Billionaire family of Tennessee teacher who was abducted offers $50,000 reward to aid in her return

Eliza ‘Liza’ Fletcher, who is a teacher based in Tennessee and also the granddaughter of Joseph Orgill III, who co-ran the Memphis-based hardware distributor Orgill Inc., was abducted in the early hours of Friday morning while jogging near the University of Memphis campus, The Sun reports.

Fletcher, who works as a pre-kindergarten teacher, was said to be jogging at 4.30am when a dark SUV pulled up next to her and aggressively forced her into the car. Fletcher was wearing purple shorts and a pink top.

Memphis Police say a “vehicle of interest” in her abduction has been found, and the man who was inside the vehicle has been detained, but at this stage, Fletcher’s whereabouts remain unknown. The man who has been taken into custody has not yet been named nor have any details about him been provided.

Orgill Inc. are worth in excess of $3 billion and are ranked at 143 on the Forbes list. Not much is known about Eliza Fletcher’s personal net worth. Fletcher has been described as an “inspiration” and as someone who had a “zest for life.”

Fletcher’s family have offered a reward of $50,000 to help find her along with a statement saying, “We look forward to Eliza’s safe return and hope that this award will help police capture those who committed this crime.”

Fletcher’s pastor at the Second Presbyterian Church said the parish was currently praying with her family. “She and her husband Ritchie are both very active and great leaders in our congregation,” Pastor George Robertson said. “They have two little boys who have come up to me every week and give me a hug.”

“Someday we’ll eliminate this kind of tragedy,” he told Commercial Appeal. “We also grieve the abduction that occurred a couple of days ago near Wolfchase. We grieve all of this kind of violence and evil in our city. It just makes us grieve. We grieve for ourselves, we grieve for the Fletchers and we also grieve for our city. Our whole city is hurting.”

Fletcher is an alumni at Hutchinson high school, who posted to their Facebook messages of support along with an “urgent call to prayer” and referred to Fletcher as a “beloved alumna, and we pray for her safety and for her family.”

Her friend Hart Robinson told WREG that anyone who has any information should get in touch with police immediately. “We want to find her, we don’t know what’s going on,” he said. “If you know anything or saw anything, we just ask for you to come forward.”