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Cleotha Abston-Henderson, 38, has been charged with first-degree murder in relation to mother-of-two Eliza Fletcher He is accused of kidnapping her as she was out jogging at 4.30am on Friday and 'violently' bundled her into his SUV Authorities announced on Tuesday that Fletcher's body had been found by an abandoned house after an exhaustive search Abston-Henderson was previously jailed for 22 years after kidnapping a lawyer in Memphis in 2000, driving him around at gunpoint Records show that he was previously arrested for raping a man and several assaults before he turned 16, and was first in juvenille court aged...

The body found near the Memphis crime scene late Sunday has been identified as missing teacher and young mother Eliza Fletcher, the Memphis Police Department confirmed. Fletcher was abducted while she was running near the University of Memphis early Friday morning. Agents with the U.S. Marshals Service arrested Cleotha Abston, 38, on Saturday after matching his DNA to a pair of sandals found near the scene. Abston was charged Tuesday morning with first-degree murder, in addition to his previous charges, records show.

At 5:07 pm, officers in the 1600 block of Victor located a deceased party. The identity of this person and the cause of death is unconfirmed at this time. The investigation is ongoing.

Authorities say they have found a body near where Eliza Fletcher was abducted while jogging in Memphis last week. The Memphis Police Department said officers in the 1600 block of Victor located a "deceased party" just after 5 p.m.

[...] Fletcher, 34, was abducted on her regular 4 a.m. jog Friday after stalked by Cleotha Abston, who’d waited for her to run past him, the police affidavit alleged. She had run from her home in the fancy Central Gardens neighborhood to a nice area near the University of Memphis campus. Court records show Abston, 38, is a previously convicted kidnapper: he pleaded guilty to especially aggravated kidnapping and robbery in 2001. He was sentenced to 24 years and 11 years in prison respectively, although it is unclear how long he remained incarcerated and if he served his sentences concurrently....

The Memphis Police Department has arrested a man in connection with the kidnapping of missing teacher Eliza Fletcher. Cleotha Abston, 38, was arrested and charged with especially aggravated kidnapping and tampering with evidence following Fletcher’s mysterious disappearance on Friday, Memphis police said early Sunday. "The investigation into the abduction of Eliza Fletcher is still active and ongoing. Investigators are continuing the search and following all leads," the police department said.

Eliza Fletcher, 34, is the granddaughter to hardware magnate Joseph "Joe" Orgill III, whose wholesale family business, Orgill Inc., is described as "the world's largest independent hardlines distributor with annual sales of $3 billion," according to the company's website. *****

Another video only update. Summary: Ship is now pretty much completely pumped out and riding high in the water. 95% of the water has been removed, most of the crews are leaving, they're still chasing small leaks/the remaining 5% of the water. Ship has a tiny list to starboard. The last of the on-board diesel fuel and hydraulic fluids is being removed so it won't continue to pollute. The entire ship is likely going to be getting repainted and they're going to resume cleaning the mussels off the hull. They are now starting to investigate why the ship sank -...

Another video only update: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRi8C1Dm6p8 Summary: Pumping is going slowly but well, the salvage crew is moving to some night operations as well as day as they are more confident in the ship's structure and condition now. Ship's list has been greatly reduced, 25-27K gallons of water have been pumped out of the bow section. Artifacts of the Sullivan family, the Juno, and other related items have been removed and placed in dry storage just in case - these items were not exposed to water and will need no restoration.

Video only update: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXj81SXVVkU Summary - ship is slowly being pumped out, has rolled more upright, hatches were opened as part of opening for the day as a museum ship, the ship suddenly took on a list and the staff was ordered off the sinking ship without being allowed to close. The video also shows that they were making attempts to deal with the ongoing leaks and hull integrity issues prior to the current incident.

A “Pastafarian” pastor on Tuesday gave an opening prayer on behalf of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster before a local government meeting in Alaska while wearing a colander on his head. Barrett Fletcher, the pastor, noted the duties performed by the members of the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly in his message, adding a few of them "seem to feel they can't do the work without being overseen by a higher authority.” "So, I'm called to invoke the power of the true inebriated creator of the universe, the drunken tolerator (sic) of the all lesser and more recent gods,...

Three, three Trump rallies today Fletcher, PA @ noon, Johnstown, PA @ 4 and Newtown, PA @ 7:30pm ET.

California Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher said he's leaving the Republican Party to become an independent barely two months before voters in the nation's eighth-largest city decide whether to elect him mayor. The move may enliven an already contested race that features a crowded Republican field in a city where Democrats hold a clear advantage in voter registration. Fletcher has lagged in recent polls that show a large number of undecided voters. Fletcher, 35, has broken ranks with Republicans several times since joining the Assembly in 2009 and said he struggled with his party affiliation during his two terms in Sacramento. "In...

EVEN IN THE DAKOTA, the storied apartment building on New York’s Upper West Side, home to such cultural icons as Yoko Ono and Lauren Bacall, Buddy Fletcher stood out. African American, fantastically accomplished, and wealthy, Fletcher had grown up in modest circumstances, gone to Harvard, and graduated as “first marshal” of his class in 1987. From there he hit Wall Street, earned millions before he turned 25, and started his own firm, Fletcher Asset Management. By the time he was 30, the company was operating as a hedge fund and boasting of triple-digit returns. Fletcher made multimillion-dollar donations to Harvard,...

SACRAMENTO, CA, September 1, 2011--AB 499, the bill that permits 12 year old children to give consent without their parents' knowledge for vaccines or other medication to prevent sexually transmitted diseases, passed the CA Senate yesterday on a 22-17 vote. The Governor could take action on the bill any time between September 9 and October 9. Ask the governor to veto AB 499. (See how senators voted) This bill is one of the most egregious violations of parental rights, next to the right to provide abortions for minors without parent knowledge. If it passes, parents will have no right to...

...Whitman doubts she will ever again run for elected office, and for many months she said little about the campaign. But she has started popping up recently on radio and TV. For a beaten candidate who wishes to remain relevant in politics – Whitman is advising Republican front-runner Mitt Romney in his presidential campaign, and she plans to involve herself in California ballot initiatives – it helps to stay in view. (snip) She said she plans to support ballot initiatives perhaps as early as this summer, likely involving education policy. She said she will recruit and support Republican candidates for...

The Libyan killer of a British policewoman will never be brought to justice in Britain after a secret deal approved by Jack Straw. The Foreign Office bowed to Libyan pressure and agreed that Britain would abandon any attempt to try the murderer of WPC Yvonne Fletcher, shot outside the Libyan embassy in London 25 years ago. Anthony Layden, Britain’s former ambassador to Libya, said this weekend he had signed the agreement with the Libyan government three years ago, when Straw was foreign secretary. At the time Britain was negotiating trade deals worth hundreds of millions of pounds with Libya. The...

Two big questions hang over President Obama's radical "Green Jobs Czar" Van Jones. Is he still a communist? Is he a security threat? Many have assumed that Van Jones' committment to communism ended when the organization he helped to lead STORM (Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement) dissolved in 2002. Yet a 2004 treatise Reclaiming Revolution: History, Summation, and Lessons from the Work of Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement written and endorsed by a majority of former STORM members makes it clear that most ex STORMers are still committed to the revolutionary movement; From page 49. When...

In Tuesday's off-year elections, Democrats continued to gather steam in Virginia and Kentucky--making it even more obvious that these two Southern states are up for grabs in 2008. Kentucky's Republican Governor Ernie Fletcher, hand-picked for the job by US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in 2003, did not merely lose his re-election bid to Democrat Steve Beshear--he got pummeled, obliterated and all-around embarrassed by a "has-been" candidate who'd dropped out of politics a decade ago after losing races for governor and Senate. Beshear won almost 60 percent of the vote. Much of Fletcher's trouble was Fletcher himself--he ran in 2003...

Who is on Jesus' side in Mississippi? That's the question John Arthur Eaves Jr. posed to voters during his recent campaign for Mississippi governor. The 41-year-old attorney and evangelical Christian ran his campaign on themes familiar in the Bible Belt: Eaves is pro-life, opposes gay marriage, and favors teaching creationism in public schools. But one thing about Eaves' overtly Christian-themed candidacy threw Mississippi voters for a loop: Eaves is a Democrat. Eaves did not prevail against Republican incumbent Gov. Haley Barbour in the Nov. 6 elections, but the candidate did manage to make a point in the Republican stronghold: Democrats...