WARNING DISTRESSING CONTENT: In a story that would haunt officers, Lacey Ellen Fletcher “rotted in her own body” following severe neglect by her parents, with her maggot ridden remains found fused to the family sofa
For 12 long years, Lacey Ellen Fletcher lay on her parents’ sofa, her emaciated flesh “melting” into the fabric. This was the horrific scene that greeted emergency responders on January 3, 2022, which one seasoned officer described as “by far the worst” he’d ever seen.
36-year-old Lacey, who was left to die in her own filth, lived with autism and severe social anxiety. Those who knew her in childhood remember a Disney-loving girl who enjoyed volleyball and hanging out with other neighbourhood kids. As time went on, however, Lacey tragically suffered a cognitive decline and became a complete recluse.
Those in the area assumed the young woman had simply moved away to get married and had perhaps started a family of her own. They could never have imagined how her life had really turned out.
Rather than care for their struggling daughter and get her the help she needed, Clay and Sheila Fletcher left her to rot on the family sofa, where she would defecate and urinate in conditions that, as the court would later hear, were beyond anything you’d subject an animal to, let alone a human being.
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Although Sheila Fletcher, of East Feliciana, Louisiana, had reported her daughter’s death on January 3, it’s believed Lacey had already been dead for a couple of days. As reported by WAFB, Coroner Dr. Ewell Dewitt Bickham III described the scene that greeted responders as “appalling and horrific“.
He remembered, “Opened the door, walked into the house, there was a stench, an odour, faeces, faecal material, urine, you couldn’t hold your breath.”
Lacey was found covered in urine and liquid faeces, her hair matted in such a way that suggested it hadn’t been brushed in many years. Her body was “fused” to the couch and riddled with maggots and insect bites, while her skin was rotten, and her bones exposed.
In an interview with NewsNation, Dr Bickham gave more detail about the scene that would go on to haunt him, sharing: “When I walked in, the house smelled of a stench of, it smelled like a sewer, or septic tank and also a smell of death. I’ve never smelled that in my life.
“I’ve dealt with decomposed bodies. I’ve dealt with all sorts of death, degradation, whatever, never experienced this in all of my career. Clay and Sheila Fletcher were standing there. Clay was staying there, emotionless. The mom had her head between her knees.
“I saw a tear or two. To the left was the living room where Lacey was. I immediately went through there. I didn’t stop to socialise with the parents. I’ve never seen a homicide like this. I have never seen an individual, a human being, literally tortured and allowed to die while she is alive.
“I’ve never seen that in my life. I’ve seen decomposed bodies of someone who drowned, and you find the body a week later. That’s one thing, and they’re decomposed. Lacey did not decompose. She rotted in her own body, in that hole in that sewer, in the couch.”
It’s believed that Lacey did not move for the 12 years she was left on the couch. She weighed just 96 lbs and was clearly severely malnourished. Dr Bickham revealed: “The only thing I saw was the small bag of hard candy, and that was it. That’s the only nourishment she probably had.
“I’ll just be not trying to be too graphic, but in her stomach, she had the yellow foam from the sofa, and faeces. So you take it from there.”
Lacey’s official cause of death was deemed sepsis, which was caused by several other conditions that had escalated over time, including bone infections, prolonged immobility and malnutrition. After the grim discovery, both Clay and Sheila Fletcher were accused of neglect.
The New York Post reports that Lacey’s parents took her to see a psychologist in 2000, explaining that the then 14-year-old was suffering from extreme social anxiety. In 2010, they returned, this time without Lacey, who they claimed was refusing to leave the house and was messing on the floor. Although the doctor advised them to consider hospitalisation, this was never followed up.
The Fletchers claimed that Lacey also suffered from Locked In Syndrome, a condition defined by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke as “a rare disorder of the nervous system” that results in complete paralysis apart from eye movement. Harrowingly, the patient may well be fully mentally aware of what’s going on, while being unable to communicate their needs. However, this diagnosis was disputed.
The couple’s defence attorney, Steven Moore, admitted Fletchers had severely neglected their daughter, telling the Daily Mail: “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.”
Pushing for leniency, Mr Moore cited the couple’s remorse and their lack of intentions to hurt Lacey. However, in March 2024, both were handed 40-year sentences. West Feliciana District Attorney Sam D’Aquilla told the court, “You know, you wouldn’t treat your animals like that. 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…I mean, you wouldn’t even treat your animal like that.”
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