Billion heiress kidnapped: After the body was found - the police announced a sad certainty

Created: 06/09/2022, 23:12

Memphis police confirmed the body was billionaire heiress Eliza "Liza" Fletcher (icon image).

© Karen Focht / IMAGO / ZUMA Wire

The billionaire heiress Eliza Fletcher was kidnapped on Friday evening on her morning jog. On Monday afternoon, the police found an initially unidentified body.

Memphis - Millionaire heiress Eliza "Liza" Fletcher made a habit of going for a jog around 4 a.m. every morning.

Her jogs usually took her near the University of Memphis, Tennessee campus.

But last Friday she didn't come home after about an hour as usual.

Her husband turned on the police, surveillance videos showed: Fletcher had been kidnapped.

Eliza "Liza" Fletcher's kidnapping: Surveillance cameras show perpetrators

Eliza Fletcher, 34, was a private school teacher, so she apparently had a regular schedule, like her morning jog.

Her husband therefore noticed after a short time on Friday that something was wrong.

He alerted police, who checked surveillance cameras at Eliza's usual jogging route, CNN reported.

A surveillance video showed a black SUV driving past the billionaire heiress.

The video then showed a man exiting the SUV and "aggressively" approaching the jogger before forcing her into the passenger seat of the vehicle.

The car then sat in a parking lot for about four minutes before driving away.

Police find the black SUV and an unidentified body

On Saturday, the family of the missing went public and offered a $50,000 reward for information.

"We're assuming someone knows what happened and can help," said her uncle Michael Keeney.

Over the weekend, the police then arrested an urgent suspect and brought charges against him.

The vehicle seen on surveillance video was parked in a parking lot near his home in southeast Memphis.

Police also found genetic material from the 38-year-old suspect on shoes found at the scene of the kidnapping.

He was initially charged with particularly aggravated kidnapping and evidence tampering, and bail was set at $500,000.

Apparently, the accused was already serving a prison sentence for a serious kidnapping more than 20 years ago, according to CNN.

On Monday evening, police found an initially unidentified body near the kidnapping site.

On Tuesday, Memphis police confirmed on Twitter that the body they found was the kidnapped teacher.

The murdered Eliza Fletcher was found approximately 7.5 miles (12 kilometers) from where she was abducted early Friday morning.

The charges against the 38-year-old suspect were then expanded to include premeditated murder.

Teachers and staff at the school where Fletcher worked said they were "heartbroken at the loss of our beloved teacher, colleague and friend."

But not all kidnapping cases end so tragically.

A baby kidnapped in Leipzig was recently handed over to its mother safely.