20 March 2024, 22:31 | Updated: 20 March 2024, 23:15
Picture:
East Feliciana Parish Sheriff’s Department/Handout
The parents of a woman whose body was found fused to a maggot-infested sofa have been jailed for 40 years.
Lacey Fletcher, 36, was found ‘melted’ into a maggot-infested sofa at her parents’ home in East Feliciana, Louisiana in January 2022.
Her parents, Sheila and Clay Fletcher, were arrested the same month after Lacey was discovered with sores and ulcers from sitting on the sofa for 12 years.
Now they have been sentenced to 20 years each in prison and five years supervised probation after pleading no contest to manslaughter last month.
Initially, the pair faced second-degree murder charges, which they repeatedly denied.
This was reduced to manslaughter after they agreed to plead guilty to the reduced charge.
Local medical examiner Ewell Bickham ruled that Lacey died from acute neglect, telling the New York Post: “I have seen every kind of death and dead body in all my years of this work, but I’ve never seen anything like what happened to Lacey. No one deserves to suffer like that.”
Lacey suffered from a neurological disorder called locked-in syndrome, had Asperger’s syndrome, and struggled with social anxiety, her parents claimed.
They also said she refused to leave the living room but had a “sound mind”.
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Picture:
East Feliciana Parish Sheriff’s Department
They claim they provided Lacey with meals and a makeshift toilet.
Last month, the pair’s attorney attorney Steven Moore told the court that they had no intention to harm their daughter and that they “loved her to death”.
He said: “They were negligent, yes. It is clear they were negligent. They loved her to death – that is the true statement with the Fletchers.
“They loved their daughter to death,” the Daily Mail reported.
He continued: “When you look back at it, you wonder, why? How could this happen? It did happen.
“But at no point did Sheila or Clay Fletcher ever have a single intent to harm their daughter. They loved their daughter to a fault.
“Their life revolved around Lacey Fletcher… They lived for Lacey Fletcher.”
Emily Foster is a globe-trotting journalist based in the UK. Her articles offer readers a global perspective on international events, exploring complex geopolitical issues and providing a nuanced view of the world’s most pressing challenges.
