Found Deceased TN - Eliza "Liza" Fletcher, 34, Abducted While Jogging, Memphis, 2022 *arrest* #5

[CharlestonGal]

i hate to be judgmental when i don't know those responsible and have never done the job they do, but this just seems either incredibly incompetent or just plain lazy to me...

These numbers just don't add up for me.

A statement from TBI said:


The time taken to process these cases is attributed to the workload of the four scientists assigned to this department. These forensic scientists handle every biological evidence filing, from murders to SAKs to robberies, muggings and burglaries. In 2021, this included 602 submissions of evidence.

So 602 submissions to TBI in 2021. There are 260 weekdays in 2021, so they received 2.3 submissions per day. Divided among 4 staff members. That's 0.5 cases per day per person. How is that even possible? Even if 2 of them are dedicated solely to the backlog they only manage to process 1 submission per day between the two of them? What the heck?
<modsnip - not an approved source>

 

[veronica.mars]

That’s my understanding too. The skeptical part of me finds the timing of the DNA results coming back on 9/5/22 a little coincidental? Is it possible they came back earlier and were overlooked?

Or did they suddenly rush that 2021 report's kit?

 

[CharlestonGal]

Or did they suddenly rush that 2021 report's kit?

I think we have a winner.

 

[Libra243]

Everyone is heavily focusing on the backlog and carefully avoiding the question - why
violent crime increased? How demographic contribute to crime? How to solve the problem?
Does more money (aka band-aid treatment) make public schools/medical system better?
"This only needs one visionary senator.(!)" Nope. The gates are open: Illinois ending cash bail system, the other states will follow it.

​

 

[Knox]

I find the rape backlog issue to be such a failure of political opportunity.
Imagine a senator who stands up and says, I feel strongly that a big-data-connected repository of results from rapid analysis of this rape backlog would result in more assured criminal prosecutions of bad guys,
And I myself am donating $10,000 to get us started,
And I humbly ask, and also assertively challenge, major companies in America who feel strongly about justice for women and girls to put up $100M each toward the cause if they are publicly listed, and $10M each if they are held privately or are in industries that can provide unique ancillary development service to this effort.
Let’s all prove it, together. Let’s put up to reconstitute what we just saw in COVID - acres of travel nurses in convention centers - let’s put up acres of genetic scientists in temporary labs and clear and digitize the biggest treasure trove of justice we have in the US, which is hundreds of thousands of rape kits gathering dust. Let’s answer these questions while the victims are still alive and can show us the face of justice. Let’s set an audacious goal of clearing every 1Y+ backlogged rape kit in the 50 states and digitize results for federal match.

Set up a leadership. Healthcare supply chain guy. This becomes the big medical supply chain benevolence project of 2023

FB would put up $100M
Amazon $100M
Microsoft $100M
Elon would give $100M
Goldman $100M
JPM Chase $100M
Blackrock $100M
Blackstone $100M though obligated only to $10 - they’d go beyond
Gates Foundation $100M
Rubenstein $100M
Social Capital $10M
Big 4 accounting, $10M each
VMWare $10M
KKR $10M
Andreessen Horowitz $10M
Stripe $10M
Cisco $10M, give us some volunteer engineers
Verizon $10M

Can grow this idea out massively. Bill name is Making Women Whole and Bringing Science and Justice Forward. This is so doable. It needs an evangelist. Could quickly have $1B devoted to buildings out labs and fixing the enterprise data architecture.

This only needs one visionary senator.

I would love personally to devote my life to selling and building this.

I too wish you could devote your time to selling this idea, even if you only achieved half your asks it would be a win!!
Great post!

The largest retailer/employer in the US isn't on your list ...
Their security systems seem to be involved in so many of the cases we see here at Websleuths.

 

[fred&edna]

Responsibility and accountability are sorely lacking... everywhere.

jmo

 

[mickey2942]

There was a "Law and Order: SVU" episode on the rape kit testing DNA backlog awhile back.

Behave (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

‘Law & Order: SVU’ star Mariska Hargitay speaks at DNC about untested rape kit backlog

"The most important thing you can say to a survivor is, 'I hear you,'" she said. "If you’re silent you’re complicit, and we’re just getting started."

news.yahoo.com

Joe Biden to appear on Law & Order: SVU to talk rape kit backlog

Biden will commend fictional detectives on their work to end rape kit backlog, highlighting real partnership between politician and the show’s leading actor

www.theguardian.com

https://www.endthebacklog.org/

 

[Knox]

Everyone is heavily focusing on the backlog and carefully avoiding the question - why
violent crime increased? How demographic contribute to crime? How to solve the problem?
Does more money (aka band-aid treatment) make public schools/medical system better?
"This only needs one visionary senator.(!)" Nope. The gates are open: Illinois ending cash bail system, the other states will follow it.

​

Interesting. So the last paragraph in the link below states "kidnapping" is one of the crimes which won't involve detention before going to trial.

Had the previous victim's case been handled correctly - Eliza's death was 100% preventable.

‘The gates are open’: Illinois ending cash bail system

Illinois is getting ready for some changes in 2023 that include eliminating its cash bail system.

www.wabi.tv

 

[BeckyF]

Or did they suddenly rush that 2021 report's kit?

You nailed it!

 

[TruthIsStranger]

Weird. There's a connection between the victim's uncle and Cleotha Abston.

From The Daily Mail, "Two weeks after he was released from the youth services bureau to his mother's care, he was transferred to adult court for the 2000 kidnapping of lawyer Kemper Durand - who worked in the same law firm as Fletcher's uncle Michael Keeney. Ex-FBI Officer Coffindaffer also said that Durand's connection to Fletcher's uncle is a 'very significant clue.' 'I'm sure certainly that the FBI, that the US Marshals, and that the TBI is looking closely at this relationship,' she said.

Man who murdered heiress charged with raping, kidnapping another woman

 

[Skigirl]

i hate to be judgmental when i don't know those responsible and have never done the job they do, but this just seems either incredibly incompetent or just plain lazy to me...

Rape kits normally take years to test and enter into CODIS because of the huge backlog. LE didn't request a rush for that particular 2021 rape kit because there was no reason to privilege justice for that victim over all the other victims ahead of her in line. Once there was an abduction and evidence was needed to locate a possibly still-alive victim, they rushed the sample from the slides.

That is not laziness on the part of law enforcement. It's entirely on the state legislature for not providing the needed funding to expand the lab or send the samples out to an external lab.

 

[Skigirl]

I find the rape backlog issue to be such a failure of political opportunity.
Imagine a senator who stands up and says, I feel strongly that a big-data-connected repository of results from rapid analysis of this rape backlog would result in more assured criminal prosecutions of bad guys,
And I myself am donating $10,000 to get us started,
And I humbly ask, and also assertively challenge, major companies in America who feel strongly about justice for women and girls to put up $100M each toward the cause if they are publicly listed, and $10M each if they are held privately or are in industries that can provide unique ancillary development service to this effort.
Let’s all prove it, together. Let’s put up to reconstitute what we just saw in COVID - acres of travel nurses in convention centers - let’s put up acres of genetic scientists in temporary labs and clear and digitize the biggest treasure trove of justice we have in the US, which is hundreds of thousands of rape kits gathering dust. Let’s answer these questions while the victims are still alive and can show us the face of justice. Let’s set an audacious goal of clearing every 1Y+ backlogged rape kit in the 50 states and digitize results for federal match.

Set up a leadership. Healthcare supply chain guy. This becomes the big medical supply chain benevolence project of 2023

FB would put up $100M
Amazon $100M
Microsoft $100M
Elon would give $100M
Goldman $100M
JPM Chase $100M
Blackrock $100M
Blackstone $100M though obligated only to $10 - they’d go beyond
Gates Foundation $100M
Rubenstein $100M
Social Capital $10M
Big 4 accounting, $10M each
VMWare $10M
KKR $10M
Andreessen Horowitz $10M
Stripe $10M
Cisco $10M, give us some volunteer engineers
Verizon $10M

Can grow this idea out massively. Bill name is Making Women Whole and Bringing Science and Justice Forward. This is so doable. It needs an evangelist. Could quickly have $1B devoted to buildings out labs and fixing the enterprise data architecture.

This only needs one visionary senator.

I would love personally to devote my life to selling and building this.

I used to work at one of the largest diagnostic companies in the world and I have also separately, after I left the company, actively advocated my state legislature for funds for testing the backlog. There is no problem whatsoever with lab capacity -- the large reference labs have the capabilities and the required certifications and could end the backlog very quickly and at the same, or lower, cost as the state labs.

Literally the only thing lacking is for those in power to care enough to allocate the money.

This is one of the best articles on the subject: An Epidemic of Disbelief

 

[NoSpoonFeeding]

Ex-FBI Officer Coffindaffer also said that Durand's connection to Fletcher's uncle is a 'very significant clue.' 'I'm sure certainly that the FBI, that the US Marshals, and that the TBI is looking closely at this relationship,' she said.

At the time, the former FBI officer was referring to the possibility that this could also be a ransom kidnapping.
This has been discussed upthread and in the media since this early discovery of this coincidence. It turned out not to be any kind of clue at all, there is zero evidence that the suspect knew who the victim was.

 

[balharbour]

My understanding of the sequence is a little bit different.

As I understand it:

The 2021 rape kit was caught in a backlog of unprocessed rape kits, and not sent to be tested until early summer, 2022.

The test results returned late August, were sent to CODIS, the national DNA database, and returned a match with CH, on Sept 5. (Presumably his DNA had been entered because of his earlier violent crime conviction, prison sentence, etc.

Unfortunately, in the mean time, Eliza had been kidnapped and murdered. Since LE had the violent kidnapping on video, they rushed the DNA processing of his sandals, (which he’d evidently lost in the struggle,) and the match with his CODIS DNA came back fast. And as you said, they nailed him!

ok and thanks for the clarification.

 

[redfishingirl]

If the assault took place at the end of Sept and wasn't submitted until the end of Dec... it appears a bit longer than 24 weeks but that was certainly just an estimate of turnaround time. Assuming there was no backlog - as per a previous post with link by another member.

Tracking system in development for evidence submitted by sexual assault survivors in Tennessee

The Jim Coley Protection for Rape Survivors Act, which took effect July 1, is requiring the TBI to implement a tracking system for sexual assault kits.

www.newschannel5.com

Police are now required to pick up sexual assault kits from hospitals within 48 hours rather than 7 days and officers have to submit the kits for testing within 30 days instead of 60.

At the TBI, it currently takes about 24 weeks to turnaround a sexual assault kit.


******

I wonder if the Sept 2021 victim received a tracking number and was notified?

Donna Nelson, the crime laboratory regional supervisor with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, explained that every victim who consents to a sexual assault examination will get an ID number that will allow them to get real-time update on the status of their evidence through an online portal.

New TBI system will give sexual assault victims updates on evidence processing

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A new law in Tennessee will help sexual assault victims keep track of their evidence, thanks in part to help from a city thousands of miles away. The law requires the Tennessee Bur…

wreg.com

Seems like change was coming, just too late for sweet Eliza. And countless many others

 

[Yellow Rose]

Eliza Fletcher murder suspect due in court after new abduction, rape charges in 2021 incident

Eliza Fletcher murder suspect Cleotha Henderson is due back in court Monday after being charged in an alleged armed September 21, 2021, rape and kidnapping of another woman.

www.foxnews.com

I can't even think straight. There is absolutely no redemption for this man whatsoever.

 

[fridaybaker]

What did the man you knew expect to be a violent crime? A bar fight? A murder? A rape is so much in the violent crime group…

Well, my friend sure considered it violent!

The man who didn’t consider rape to be a violent crime was a doctor we worked with. I assume he thinks of violent crime to be only shootings, muggings, etc. I don’t know, because we were all too stunned to say anything.

 

[JustMyself]

Yes, I would like to know the reason as well. My GUESS is manpower. It obviously can be done in the blink of an eye when the impetus is there, as we witnessed here in the case of EF.

The backlog in processing a single rape kit can have far-reaching, and devastating consequences. If one separates out rape and views it as a crime only unto itself, the bigger picture is missed: That of a violent person who is liable to maim and murder as well as rape, and as long as they’re out roaming free in society there is the potential for others to be victimized.

Short story here. I had a friend years ago who was raped. Guy crashed through her kitchen window, she fought like a tiger, but he won the fight and went on to rape more women, the last known victim awakened in the night with a pillow over her face. Although my friend’s rape was, of course, violent by definition, the level of violence by this beast was escalating.

Unbelievably, a man we worked with happened to be sitting for jury selection for this trial. When he realized that it was for the trial of my friend’s rapist, he said ‘no, that can’t be it. I was told the trial will be for a violent crime”. Rape IS VIOLENT. By definition. If a man will rape, there is no reason to believe that he won’t be violent in other ways, including murder. Violence is violence. MOO.

We need to get the backlog taken care of.

Completely agree. Rape is violent. For some reason male on male rape is seen (by men) as more violent and abhorrent than male on female rape - both are about power, aggression and control not sexuality but it seems to be very difficult for people to understand this.

 

[FLmom777]

I tried to look up unsolved rapes for September 2021 but didn’t see any but saw this. The suspect looks different facially to me but it’s hard to tell:

Sexual predator wanted for attempted rape and indecent exposure

Anyone with information is urged to call the Dyersburg Police Department at 311, the Criminal Investigation Division 288-7679, or Crime Stoppers at 285-TIPS.

www.localmemphis.com

Also Dyersburg is 77 miles away from Memphis.

That suspect is much shorter.

 

[Jovi Girl]

Was CA in court today ?