By Warren Williams
It was a stunning, brutal crime, one that has sickened most Americans, including me. A vibrant young woman, 34-year-old Eliza ‘Liza’ Fletcher – a wife, mother and teacher – was snatched off a street near the University of Memphis about 4:30 in the morning last Friday, September 2nd . Her body was found 4 days later, on Labor Day. It was decaying in a field of tall grass near an abandoned home in South Memphis.
The ‘basics’ here we have seen far too often – a woman murdered while jogging alone.
There was Ally Brueger, a 31-year-old Holly, Michigan nurse, shot in the back while on her
daily ten-mile run in the summer of 2016. *(Six years later, her killer has not been found).
There was Ashling Murphy, attacked and killed on January 12 th of this year (2022) while jogging near her home in Tullamore County, Ireland.
There was Sydney Sutherland, a 25-year-old nurse who was rammed by a pickup truck, sexually assaulted – after death, and buried in a field not far from her home in Newport, Arkansas. This happened two years ago, August 19, 2020. Others, like Karina Vetrano and Mollie Tibbetts – all murder victims while out running alone. No woman should have to feel endangered while out by themselves in public. And yet, many do. And their fear is justified. From being ‘hit on’ verbally, to being physically assaulted, to being killed….woman are sometimes targets of men.
A man has been arrested and charged with the murder of Liza Fletcher. He had been free for less than two-years after spending nearly 20-years in prison for the abduction and robbery of a woman. In hindsight, perhaps, he should’ve been sentenced to ‘life with no parole?’
Here in the U-S, around 1,800 women a year are killed in domestic disputes, more than a third of them black. About 500-thousand women are rape and sexual assault victims yearly. 94% of victims in murder/suicides are women.
A tweeted comment from a woman about the Liza Fletcher murder struck a very responsive chord with me:
“We are sick and tired of having to watch out for men just because we breathe. Carry keys to stab someone, carry tasers, stun guns, mace, bear spray, loud alarms. HOW ABOUT MEN DO BETTER?”
Enough said.
Photo credit to Warren Williams
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