Bikers rode alongside the runners in a show of solidarity. Some of the participants walked, and many of them stopped and lit candles at the spot where Fletcher was abducted. "I refuse to be fearful," one participant said.
Last Friday around 4:30 a.m., Eliza Fletcher was kidnapped and killed while taking her morning jog in Memphis. One week later a huge crowd gathered in the pre-dawn hours to run the same route to the end, in memory of the slain teacher and mother of two.
Fletcher’s friends wanted to turn their grief into action, so they organized the run, and hundreds showed up.
“I never, never thought this was something that would be so big,” an organizer told the crowd.
There was a moment of silence for the slain woman, before the 8.2-mile run began.
Bikers rode alongside the runners in a show of solidarity. Some of the participants walked, and many of them stopped and lit candles at the spot where Fletcher was abducted.
“What happened to her was just unimaginable, and we just felt like being part of the run community that we just had to be here to support her,” one participant said.
“I refuse to be fearful. I refuse,” another woman said.
Fletcher’s funeral service will be held on Saturday.
