Victim of Eliza Fletcher Abduction Suspect: 'Lucky' Escape Saved My Life

The man charged with abducting kindergarten teacher and heiress Eliza Fletcher was convicted of another kidnapping 22 years ago.

Cleotha Abston, 38, has been charged with especially aggravated kidnapping and tampering with evidence in connection with Fletcher's disappearance in Memphis, Tennessee. Fletcher, a 34-year-old mother of two and granddaughter of the late billionaire Joseph Orgill III, was jogging early Friday when an attacker ran toward her and shoved her into a GMC Terrain, according to an affidavit.

Abston is being held at the Shelby County Jail on a $500,000 bond, while Fletcher's whereabouts remain unknown.

Abston just spent more than 22 years in state prison for another abduction. In June 2000, when he was 16 years old, he forced Memphis-based lawyer Kemper Durand into the trunk of his car at gunpoint.

Durand was "trapped in the cold darkness of his car trunk" for several hours, according to a 2013 obituary for the 73-year-old attorney by his former colleagues at the Lewis Thomason law firm. Abston and another man, Marquette Cobbins, drove Durand to ATMs where they forced him to withdraw and hand over money.

The lawyer was standing at a Mapco gas station ATM, still at gunpoint, when he saw an armed Memphis Housing Authority guard. Durand yelled for help and his assailants fled. They were later arrested, tried and found guilty for his kidnapping.

In a victim impact statement, Durand said, "My feelings about being the victim of this crime, and the feelings of those around me, are that I was extremely lucky that I was able to escape from the custody of Cleotha Abston."

Had the security guard not happened to walk in while Durand was at the Mapco station, he believed his story could have turned out much worse.

"It is quite likely that I would have been killed had I not escaped," he said.

At the sentencing hearing for Abston and Cobbins, Durand asked the judge to give Cobbins leniency, the lawyer's colleagues said in his obituary.

"Yes, the man had been there and could certainly be considered an accomplice, but as Kemper saw it, the man was at the wrong place with the wrong person at the wrong time," said the eulogy.

Durand described how while he lay in the trunk of his car, he listened to the men talking. He recalled that Cobbins pleaded with Abston to "Stop the car, let this man out, give him his keys, and go!"

Before Abston's conviction for kidnapping Durand, he had already appeared in juvenile court numerous times for charges including theft, aggravated assault, aggravated assault with a weapon, and rape, according to the lawyer's testimony. His first appearance in the system dates back to 1995, when he was only 12 years old.

Newsweek reached out to Shelby County court for comment.