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More than a thousand runners are set to finish the run Eliza Fletcher wasn’t able to last week after she was abducted and murdered on her morning jog in Memphis. 

Fletcher, 34, was on her regular 4 a.m. run last week when Cleotha Abston allegedly snatched her, stuck her in his car, and eventually killed her. Abston has since been charged with first-degree murder and especially aggravated kidnapping, among other charges.

The Tennessee mother and heiress had been five miles from her home at the time. 

“We created this run as way to honor Liza and cope with our own feelings,” the organizers wrote on a Facebook event for the jog.

More than 1,400 have RSVP’d to the run, which organizers said is “not sanctioned by the family and is not a fundraiser.”

The run will be 8.2 miles and take a path Fletcher would “regularly run,” the event page said. 

Eliza Fletcher, 34, was known to take her regular 4 a.m. runs. AP
Fletcher was allegedly kidnapped and murdered during her morning jog. Tennessee Bureau of Investigations

“Our goal is to stand up for the women in the Mid South and emphasize that women should be able to safely run any time of day,” the organizers continued. The event will take place exactly a week after she first disappeared and the run will begin at 4:20 a.m, around the time she vanished.

Surveillance footage from last Friday showed a Black GMC Terrain allegedly driven by Abston pulling up ahead of Fletcher — and a man getting out and running “aggressively toward” the mom-of-two. 

The man then forced her into the passenger’s seat. 


  Cleotha Abston was charged with first-degree murder, aggravated kidnapping and other charges. AP/Mark Weber Cleotha Abston was charged with first-degree murder, aggravated kidnapping and other charges. AP/Mark Weber

  The Tennessee mother had been five miles from her home at the time of the gruesome attack.  Mark Weber/Daily Memphian via AP The Tennessee mother had been five miles from her home at the time of the gruesome attack.  Mark Weber/Daily Memphian via AP

  The run honoring Fletcher will be 8.2 miles and take a path she would “regularly run.” Instagram/Liza Fletcher The run honoring Fletcher will be 8.2 miles and take a path she would “regularly run.” Instagram/Liza Fletcher

Police positively identified Tuesday a body as Fletcher’s that had been found the day before near an abandoned home.

She is survived by her husband and two children. 

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