This article contains graphic mentions of chronic neglect of a person with special needs. Please take care while reading.
The case of 36-year-old Lacey Fletcher from Louisiana will not only make a vividly grim impression on you but left us with a handful of key questions that may never get answered.
Some of those questions are: what happened that prompted Lacey to be taken out of high school out of the blue? She might have had an autistic diagnosis but she was, reportedly, a happy communicative child with friends. So, how, why, and when exactly did she end up on the couch where she ultimately died?
Perhaps the question that most people would like answered: What did her parents feel, if anything at all, as they passed by the living room and saw their emaciated daughter melting slowly into the piece of furniture, open wounds all over her body, and maggots eating away at her rotten flesh?
In fact, it could be argued that maggots did more for Lacey during this horrible final period of her existence than her parents, Sheila and Clay Fletcher, as they ate away at the dead tissue that would’ve otherwise killed Lacey much faster.
As for a question that we can now finally answer: What sort of punishment did Sheila and Clay receive for allowing their daughter to die in one of the most slow, painful ways imaginable?
Is it enough?
Sheila and Clay Fletcher entered a ‘no contest’ plea to manslaughter after second-degree murder charges were dropped a few months prior. They remained out on bond until the trial – which, unfortunately, wasn’t recorded – wherein they both took the stand.
The maximum sentence for manslaughter in Louisiana is 40 years and the Fletchers got just that. But there’s a catch: half of those years are suspended, which means they will only serve 20 years in prison with 5 years of supervised probation upon release.
For many of the professionals involved this was one of the worst – if not the worst – cases of human neglect they had ever encountered. The Fletchers’ defense attorney said after the trial that they “are good people” who were just “in over their heads.” But upon knowing the facts of the case, it does not only feel like a complete downplaying of the horrifying situation but an insult to the suffering and years of daily torture Lacey had to endure until she could ultimately endure no longer.