The pungent scent of Tennessee heiress Eliza Fletcher’s decaying corpse led a police search and rescue workforce to find her physique, paperwork obtained by The Put up Tuesday revealed.
Fletcher, of Memphis, went lacking Friday throughout her early-morning jog and was found by authorities on Monday after a multi-day search.
Police charged Cleotha Abston, 38, along with her homicide and kidnapping. Within the affidavit launched Tuesday, authorities outlined grisly new particulars about how they discovered Fletcher, 34, in excessive grass close to a vacant residence on Victor Road in south Memphis.
“The officers observed automobile tracks within the grass … and the officers smelled an odor of decay,” in response to the affidavit.
After following the scent, a cop “positioned an unresponsive feminine mendacity on the bottom.”
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Images obtained by Fox Information present the home and space the place Fletcher’s physique was discovered.
Authorities introduced the invention of a physique that Monday, however didn’t affirm it was Fletcher’s till Tuesday. Her physique was discovered greater than three miles southwest of her residence within the tony Central Gardens neighborhood.
“The scene investigation revealed that the feminine match the outline of lacking particular person, Eliza Fletcher,” the doc stated.
Eliza Fletcher’s physique was discovered right here at this South Memphis residence.Matt Symons for Fox Information DigitalTire tracks approaching the home the place the physique of Eliza Fletcher was discovered.Michael Ruiz for Fox Information Digita
In response to police, the scent of kidnapped trainer Eliza Fletcher’s corpse was what led to it being found.Courtesy of Memphis Police Division through AP
Fletcher went lacking throughout an early-morning jog in Memphis, Tennessee final week.Tennessee Bureau of Investigations
Cleotha Abston was charged with murdering and kidnapping Fletcher.Mark Weber/Each day Memphian through AP
After the invention, regulation enforcement additionally discovered a trash bag that “contained purple Lululemon working shorts that have been consisted [sic] with those Eliza Fletcher was final seen sporting.”
Fletcher’s physique was present in an space near the place police say Abston was seen cleansing out the GMC Terrain seen in surveillance footage of Fletcher’s violent abduction.
She was snatched off the road about 5 miles east from her residence.
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Fletcher’s physique was discovered close to the place a surveillance video caught Abston cleansing out his automobile.AP Picture/Adrian SainzA trash bag containing Fletcher’s clothes was additionally discovered close to her physique.Instagram/Eliza Fletcher
Abston, who beforehand served 20 years in jail for a violent kidnapping, refused to disclose the place Fletcher was after his bust.
Fletcher was the mother of two younger boys, an elementary college trainer and granddaughter of a billionaire {hardware} firm magnate.
Two bodies were discovered in the landing gear compartment of a JetBlue plane on Monday after a flight to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., the airline said in a statement on Tuesday.
JetBlue Flight 1801 departed Kennedy Airport in New York at 7:49 p.m. Monday and landed at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport at 11:10 p.m., according to flight tracker data. The bodies were discovered during a routine post-flight maintenance assessment of the plane, the airline said.
Paramedics pronounced the two people dead at the scene, according to the Broward County Sheriff’s Office. It was unclear how long the people had been in the landing gear compartment.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which manages Kennedy Airport, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about how the individuals may have gained access to the aircraft.
Landing gear compartments, located under an aircraft’s wings and at the front of the plane, have long been used by people attempting to travel undetected on airplanes. The airline did not say whether the two people who were found dead on Monday were stowaways.
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Such attempts to hide in landing gear compartments have proven deadly in the past. The compartments open and close upon takeoff and landing to deploy and retract wheels and other landing components, and other stowaways have fallen to their deaths from the openings, sometimes landing in public spaces along flight paths.
Those who can stay within the compartment risk being crushed by landing gear when it is withdrawn back into the aircraft, along with other hazards, including severe temperatures, pressure changes and lack of oxygen. Many stowaways die of hypothermia.
As recently as Christmas Day, a body was discovered in a wheel well of a United Airlines flight from Chicago to Hawaii. In 2023, a man was found alive in a landing gear compartment after a commercial flight from Algeria to France, though he was suffering from severe hypothermia.
An investigation was underway on Tuesday to determine the identities of the two individuals discovered in Fort Lauderdale and how they might have accessed the aircraft before it departed from New York, JetBlue said.
“This is a heartbreaking situation, and we are committed to working closely with authorities to support their efforts to understand how this occurred,” the airline said.
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Facebook owner Meta is ending its third party fact-checking programme and will instead rely on its users to flag misinformation.
The social media platform on Tuesday said it would “allow more speech by lifting restrictions on some topics that are part of mainstream discourse and focusing our enforcement on illegal and high-severity violations” and “take a more personalised approach to political content”.
Starting in the US, Meta will move to a so-called “community notes” model, similar to the one employed by Elon Musk’s X, which allows users to add context to controversial or misleading posts. Meta itself will not write community notes.
Former President Jimmy Carter‘s casket is being transferred Tuesday to Washington, D.C., for the next phase of his state funeral.
Carter has been lying in repose in Atlanta, as part of six days of observances that began Saturday with a service at his boyhood home in Plains, Georgia.
“This is somebody from a small town in south Georgia who was a peanut farmer who ultimately became the president of the United States,” said Carter’s grandson, Jason Carter, at the Plains service on Saturday. “It’s a pretty remarkable American story.”
Carter, the 39th president, died on Dec. 29 at the age of 100 — living longer than any president in U.S. history. His beloved wife of 77 years, Rosalynn, died in November 2023.
On Tuesday, Carter’s body will be flown from Atlanta to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, where his casket will be transferred with ceremony to a hearse. From there, a motorcade will proceed to the U.S. Navy Memorial, where his casket will then be transferred from a hearse to a horse-drawn caisson with ceremony.
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Members of the joint services military honor guard conduct a changing of the guard near the casket of former President Jimmy Carter as he lies in repose at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, on Jan. 6, 2025. Carter died Dec. 29 at the age of 100.
Erik S. Lesser / AP
The caisson will travel to the U.S. Capitol, where Carter’s casket will be carried up the stairs into the Rotunda by military body bearers. Members of Congress will be able to pay their respects during a service.
Beginning Tuesday afternoon, Carter will lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda until Thursday, when his funeral service will be held at the National Cathedral before his remains are flown back to Georgia. President Biden is will be delivering a eulogy at Thursday’s service, along with several others. President-elect Donald Trump said he will attend.
There will be a final private service in Plains, and Carter will be buried next to Rosalynn Carter at his family’s peanut farm.
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Full schedule of Tuesday’s events (all times Eastern):
9:30 a.m.: A departure ceremony from the Carter Presidential Center.
10 a.m.: The motorcade departs for Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Georgia.
10:40 a.m.: The late president and his family arrive at Dobbins Air Reserve Base and board Special Air Mission 39 after an arrival ceremony.
11:15 a.m.: Special Air Mission 39 departs for Washington.
12:45 p.m.: Special Air Mission 39 arrives at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, and Carter’s remains are transferred with ceremony to the hearse.
1:15 p.m.: The motorcade departs for the U.S. Navy Memorial.
2 p.m.: The motorcade arrives at the U.S. Navy Memorial and Carter’s remains are transferred from a hearse to a horse drawn caisson with ceremony.
2:15 p.m.: The funeral procession begins marching up to the U.S. Capitol via Pennsylvania Avenue, turning left onto Constitution Avenue.
2:40 p.m.: Upon arrival at the U.S. Capitol, the late president is carried up the stairs by military body bearers and into the Rotunda.
3 p.m.: Congress pays their respects during a service in the Rotunda.
3:45 p.m.: Carter begins lying in state while the military maintains a guard of honor.
7 p.m. to midnight: Lying in state opens to the public.
Caroline Linton
Caroline Linton is an associate managing editor on the political team for CBSNews.com. She has previously written for The Daily Beast, Newsweek and amNewYork.
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