Eliza “Liza” Fletcher was an avid runner who usually ran 8.2 miles during the morning hours, but she never got the chance to complete her route last week.
Fletcher, 34, was abducted in Memphis, Tennessee, on September 2 and her body was found Monday behind an empty complex.
On Friday, her community will complete that struggle for her.
More than 2,100 people have signed up to run Fletcher’s route in an event dubbed “Let’s Finish Liza’s Run.” The race was organized on Facebook and has doubled in participation since Thursday afternoon. Another 3,200 people said they were “interested” in attending.
“We created this run to honor Lisa and deal with our own feelings,” event details on the event’s Facebook page read. “Our goal is to stand up for women in the Mid South and emphasize that women should be able to run safely at any time of the day.”
The Memphis Police Department tweeted that it would support the event with an “increased presence in the area.”
Road closures and detours will be in effect from 4:00 a.m., when participants begin to gather, until 7:30 a.m., when they expect the course to be completed and the course cleared.
Fletcher was a kindergarten teacher at St. John’s Episcopal School. Mary in Memphis. The school’s faculty and staff lit candles in her memory earlier this week.
The 34-year-old was also a wife and mother of two.
Fletcher’s funeral will be held Saturday at 10 a.m., according to her obituary.
“Lisa was a light to all who knew her. Her contagious smile and laugh could light up any room. Lisa was pure of heart and innocent in ways that made her see the best in everyone she met,” read her obituary, published by Canale Funeral Directors on Thursday.
Fletcher’s death and the court appearance Thursday of the man accused of killing her coincided with another wave of shock and grief for Memphis: Police say a 19-year-old man went on a shooting spree across the city Wednesday, killing four people and wounding three others.
The man has been identified as Ezekiel Kelly and is scheduled to appear in court Friday, according to jail records. He is being held on a charge of first-degree murder, though officials said they expect additional felony charges.
The man accused of abducting and killing Fletcher has been identified as Cleotha Henderson, 38. He appeared in a Shelby County court Thursday after filing to change his attorney due to an alleged conflict of interest.
The Shelby County Public Defender’s Office, which was assigned to Henderson’s case this week, previously represented him in a kidnapping conviction more than 20 years ago, Judge Louis J. Montesi Jr. said.
Montesi said Henderson’s previous attorney would not be involved in his current case, but ruled there was “no reason or basis to disqualify the public defender as counsel.”
The judge said Henderson will remain in the Shelby County Jail without bond on the murder charge against him.
Henderson initially faced charges of kidnapping and tampering with evidence, and prosecutors later added a charge of first-degree murder for committing the kidnapping.
Henderson allegedly ran over Fletcher in an SUV while she was jogging in a neighborhood near the University of Memphis. Authorities say Henderson got out of the vehicle and chased Fletcher until he forced her into the passenger seat around 4 a.m. on Sept. 2.
It’s unclear at this point what kind of sentence prosecutors plan to pursue if Henderson is convicted.
“It is premature for us to discuss at this time what punishment we will seek,” Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy said Wednesday. In Tennessee, a first-degree murder conviction carries a sentence of life in prison – with or without parole – or the death penalty.
Also unclear is whether Henderson’s previous kidnapping conviction of more than 20 years would have an impact on this case. Henderson pleaded guilty to kidnapping an attorney in 2000 and was released in 2020, the Shelby County District Attorney’s office told local news outlet WREG.
The search for Fletcher began last Friday after her husband reported she did not return home from her daily morning jog, authorities said in an affidavit.
Police later found surveillance video of that area that showed a black GMC Terrain passing her, according to the affidavit. A man can be seen in the footage getting out of the SUV and running “aggressively” toward her before forcing her into the passenger seat of the vehicle, according to the affidavit. The SUV drove off about four minutes after both people were inside, the affidavit states.
The photo shows a moment before the jogger was abducted in a black SUV
Police also analyzed a pair of sandals found at the scene of the abduction, near the victim’s phone. DNA found on the shoes matched Henderson’s DNA, according to the affidavit.
Henderson’s employer told investigators he drove a GMC Terrain and verified his phone number. Cell phone records showed Henderson was near the scene of the abduction at the time of the abduction, according to the affidavit.
Members of a US Marshals task force found a GMC Terrain matching details seen on surveillance video near Henderson’s home Saturday morning, the affidavit states. The task force arrested Henderson near his home on Saturday, the court document said.
Two witnesses – including Henderson’s brother – told police they saw Henderson acting strangely at the brother’s home in Memphis after the abduction, according to the affidavit. Both said Henderson cleaned the interior of the GMC Terrain with floor cleaner and washed his clothes in the home’s sink, the affidavit states.
