LA - Lacey Fletcher 36, GRAPHIC, disabled, found dead, on couch for years, Jan'22 *Parents arrested*

[RaspberryMama]

In a Jan. 18 interview, the couple told detectives that their daughter was sound intellectually to the end.

The couple reported that Fletcher hadn’t seen a doctor in the past decade because she’d never been sick.

Her parents reported then that Fletcher had anchored herself in the living room and refused to leave. They brought her meals and set up a potty. Fletcher instead relieved herself into a towel or on the floor, afraid to leave the couch.

I mean... these are entirely contradictory statements. I don't care how "smart" you think your child is, if she is behaving this way she is NOT of sound mind. If she has bedsores and is barely eating, she DOES need to see a doctor. I understand it's not easy to care for an adult, but when it's your child instinct is to do all you can to help them. These parents acted in a really unnatural way. I agree with the previous poster that finds it hard to believe both have a mental illness. Is one a psychopath? I am sick imagining one of my children in this situation. I would never let them just rot away.

 

[Dotta]

Didn't the parents deprive their daughter of basic human rights?

Like right to dignity among others?

Isn't this case a "false imprisonment" one?

I wonder.

 

[MrsWatson]

I have zero sympathy for her parents. All they had to do, all this time, was pick up a phone and reach out for help.

 

[ilovewings]

I have zero sympathy for her parents. All they had to do, all this time, was pick up a phone and reach out for help.

I have less than zero sympathy for those two people known as "parents"--- I would like to see them go to prison and the key thrown away.

 

[RaspberryMama]

Didn't the parents deprive their daughter of basic human rights?

Like right to dignity among others?

Isn't this case a "false imprisonment" one?

I wonder.

Very good points. The idea of two human beings agreeing to treat another human being this way is just... so bizarre. What really happened here? Imo, they had to be hiding something really big for both of them to allow this to happen. And I mean something more than just the horrendous facts we already know. Maybe they were waiting for her to die so she wouldn't be able to tell the full story of just how awful her life was.

RIP now, Lacey, I'm so sorry your one life was wasted like this. You had amazing potential that was stolen from you by the people that should have been your biggest fans and advocates. I hope they pay for it.

 

[natureofdust]

Very good points. The idea of two human beings agreeing to treat another human being this way is just... so bizarre. What really happened here? Imo, they had to be hiding something really big for both of them to allow this to happen. And I mean something more than just the horrendous facts we already know. Maybe they were waiting for her to die so she wouldn't be able to tell the full story of just how awful her life was.

RIP now, Lacey, I'm so sorry your one life was wasted like this. You had amazing potential that was stolen from you by the people that should have been your biggest fans and advocates. I hope they pay for it.

That's what gets me about this - the fact that BOTH parents did this. I love my partner more than words can express, but I would leave her *so* quickly if I realized that this is the standard of care a child in our home would receive without me present. I mean, even a fraction of this. This is just...beyond comprehensible, honestly.

 

[iamnotagolem]

Very good points. The idea of two human beings agreeing to treat another human being this way is just... so bizarre. What really happened here? Imo, they had to be hiding something really big for both of them to allow this to happen. And I mean something more than just the horrendous facts we already know. Maybe they were waiting for her to die so she wouldn't be able to tell the full story of just how awful her life was.

RIP now, Lacey, I'm so sorry your one life was wasted like this. You had amazing potential that was stolen from you by the people that should have been your biggest fans and advocates. I hope they pay for it.

Sexual abuse was mentioned up thread as a potential reason and I have to agree it seems like that may have been involved.

I also wonder if at one point she had been restrained to the sofa, then eventually stopped trying to get free.

 

[Dotta]

I think her mental state was gradually worsening to the point of inertia.

Deprived of company, adequate treatment and stimuli she was withering away.

Did her staying on the couch start with some kind of phobia?

What really surprised me, was that her father was described as "emotionless" by Police officer.

 

[PrimeSuspect]

I’ve read some people wonder why the parents called emergency when they could’ve disposed of Lacey’s body? Like many of you here, I’ve read countless stories like this one and in the majority of cases, the parents/guardians/carers, have called emergency when the victim has died or they’ve died soon after admittance to hospital.

I think it’s arrogance and a strange kind of logic applied by these fiends.

They think authorities can’t determine the cause of death,
the death can’t be attributed to them,
neglect and starvation can be blamed on the victim (even 10 yr old Josie Ann Abney)
they feel justified in their treatment of the victim,
it‘s not murder because the final breath of the victim wasn’t taken by them by a murderous act like assault or use of a weapon,
the victim became a scapegoat and they derived some kind of pleasure from witnessing the suffering,
the victim is a ‘problem’ and needs to be kept hidden from society,
they say there was no other option,
their discipline style is severe and extreme,
they lack empathy,
they believe everyone would do the same in their shoes but when discovered, no one understands.

JMO

 

[FlossyMay]

I’ve read some people wonder why the parents called emergency when they could’ve disposed of Lacey’s body? Like many of you here, I’ve read countless stories like this one and in the majority of cases, the parents/guardians/carers, have called emergency when the victim has died or they’ve died soon after admittance to hospital.

I think it’s arrogance and a strange kind of logic applied by these fiends.

They think authorities can’t determine the cause of death,
the death can’t be attributed to them,
neglect and starvation can be blamed on the victim (even 10 yr old Josie Ann Abney)
they feel justified in their treatment of the victim,
it‘s not murder because the final breath of the victim wasn’t taken by them by a murderous act like assault or use of a weapon,
the victim became a scapegoat and they derived some kind of pleasure from witnessing the suffering,
the victim is a ‘problem’ and needs to be kept hidden from society,
they say there was no other option,
their discipline style is severe and extreme,
they lack empathy,
they believe everyone would do the same in their shoes but when discovered, no one understands.

JMO

I think they thought they could get away with it. I mean she died in Jan. and it didn't hit the news until April. She was working for a city prosecutor until the same day it hit the news and they weren't arrested until a week or more after that.

They got away with torturing her for years and nobody questioned them. Their standing in the community and ties with people of power must have gone to their heads.

 

[RaspberryMama]

I also wonder if at one point she had been restrained to the sofa, then eventually stopped trying to get free.

Oh my goodness, that's such a horrifying thought.

 

[Fika]

I’ve read some people wonder why the parents called emergency when they could’ve disposed of Lacey’s body? Like many of you here, I’ve read countless stories like this one and in the majority of cases, the parents/guardians/carers, have called emergency when the victim has died or they’ve died soon after admittance to hospital.

I think it’s arrogance and a strange kind of logic applied by these fiends.

They think authorities can’t determine the cause of death,
the death can’t be attributed to them,
neglect and starvation can be blamed on the victim (even 10 yr old Josie Ann Abney)
they feel justified in their treatment of the victim,
it‘s not murder because the final breath of the victim wasn’t taken by them by a murderous act like assault or use of a weapon,
the victim became a scapegoat and they derived some kind of pleasure from witnessing the suffering,
the victim is a ‘problem’ and needs to be kept hidden from society,
they say there was no other option,
their discipline style is severe and extreme,
they lack empathy,
they believe everyone would do the same in their shoes but when discovered, no one understands.

JMO

I’m surprised as many and can’t understand why they called 911 that day. What if they were forced to do so? What if someone came in the house ? Or knocked to doors and noticed smell that was suspicious so they thought to calling it in before this person does? IMO just thinking out loud.
If they disposed of her they could have gotten away with it.
Them saying she was of sound mind sounds like they thought ok we call it in and she is 36years old an adult she wanted to stay on the couch and we just let her be. They don’t see fault in their behaviour it seems.

 

[ilovewings]

Think of all the parents that have taken their abused babies (and even older children) to the hospital saying they fell or some such thing and injured themselves. It happens all the time. Those parents believe they will be believed.

 

[Shamrock1]

A somewhat similar case in Louisiana. 25yr old woman with cerebral palsy deliberately starved to death. Disabled woman, 25, found 'starved to death while lying on rotting food'

 

[bombardier]

A somewhat similar case in Louisiana. 25yr old woman with cerebral palsy deliberately starved to death. Disabled woman, 25, found 'starved to death while lying on rotting food'

Mother in this case got 50 years to prison. However, there was a documented intent to murder her daughter for her own gains so I'm guessing this couldn't be used as a direct case precedent for Lacey's...

 

[Lyanna]

The Nola article is behind a paywall but has more information.


In a Jan. 18 interview, the couple told detectives that their daughter was sound intellectually to the end. Autistic, she had developed “some degree of Asperger’s syndrome,” D’Aquilla said, citing reports.

The lifelong condition is part of a category called autism spectrum disorder. Symptoms include trouble with social skills and obsessive focus.

Fletcher attended Brownfields Baptist Academy in Baton Rouge through 9th grade before entering a home-school program. As a teen, she experienced severe social anxiety and met several times with a psychologist over three years. She saw a doctor years later, in 2010, while in her early 20’s, but never since, her parents said.

Her parents reported then that Fletcher had anchored herself in the living room and refused to leave. They brought her meals and set up a potty. Fletcher instead relieved herself into a towel or on the floor, afraid to leave the couch.

The Fletchers considered getting a commitment order to place their daughter in a medical facility, but she balked and it never happened, D’Aquilla said, citing a police report. The couple reported that Fletcher hadn’t seen a doctor in the past decade because she’d never been sick.

“I don’t think they (did) anything after that,” D’Aquilla said. “I think if somebody would have seen her that something would have been done.”

D’Aquilla said the couple was “adamant” that Lacey Fletcher was “of sound mind to make her own type of decisions.” The couple said Fletcher never complained of her sores and that Sheila Fletcher would routinely clean them.

Last fall, Fletcher began eating less, they told detectives. She ate half a sandwich and Cheetos on Jan. 2. Sheila Fletcher told detectives she last saw her daughter alive at 10 p.m. that night and awoke in a chair in the living room to find her dead.



A Slaughter woman died sunken into a couch. Her parents could soon face murder charges.

Would like to know how the mother cleansed Lacey's pressure sores? Did she use saline and gauze, was there dressing packs at the home? Was there dressings? Did she cleanse them each and every time Lacey passed urine/opened her bowels?
I suspect not.

Lies imo.

 

[Lyanna]

Agreed. That is how you care for a person who is incontinent (for whatever reason). Adult diapers. And get a hoist so you can move them from chair to bed and back again so they're not just in one spot. Get a wheelchair if she refused to walk anywhere so she could still see the sun and get some vitamin D. Give them sponge baths if they can't stand or even sit in the shower.
I've cared for people with disabilities who couldn't do any of that stuff for themselves. You don't just let them sit in their own filth.

And with pressure sores and healing them there's all sorts of additional things that are to be done, pressure relieving cushions - Lacey would have required an Air Flow cushion to sit on, alongside an Air flow mattress to sleep on, regular repositioning day and night, by the sounds of some of those sores I would suspect they were ungradeable, some would need packing to promote wound healing with dressings over the packing to hold it in place, it would need changing daily, measuring, swabbing for infection etc.
All ime and moo
And of course not got a clue what type of pressure relieving equipment the States have, but would bet its pretty similar to what's in the UK

 

[ilovewings]

Would like to know how the mother cleansed Lacey's pressure sores? Did she use saline and gauze, was there dressing packs at the home? Was there dressings? Did she cleanse them each and every time Lacey passed urine/opened her bowels?
I suspect not.

Lies imo.

Is there any evidence (noted in any articles about this case) that the mother cleansed the bed sores at all?

 

[Springrain]

This has made me FURIOUS. I am DISGUSTED at the neglect and abuse that has gone on in Lacey's case. I cannot believe that I had never heard of this until now, on Websleuths. RIP Lacey and may you get justice...

 

[Lyanna]

Is there any evidence (noted in any articles about this case) that the mother cleansed the bed sores at all?

Just in the article I responded too - the couple stated Lacey never complained of her sores and that Sheila Fletcher routinely cleaned them
First I'd seen of it was in that article.
Don't believe it either