MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The sadness, anger, and frustration over the brutal killing of kindergarten teacher Eliza Fletcher are evident throughout Memphis and beyond.
The sadness we feel is for Fletcher’s family, now grieving her senseless death. The anger is obviously aimed at her attacker who, according to authorities, picked her at random for a kidnapping and that turned into murder. And the frustration is more of a sense of helplessness that we are unable to prevent such tragedies from happening.
But one Memphian has come up with a way to honor Fletcher’s memory while also making a statement that brazen crime like this won’t have the last word. She is Danielle Heineman, who, like Fletcher, is a marathon runner. And she is organizing a run this Friday morning with other women runners that will complete the trip Fletcher started last Friday. It’s called Let’s Finish Liza’s Run, and it will start near Peabody and Belvedere and go up Central Avenue to the University of Memphis campus and back.
That’s the route Fletcher was taking when she was attacked. And I fully expect scores of runners to participate. Some people are even promising the provide water along the route. And don’t be surprised if police are on hand to protect runners from predawn traffic.
As Heineman said in a Facebook post, the run is her way of coping with Fletcher’s murder. And it’s an appropriate way at that.