Eliza Fletcher, a schoolteacher, and heiress was abducted on the day she was. DNA evidence from another case that could have placed her suspect behind bars was found in a Tennessee test facility. It was not entered into any National Law Enforcement system. Now, the victim in the first case has filed suit against the city, claiming that the suspect should have been arrested sooner.

“They knew who it was, they did nothing, and as a result, Eliza Fletcher winds up murdered when [the suspect] should have been in jail,” the woman’s lawyer, Gary Smith, told The Daily Beast. “If they had done their job, she’d be alive.”

Alicia Franklin, 22, says she met Cleotha “Cleo” Abston on Sept. 21, 2021—almost a year before Fletcher’s abduction and murder. According to her complaint, the two had met through a dating app and planned to meet at the apartment where he works before going out to dinner.

She claims that Abston pulled a gun on her, forced her to an empty apartment, blindfolded her with a Tshirt, and threatened her with her death. She claims he walked her through his apartment to his car where he forced her to the back and raped him. Franklin says she was pregnant at the time, and told Abston as much, to which she says he responded: “All you bitches say that.”

Abston, who had just been released from 20 years in prison for kidnapping in 2001 and aggravated theft, was at the time being interviewed. The suit stated that Abston’s DNA and other information were available in the FBI database. This could be used to compare with other crimes. Franklin reported the incident to law enforcement immediately, providing them with the suspect’s first name, phone number, a description of his car, and information about the dating app where they met. She also completed a “rape kit”, which was tested and would connect the crime to Abston.

According to the suit, the rape kits were not completed until nine more months. A final report was not issued until Aug. 29, and the DNA information was not entered into the national law enforcement system until Sept. 5—three days after Fletcher was abducted on her morning run.

The abduction of Fletcher—the granddaughter of the founder of multibillion-dollar hardware distributor Orgill, Inc.—spurred national headlines and a multi-agency search. The mother of two, aged 37, was last seen running along the University of Memphis campus Sept. 2, and her body was later discovered in an abandoned home nearby. Surveillance footage showed Fletcher being forced into her car by a man and then struggling to get inside.

According to the complaint, police ordered a “rush order” on the DNA from a pair of sandals found near the scene of the abduction, and quickly matched it to the genetic material entered after Abston’s 2001 conviction. They also obtained surveillance footage showing Abston wearing the sandals, followed him to his house, and located his car. He was arrested and indicted for Fletcher’s abduction on Sept. 4, and with her murder shortly after her body was found.

Abston was also indicted on charges of aggravated rape, especially aggravated kidnapping, and unlawful possession of a weapon in connection with Franklin’s rape on Sept. 8. But in her complaint, Franklin argues that Fletcher’s murder could have been prevented had her rape kit been processed sooner, or other leads investigated more thoroughly. She claims that police showed her Abston’s photo in a list of suspects when she reported the incident, but that she wasn’t able to identify him. She claims that police offered to send her a newer photo of Abston, as the one in the lineup was over a decade old. But, she never received it.

Franklin claims that Franklin called her to check on her case one month later, and was informed there were no updates.

“They was like, ‘Well, just keep in mind that it can take anywhere from a year or two to process a rape kit,’ she told The Daily Memphian. “So at that point, I gave up.”

A spokesperson for the police department stated that they do not comment on any pending litigation.

Smith, Franklin’s attorney, currently represents a number of women in a proposed class-action lawsuit against Memphis over a backlog of rape kits. These women were among the 12,000 victims of rape kits that Memphis police discovered to be untested in 2013. This case still awaits certification by a judge for class action certification.

According to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the turnaround time for testing rape samples was between 33 and 49 weeks. The lab in Jackson, where Franklin’s kit was tested, received an average of almost 350 sexual assault evidence requests per month, according The Tennessean, causing wait times to stretch to the top of that range. TBI Communications Director Josh DeVine stated to The Tennessean, that his agency had received the most cases submitted per scientist in the six surrounding states.

According to WKRN local news, the bureau applied for funding for 40 additional forensic scientists in the last budget cycle. However, they only received half of what they requested. They are now looking to hire new candidates, who will begin at the beginning of October.

In her suit, Franklin claimed that if police had followed any of her leads or ordered a rush test of the rape kit, Fletcher’s murder may never have happened.

“They had more than enough evidence that night when they interviewed me to get him off the streets. But they didn’t,” Franklin told Good Morning America. She added: “I’m angry. Not a day goes by that I didn’t think about this.

The post Cops Botched Rape Case That Could’ve Saved Eliza Fletcher, Suit Claims first appeared on Raw News.