Louisiana couple sentenced for allowing their severely autistic daughter to rot to death on their couch

A Louisiana couple has finally been brought to justice for killing their severely autistic 36-year-old daughter, Lacey Ellen Fletcher — found "melted" into a couch and covered in excrement, sores, and maggots.

The victim's parents, Sheila and Clay Fletcher, pleaded guilty to manslaughter last month. On Wednesday, an East Feliciana Parish judge decided it was the couple's turn to rot for years in one place.

The sickening scene

Lacey Fletcher's emaciated remains were discovered in January 2022, fused by rotten skin to her parents' living room couch in Slaughter, Louisiana.

Blaze News previously reported that East Feliciana Parish coroner Dr. Ewell Dewitt Bickham III figured the woman's 96-pound body had been been stuck there for well over a decade, making for the kind of scene "you make horror movies about."

"When I first walked in the house, it smelled of feces, fecal material, however you want to put that politely, it stunk. And when I got to the body, the individual was basically sitting in a hole, filled with liquid stool and urine," Bickham told WAFB-TV. "It's the worst form of medical neglect I've ever seen. I don't know any other adjectives or adverbs to add to that."

The Daily Mail obtained forensic pathologist Dana Troxclair's autopsy report, which indicated the victim had "polarizable fibers (most likely fibers from the couch) and maggots embedded in the exposed surface of the bones."

Fletcher likely was infested with the maggots while still alive.

"There was no evidence of decomposition at the time of the autopsy; therefore, it was determined that the maggots were present prior to death," wrote Troxclair.

Extra to the maggots and excrement, authorities indicated Fletcher had sores all over her body, including several ulcers on her underside, reported the Advocate.

Bickham determined that the cause of death was "acute medical neglect." This neglect "led to chronic malnutrition, acute starvation, immobility, acute ulcer formation, osteomyelitis which is bone infection, which led finally to sepsis."

The victim had not been to the doctor in at least 20 years. Sheila Fletcher, who had been away on a weekend trip with her husband the weekend the victim died, reportedly told police that Lacey Fletcher did not need to go to the doctor because "she was never sick."

The ghoulish parents

Sheila and Clay Fletcher later claimed that their daughter, who was reportedly diagnosed with "severe" Asperger's and social anxiety, was of "sound mind to make her own type of decisions."

Under this pretense, they apparently went about their lives while their daughter rotted in a pile of feces right next to Sheila Fletcher's recliner in front of the family television.

On May 2, 2022, shortly after Sheila Fletcher resigned her post as town alderman, the couple was indicted for second-degree murder in their daughter's death.

Their trial was set to begin in June 2023; however, District Judge Kathryn Jones dismissed the indictments, citing defective language in the charging affidavits.

East and West Feliciana Parish District Attorney Sam D'Aquilla re-charged the couple shortly thereafter.

Facing the prospect of life in prison without parole, Sheila and Clay Fletcher withdrew their not-guilty pleas ahead of their trial, which was scheduled for last month, and formally agreed to plead guilty to manslaughter.

Blaze News noted that the couple's defense attorney Steven Moore 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 sentencing

After hearing over six hours of witness testimony Wednesday, Judge Kathryn Jones said, "Of all the things I can say about this case, the one thing that keeps coming to mind is that Clay and Sheila Fletcher continually chose the path of least resistance when it came to the care of their daughter."

Jones did not buy the parents' claim that Lacey Fletcher was of "sound mind" to make her own decisions, stressing it was their responsibility to seek help on the victim's behalf.

"This was a tragedy. The truth is that Lacey laid on a couch and slowly died because she got no medical or mental health care," said Judge Jones.

Clay Fletcher, who wept along with his wife in court, suggested that his victim's "world closed in on her gradually because of her phobias, fears, and social anxieties. The couch was her sanctuary. It was her comfort zone," reported WBRZ-TV.

Jones ultimately imposed a 40-year sentence on both Clay and Sheila Fletcher Wednesday, but suspended 20 years each, reported the Advocate.

The judge also required that both killers serve five years of probation upon their release.

West Feliciana District Attorney Sam D'Aquilla told the New York Post, "We respect the judge's decision. If you had a horse that was in the stall behind your house, and you go back there and the flesh is just gone from its body, and you can see bones exposed. … You wouldn't even treat your animal like that."

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After daughter's body found 'melted' in sofa, parents plead 'no contest' to manslaughter | Banfieldyoutu.be