaker 1: news for you. You're going to need something like black swan,
39:32
Speaker 1: some sort of acidic cleaner to get rid of DNA
39:36
Speaker 1: kleiotha absent. And I'm pretty sure four nine is not
39:41
Speaker 1: going to do the trick, but good luck with that.
39:44
Speaker 1: He has also been charged with an additional account of
39:47
Speaker 1: aggravated kidnapping and rape. And that separate incident I was
39:50
Speaker 1: telling you about that took place about a year before
39:54
Speaker 1: Eliza was kidnapped and murdered.
39:57
Speaker 4: Yeah, he should have been behind bars on that could
40:00
Speaker 4: have should have. So this is what I predict is
40:02
Speaker 4: going to happen at trial. I predict that.
40:04
Speaker 1: His prior sex attacks and aggravated assaults and kidnaps, oh yes,
40:09
Speaker 1: there's several will come into evidence as similar transactions. Now,
40:15
Speaker 1: as you know, under our jurisprudence, our frame of constitutionality,
40:22
Speaker 1: a jury cannot hear about bad reputation because the constitution
40:28
Speaker 1: wants the defendant tried on the facts of the case
40:31
Speaker 1: in chief. However, similar transactions prior bad acts can be
40:36
Speaker 1: introduced in front of a jury to show course of conduct,
40:40
Speaker 1: frame of mind, method of operation that tend to prove
40:49
Speaker 1: the case in chief, like a fingerprint crime. And I
40:53
Speaker 1: would argue to the judge that these are two fingerprint
40:57
Speaker 1: crimes that will prove that CLO the absence murdered Eliza Fletcher.
41:04
Speaker 1: Now what good does that do her children? That's the
41:06
Speaker 1: big question. The only good it can do the children
41:10
Speaker 1: is that one day they will say, somebody cared. Somebody
41:16
Speaker 1: cared to take this case to trial and prosecute my
41:20
Speaker 1: mom's killer. To the autmost, I had someone standing up
41:29
Speaker 1: for my mom when I was a child, and I
41:31
Speaker 1: couldn't do it myself. So what are the facts of
41:35
Speaker 1: this case?
41:36
Speaker 8: Why is the.
41:36
Speaker 1: State seeking the death penalty? Well, in every jurisdiction that
41:41
Speaker 1: has the death penalty, they are called aggravating circumstances. For instance,
41:48
Speaker 1: if you lay in wait, which suggests you have a cold,
41:51
Speaker 1: calculated mind at the time, you're not angry or drunk
41:55
Speaker 1: or out of your mind on drugs, you intend to
41:57
Speaker 1: do what you're doing for pecuniary or money interest, murder
42:02
Speaker 1: for hire, more than one dead body, mass murder. Some
42:06
Speaker 1: jurisdictions allow if it's in the commission of another felony,
42:10
Speaker 1: such as dealing drugs or a rape. Let's see, what's
42:14
Speaker 1: another one. Some jurisdictions include a very young child or
42:18
Speaker 1: an elderly or a law officer, so those are called
42:23
Speaker 1: aggravating circumstances, and if they exist, that permits the state
42:29
Speaker 1: to seek the death penalty. In jurisdictions where there is
42:32
Speaker 1: a death penalty, and that's what's happened right here, the
42:36
Speaker 1: state is seeking the death penalty. There's also a catch
42:40
Speaker 1: all when the crime is particularly heinous, and I believe
42:47
Speaker 1: this crime is. We wait as justice unfolds. Nancy Grace's
42:53
Speaker 1: crime story is signing off goodbye for the
43:00
Speaker 12: Nine