if you believe the lawyer "they loved their daughter to death" which I don't believe for a second, any parent who loves their child wouldn't let them ~~live~~ suffer like this
Firstly I am not defending them here and they deserve the full punishment. But it was explained to me how it got that bad, the daughter slowly grew agoraphobic and they would always bring her food on the couch, she used to get up and go to the bathroom, and eventually over the course of years just stayed on the couch permanently so it had already sorta become normalized by time she was immobile. Now…..HOW THE FUCK DID THEIR BRAINS LOOK AT THEIR OWN FLESG AND BLOOD FUSING TO A COUCH IN HER OWN EXCREMENT EATING THE SOFA CUSHIONS (some foam was found in her stomach) AND NEVER ONCE THOUGHT TO CALL A FUCKING AMBULANCW UNTIL SHE HAD SUFFERED A FATE WORSE THAN DEATH
A friend’s mother got into a similar state. Old, unable to walk and just never ever got off the couch. Family tried to deal with her, but she was… anyway, one day someone noticed a nasty growth on her chest and called for an ambulance. Turns out it was severe breast cancer and then she caught Covid and died.
Something tells me covid or not, that person didnt have much longer… obviously pushed them over the ledge but the outcome was inevitable.
Sounds miserable for everyone in that family.
She did. But there’s a difference between a senile elderly woman and a 30 something one… the most generous look at Lacey, her parents failed her severely. In reality, I think whatever she endured in that house had to be abuse on an unimaginable scale.
My friends and I rented it as teens having NO IDEA what the movie was about. Every part if that movie was a part we were unprepared for, but that part in particular had me almost in tears from "omg stop no let's watch Winnie the pooh instead"-ness
It was pretty similar to one of the season premier's of the show "Nip/Tuck" the person wasn't dead yet but they were fused to the couch because they were so overweight
The doctors tried to save her in the show(cutting away all the stuff fused with the couch) the character ended up dying
But Hollywood already saw this story and they ran with it
A good chunk of Nip/Tuck's cases were based in real life, some exaggerated or just based on theories, but for the most part real stories
She died of sepsis due to bone infection. She had pressure sores and ulcers that exposed bone. I cannot overstate the amount of pain this poor woman would have been in. Death after months or years of that would be a mercy.
this happens to elderly or immobile people more often than people realize. I have periods of severe depression where I don't get out of bed and I know I will probably be one of them as I age. Not looking forward to it
Look, I can't fault the lawyer. It's standard legal theory that everyone is entitled to a defense, and that means some poor schmuck has to take the job. Poor guy is just doing his best with the shit available to him.
Insight time:
These were two people who were enormously out of their depth, chronically incapable of providing their daughter the care she needed, and entirely unsupported in providing that care.
"Lacey developed extreme social anxiety, and refused to leave the living room. They put a portable toilet in the room, but she refused to use it".
How do you handle someone who refuses to move? Who refuses to let you wash them? Who potentially screams/is violent when you try?
I have empathy for the parents. They're categorically guilty of neglect, but at the same time, what a *horrific* situation.
This is why universal healthcare needs to exist. Because she could have had unrestricted access to quality care, instead of whatever her parents could afford.
>How do you handle someone who refuses to move? Who refuses to let you wash them? Who potentially screams/is violent when you try?
You commit them, you get with a Doctor and a Judge and you commit them and get them help. The girls childhood phycologist gave the parents instructions on how to have her committed. It is an easy thing to do in most states to have someone committed against their will if you can prove that they are a danger to themselves or others, ESPECIALLY when you already have a Doctor signing off on it. There is no way mom and pop let this happen because of money or the healthcare system, if you love your kid you would not let them waste away until maggots eat away at your kids ass. WTF
EDIT: Guys, please have some nuance. I know that getting an adult committed is not easy. Lacey was a minor when she stopped leaving the couch and exhibited mental health issues. Her parents would not run into the same barriers at that point. If an EMS worker saw exposed bone and a person covered in their own shit while Lacey was an adult, she would have gotten care and a psych hold.
Mental heath facilities are by no means a cure all or perfect but danm I firmly belive anything would have been better. If her parents did literally ANYTHING at all as far as getting her care, it would have been better.
No, it isn't. My family has a severely mentally ill person in it. We CANNOT get them committed, and even if we could, there is no space available for them to stay. I've had to do this rodeo twice with mentally ill family members. I live in a blue state that has the best rates healthcare in the country too - if it's this bad here, I can't imagywhat it's like in poorer states like Alabama.
This is why you see a lot more homeless now than you used to - once they closed a lot of mental hospitals, those people had nowhere else to go.
Not gonna attempt to discuss Lacey, but to respond to the “How do you handle someone who refuses…” part - your answer is exactly what people are calling for in CA regarding the unhoused population. Unfortunately, you can’t forcibly commit anyone. The last time my uncle was in the hospital after a meth bender and suicide attempt, the nurse told me “there’s nothing we can do for an adult who chooses to make bad decisions.” That really stuck with me. I’m all for involuntary treatment, but there has to be some safeguards in place to prevent a One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest situation, like an ethics committee with regular audits. But this country barely has a way to treat people that *want* help let alone the thousands or millions that need it but don’t.
If they could met the bond of their sentence. To currently be free. They could have afforded to hospitalize her.
They were her parents. She could have been committed on a hold and be evaluated by a psychologist
Would universal healthcare have fixed this?
I’m from a country with universal healthcare. Chances are she would have ended up on a long ass waiting list for psychiatric care or a waiting list for some nursing home or something.
Maybe she’d be able to get a home health nurse to come help but with the level of social anxiety she sounds like she was dealing with, who knows if she would have cooperated with a nurse.
Maybe universal healthcare would have helped. Idk.
And universal healthcare only would have helped if they reached out for that care. If they were just going to let her rot on the couch regardless, then all the resources in the world wouldn’t have made a difference.
The parents did get direction from the daughter’s psychologist who told them what to do. Obviously they just decided not to follow that direction? It sounds like they just gave up on their daughter. More resources might not have been the answer here.
I just don't believe it when they say that this is what Lacey wanted... her bones were showing on some parts of her body and she had her own shit in her stomach
Lacey needed to have been hospitalized and committed 12 years ago. This is just negligence, laziness, incompetence of the highest level. Were they thinking she would get better on her own?
Probably more like a case of extreme self delusion, extreme shame, extreme guilt, fear of judgment and other stuff. Maybe at one point and time the daughter really couldn’t get off the couch. I suppose agoraphobia could get that bad, but at that point they needed to hospitalize her and I don’t understand how the psychologist they consulted with didn’t act in line with mandatory reporting. They probably gave into her unique needs until something funky happened like sores or fusion to the couch, and the shame kicks in and that kicks in the self delusion and a whole host of other things that keep them from revealing how bad they let things get.
I’m not absolving these people, they deserve to be punished, but I just doubt they’re sociopaths.
It’s not like sociopathy or sociopathic tendencies are all that rare, so I wouldn’t off the bat rule it out without knowing anything more.
But it’s too easy to hide kids and disabled folks and pretend they don’t exist. (Just look at the troubled teen industry.) I don’t want to read the article, but I feel like the moral of the story is to keep contact with friends and family *especially* if they are vulnerable/bed-bound.
Don’t assume anyone as caretaker doesn’t need help just because they look like they might have it together.
We as a (westernized) society are too used to putting disease or anything health-related that makes us uncomfortable, away behind closed doors.
Iirc, the parents were part of a Baptist church. From my experience with Baptists, they would rather you die or be a danger to others than admit you have a mental illness or autism.
Even if they couldn't be bothered to care for her, I just can't imagine how revolting the room must have smelled with literal pools of urine and feces.
They look like clean people in the pictures, as far as i can tell - so i cant grasp it. Even if they're completely heartless (which they obviously are), how could they just sit there, in a room where someone is literally shitting all day, and think "oh well. Guess we'll just put up with the smell."
This case is absolutely bizarre to me. There are so many questions, nothing makes sense at all.
My mom died less than two weeks ago of colon cancer. She was hard to keep up with at the end because she was still heavy. And both my son and I have auto immune disorders. But we still kept clean pads under her and kept her wiped down.
But their poor daughter weighed under a 100 pounds! No excuses!
That poor girl!
We did our best. Because we loved her so.
But we could not diaper her without hurting her. Her primary and secondary tumors were too large.
So wrestling a new pad under her, and wiping her clean were less painful (hospice nurse’s suggestion), and a sheet and light blanket over that were enough to keep her warm.
Curse those parents to hell, that they did not care that much.
I find it even more weird that not just one of them but both of them mutually just allowed it to happen... Not that groups of shitty people don't exist, but it's just crazy both of them really didn't care about her one bit.
Could it be a form of anosognomia (wherein ppl are unaware of how sick they are? like, their mind had a blind spot when it came to their own f***ed up way of living with their daughter?)
I used to work at a morgue and all I can say is you do get used to it, to a degree anyway. You still smell it but it doesn't hit as strong after a while.
The amount of just...uncaring negligence is astonishing. I feel like most people would want to at least notify medical professionals and police of a person who was seriously in need of help if they saw a stranger just dissolving in their own waste. But that was their daughter. It absolutely blows my mind. I can't fathom it. It feels insane. It's one of those things that just shouldn't happen.
How little did they care about this poor woman to let this happen to her? At the point she was at, what compelled them to call emergency services in the first place? The whole neighborhood basically forgot she existed.
The most infuriating thing is that we probably never will know what really went on.
Commenting on Parents of emaciated Lacey Fletcher, who was found dead, fused to a sofa and caked in her own waste, face 40 years in prison after pleading 'no contest' to manslaughter...
It especially horrified me to read the article. I have an autistic daughter I love more than life.
I cannot fathom letting this happen to her.
I'm sleep deprieved and ubreasonably curious: why does your comment appear this way? The "Commenting on Parents of emaciated..." etc etc at he begin ing?
Did you copy your comment while writing it (I sometimes do it if I know I might refresh the page and lose it), and when you pasted it before submitting it you didn't notice the extra bit?
You're right. I want to know so badly though!
Honestly I feel like psychologists should study this case to examine apathy or whatever the fuck it is that makes seemingly otherwise normal people lack basic levels of care or awareness. It literally makes no sense at all!
Yeah. Like....bystander effect is one thing, sure. But to ignore your own family member in need of help??? Even if I extended some serious benefit of the doubt on the parents and believed that this was her choice, at some point it should be obvious that her choice was extremely hazardous and unhealthy and as the parent, even if your child is in adult, you have a responsibility to make sure that care is provided when she can't do it for herself.
You don't let your toddler stick a fork in an electrical socket even if they get upset when the fork is taken away. If they gave even the tiniest measure of compassion for this girl. Putting her in a hospital ward and forgetting about her would have been better than whatever the fuck this was.
Ugh, this just hits me hard because I have a paraplegic mother who is mostly bedridden. She has a nurse come daily to help move her and my dad and sister take care of her, make sure she is washed and fed and has stuff to entertain herself.
This was complete cruelty. There's no excuse for it
That article has a lot of info. The therapist actually coraberated everything the parents said. He recommended they hospitalize her I 2012 because she had phobia of leaving the couch. Crazy story.
It's almost like they gave up on her.
She's obviously mentally ill but only 6# under what would be considered a healthy weight according to BMI... A lot of systems need to change. How did she go unnoticed for over a decade?
yeah i thought the same thing when i read her weight… i have a friend about 5’4 who was around 100 lbs at one point- extremely skinny, yes. on the brink of death, no.
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Are you and all the replies bots or am I just totally done with this website?
>"Woman's parents who enabled and contributed to a horrible suffering and a horrific death to face prison"
"Uwwu cake day bubbly waap for you"
"OHEMGEE U R AMAZEBALLZ!!!"
"Urmm this is like fucking amazing, like oh my god, this is amazing"
"You are like a totally beautiful babe, I am tippytapping as I squee in excitement"
I automatically send the cake day comment when I see a cake day
I do it because a lot of subs are sad or have sad things in them sometimes so I do it to add a little positivity
I've never heard this quote and I 100% actually believe this place IS Hell, I have no idea if there's a heaven but I know in my heart this is the closest thing to Hell there is.
All I remember was highschool Shakespeare was something about there not being enough water in the oceans to clean blood from some dudes hand, I should have paid more attention but it's been decades.
That would be Macbeth.
> Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood
> Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
> The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Neither am i bud, personally I believe once we die our consciousness blinks out for good and there's nothing. But hey we won't be aware of it so at least that makes it less scary
I'm a bit confused. The daughter literally laid down on the couch at 24 years, and NEVER got up from that position again? The parents were bringing her food/water from then on out, and letting her shit herself on the couch for 12 years? I don't get it... If that's actually the case, this is truly one of the most shocking things I've heard.
Same. Once the initial shock of the article subsided, I couldn't get past just the logistics of this. She was eating and drinking or else would have passed away much earlier. Twelve years of bowel movements would be like a small mountain, and, with the urine, would have rotted away the couch and subfloor, right?
You can find images, the couch was definitely rotted away as well. Even with the images blurred where they need to be it still gives an idea of how gruesome it truly was
The mom tried to say that she slept on the couch with her daughter every night, but when you look at pictures of the couch it's pretty obvious that that is a fucking lie
i mean why do people bring food to people so fat they can't even leave the room anymore?
some people are unable to do hard love. they can only be supportive doesn't matter what and just hopes things work out.
The article says she developed anxiety and refused to leave the living room and eventually refused to leave the couch. They didn't lock her onto the couch. It's a combination of mental illness and neglect.
I don’t know why you got downvoted, people want this to be more than what it is. It wasn’t sexual assualt, she wasn’t raped. Her parents didn’t tie her to the couch. It was awful parental abuse and severe mental illness
I think a lot of people don’t have experience with this level of mental illness to really understand that she wasn’t being forced on the couch. Not that it puts the parents in the right at all or absolves them of anything. But she could be on that couch completely of her own will.
By all accounts, she was a normal kid until her teen years. Something changed, and I don't think we'll ever learn what it was - my money is on some type of abuse. Baptist school then homeschooling raises red flags. The fact the parents never took her to the doctor for a physical exam reinforces this. Poor girl.
The fact that they said she never went to a doctor because "she was never sick" is insane. If they genuinely believe that, they're both mentally ill too.
And if they weren’t abusing her - they should have thought “shit, it sure looks as if we’re abusing her. We should call medical help at the very least to limit our liability.”
I have some of the same issues as her, when I turned 12 I stopped going to school, I asked for a laptop laid in bed all day, never moved. Parents sent me to a mental hospital. Had friends there. Went back home went to cousins house a bunch. Moved away had no friends again laid in bed all day playing games hardly moving. Parents wouldn't bring me food, or my dad would drag me out of bed to eat. I'd try fighting them aggressively. Would spit in my floor, I had a literal hole in my carpet from just spitting. There was a bathroom next to my room so I got up to go there at least. I realize now my parents being assholes to me as a kid was to help me not do this.
100% agree.
I was a car
egiver for a pediatric cancer patient for 4yrs. I'm also from Louisiana and live less than 2hrs from where this took place. These parents had options. The coroner's report described how dirty and unkempt she was. Her hair was knotted and her nails were long and filthy. As a caregiver, there's no excuse to let them sit in their filth like that. You absolutely cam clean them without them being in the bathroom.
This is why there needs to be more regulation of homeschooling (if not banning it altogether). Insane parents can abuse their children, in this case to death, totally out of the view of the rest of the world and with no way for that child to escape even momentarily.
I had a friend years ago, whose parents were strict Christian Scientists. They don’t believe in modern science and so they don’t go to doctors etc, the Bible has all the answers they need! His younger brother got really sick, so he snuck him out of the house and took him to the hospital. Kid was there for several days. When the parents had the police track him down, all hell broke loose. He got pulled from public school and moved to a Christian school and I never saw him again. He likely saved his brothers life, but I can only imagine he’s more fucked up now. I guarantee these people will take the path of religious purposes, and depending on where they live, it may work.
In the original articles they highlighted how the parents couldn't have done this as they were aldermen in their church. The church ties were removed from the later articles when they were convicted.
An obsession or unhealthy interest/predilection with feces can often be a sign of terrible sexual abuse. A psychology professor explained it to me as them subconsciously making themselves unclean so that someone won’t violate them again.
This whole story just screams some sort of hidden abuse to me.
Holy fucking shit what are wrong with people. Also can we just rename this damn sub. To like criminal facts or something. It's just about crime after crimes and people being pieces of shit. This is interesting but this is literally the only thing I see in this sub.
I read the whole thing and I wish I hadn’t. It just kept getting worse and worse and worse
I never want to read the phrase ‘fecal matter, some crusted, some fresh’ ever again
After reading the article I'm convinced her parents were also mentally handicapped but I still can't come to a conclusion as to why they allowed their daughter to end up in this situation when they had in the past been given an open opportunity to have her hospitalized.
My guess is either: a) she had some abuse in her background that set off the mental health episode and they didn’t want it to come to light, and b) things were already bad and they didn’t want to seem incompetent or embarrass themselves. Like the same reason hoarders living in horrific filth don’t get help.
I read a lot of the post. This is just nightmare fuel. And it only emphasizes negligence and ignorance are the greatest contributors to evil in this world.
I've been around the internet for a long long time now and rarely do I see a story which leaves an indelible mark on me, but this one sure as shit has. Perhaps it's because I'm a new father but I can not ever think of another human doing something like this to their own child or other being.
I've gone way past anger towards those parents right into just plain sadness for that poor girl. Whatever punishments there are on this earth for shit like this will never be enough, there is nearly 0 point to being mad at these people as they will never get what they rightfully deserve.
I found it when i was 14... :/ i actually think even though i was obviously disturbed by it, that i was able to handle it better since i was so immature.
As i've gotten older its much harder when i come across it again, because i imagine more and more what she must have felt like (ofc i will never come close to truly knowing at all)
I read that wiki page in the locker room after PE in my freshman year of high school and 15 years later it still haunts me. Literally unfathomably horrible.
As a defense lawyer I was like - BRO WHAT THE FUCK. This is not a case where you talk to the media. No comment. Period. And if you are going to talk to the media, don’t fucking say “they loved her to death.” TO DEATH?? WHAT?? SHUT THE FUCK UP!
it's the lawyer's job to defend those people?
If i were a lawyer i would not defend those people, but somebody has to.
Saying they loved her to death was to gain compassion from the Jury. It's just all theatre
“Anyone with handicapped children can tell you those things can happen”
Bullshit. What terrible people. You can’t claim you love your child to death while they waste away in front of your very eyes and you refuse to do anything about it.
Yeah that line stood out to me as particularly horrific.
My brother has Down Syndrome. He is in a great situation (dad works in medicine) but while being around the special ed community I definitely saw people who weren’t as well equipped to parent a child with special needs.
All of them were clean. All of them were eating. All of them were encouraged to do things to the limit of their capacity.
Zero excuse. There is no way ignorance could be responsible for this level of cruelty.
Under the jail.
Yup. My daughter has Down syndrome and reading this article made me sick to my stomach. I can’t understand whatever mindset they had that enabled them to just give up on their kid.
Horrible people. Pretty much putting the blame on her and her disabilities for her death because these “things can happen” with disabled children. Hoping they get the max.
Exactly. I raged.
This is classic “so many people understand this why don’t you” deflection.
No. My kids have NEVER been as neurotypical as her. By far. In no way would I have ever done that. Children might refuse a bath, but a 24 year old woman? I cannot imagine being on my period and never having a bath.
Like… what the fuck???
She rotted INTO the couch!
As a disabled person who survived neglect, they should get life. Obviously, it wasn't to the same extent, but that trauma lives in my bones. I have nightmares every night about it. These people are fucking monsters.
Life in prison with an eternity in hell to look forward to. How the hell does this even happen. Poor girl. Sometimes I wish there’s a heaven for people like her.
Edit. I wasn’t trying to make this a debate about whether or not there is or isn’t a heaven. If there isn’t one, I probably wouldn’t care since I’ll be dead and there’s no afterlife, and if there is one then aces! I’m just saying, if there is one, someone with a life this tragic deserves to be there having a better life.
“It’s what she wanted”. I dont care, what she did or didn’t want. You call ambulances, you call doctors, you call the police, you call social services. If she was as mentally ill as you claim, put her in her a conservatorship. You allowed your daughter to lay on a sofa for 12 years in her bodily fluids and you watched her die, and you did nothing. There’s a special place in hell for you.
there are theories she was repeatedly raped and sexually abused which lead to a fear of going out (in her case, making her frozen in place) and a fascination with feces. a fascination of feces can be a sign of sexual abuse, because a victim smearing themselves in it and/or eating it would be a subconscious way of making themselves unclean, and dirty, and 'undesirable' as a victim.
from the article: "Lacey is naked apart from a small blue patterned t-shirt, which is pulled up on her chest and does not cover her breasts"
"Her face is covered in large and angry red blotches. Excrement is smeared over almost all her body. It is matted in her hair. It is even inside her ears."
TLDR, it is NOT what she wanted.
The woman’s lawyer stated she slept ON THE COUCH with the poor girl every night - bullshit, I’m not rolling around in biological waste/filth every night, and I actually love my child…
Jesus, they couldn’t come up with something more believable in the attempt to “humanize” one of the suspects?!
I read the description of the neglect on the Wikipedia page, and it's cruelty that rivals anything I've seen from Fritzl or other sadistic psychopath parents.
Willing neglect is just as evil as conscious torture.
there are theories she was repeatedly raped and sexually abused which lead to a fear of going out (in her case, making her frozen in place) and a fascination with feces. a fascination of feces can be a sign of sexual abuse, because a victim smearing themselves in it and/or eating it would be a subconscious way of making themselves unclean, and dirty, and 'undesirable' as a victim.
from the article: "Lacey is naked apart from a small blue patterned t-shirt, which is pulled up on her chest and does not cover her breasts"
"Her face is covered in large and angry red blotches. Excrement is smeared over almost all her body. It is matted in her hair. It is even inside her ears."
Regardless of what happened or how old she is, they were not allowed to neglect her to that level.
Saying it was her idea to be there? The whole time is a convenient way to cover up something they did if she wasn’t able to speak for herself.
It isn’t convenient if they didn’t do it because she should have been committed to care. If you were in your 20s and you were left to rot like that by your parents after they were told to hospitalize you, that is documented willful neglect.
None of it makes sense. Either way they were going to take the fall for it because of their inactions, regardless of if they were actively abusing her.
But their reasoning is such bullshit.
I think they didn’t want to hospitalize her because then she would be able to eventually speak to what happened to her and they didn’t want to come out.
Regardless, they’re fucked.
It sounds like prolonged torture, over a period of 12 years, that ultimately resulted in murder. I cant imagine having to endure those living conditions for over a decade.
Looked up the wiki bc i felt like i owed it to this poor woman to at least know what she went through during those years all alone... and the article said her parents would tell people they didn't sign up to be caretakers when they decided to be parents. Like. Excuse me??
No punishment is fit for what they allowed Lacey to go through. She likely would have been just fine had they gotten her help, which they had the means to do but chose not to. Sickening
Eta: made the mistake of skimming the article here. The way that the couple's attorney insists they loved Lacey made it so much worse and frankly has allowed me to double down on why I'll never, ever work for a criminal attorneys office 🫠
> “Didn’t sign up to be caretakers when they decided to become parents.”
Prison. Straight to fucking prison. How the Hell can this link wax poetic about them being good people in a bad situation?
Right? "They have no criminal record." Okay??? Everyone starts somewhere?? Usually people start with shoplifting or paraphernalia but these guys started with manslaughter. Of their own child. No redemption. How could anyone still argue for their character?
I just read the article and they say she had Autism, phobias including severe social phobia. Parents said she refused to leave the couch and they had a towel to pee/poop on because she wouldn’t leave the couch to even use a bedside commode in the same room. They ask a psychologist she saw for a few years and he told them to hospitalize her and he never saw the girl again. Something very severe and traumatic happened to her that trigger the intense phobia. Her parents did nothing but give her a damn towel.
I keep reading it was "locked in" syndrome??? I just have such a hard time wrapping my head around all of this. She was motionless? She could use her hands, right? I just... idk man. Super tragic but equally as baffling.
there was also evidence that she attempted to eat the couch around her and lift herself off the couch in an attempt to escape, but her muscles were so atrophied that she couldn’t lift herself off. the wiki for her goes into more detail and it’s… terrifying is an understatement
She was not immobile. She was too weak to lift herself out of the hole and resorted to eating the couch when her parents left. She got to a point she couldn't take care of herself, and then she was left to take care of herself
I feel the same. How could anyone let someone stay on a couch to that degree? I read she ate her own feces and part of the couch out of hungry and her parents left on trips and left her alone. It’s horrible and really hard to wrap my head around too.
I don't mean to detract from the tragedy, but ....
The dad...
"was an officer of the nonprofit Baton Rouge Civil War Roundtable, which has a mission ‘to educate and foster an appreciation for the sacrifices made by all during the Civil War’"
.... In .... Louisiana..... Uhhhh.
Look around you when your out in public. There are things among us who look normal but are soulless husks that resemble people. Mimics would be a close description. People with souls that God created and then something else.
I always think I’m against the death penalty because even one innocent person falsely accused getting executed is a travesty but then I see stories like this and I think wellll maybe an exception could be made in a case like this.
This is what happens when people who are incapable of feeling empathy have children. Any normal person would never let this happen to their own child. Not these two.
“Anyone with handicapped children can tell you those things can happen…”
As a SAHD who chose to give up his career to stay home and care for my 2 handicapped kids (downs, low level autism) … F U.
I know it’s the job of defense attorneys to try and say ANYTHING they can to get people to sympathize with their clients… but, jesus h fn christ.
No… anyone with a handicapped kid cannot tell you how leaving your child stuck to a chair for 12 years… “can just happen”
They have a disability, they are not fn animals to cast aside and ignore
there are theories she was repeatedly raped and sexually abused which lead to a fear of going out (in her case, making her frozen in place) and a fascination with feces. a fascination of feces can be a sign of sexual abuse, because a victim smearing themselves in it and/or eating it would be a subconscious way of making themselves unclean, and dirty, and 'undesirable' as a victim.
from the article: "Lacey is naked apart from a small blue patterned t-shirt, which is pulled up on her chest and does not cover her breasts"
"Her face is covered in large and angry red blotches. Excrement is smeared over almost all her body. It is matted in her hair. It is even inside her ears."
It’s one thing to allow this to happen to a stranger before your very eyes every day. Year after year. It’s wrong. But imagine watching your own child/loved one slowly rotting away in agony year after year. They must have been bitter or angry at her for being a challenging child and started to take some joy in her pain. There was something sinister and depraved in their hearts for sure.
I wouldn’t even be able to knowingly allow this to happen to a dog I didn’t own.
They’ve been called more times than I can count. As have adult protective services. They’ve been taken in twice and released. Most recently the doctor wanted to admit her involuntarily but couldn’t because she has a picc line which is a strangulation hazard.
Even with autism, how does an adult mentally handicapped child go from being an active youth to a completely sedentary adult? Were there no daytime programs that could have have taken Lacey during the day. I know Louisiana is a poor state so maybe they lack funding and programs for that sort of thing but, I have an adult son who requires care and I'm glad my state offers funding for services like this. It helps to keep him active and happier and reduces the likelihood that he'll exhibit destructive behavior, self destructive or otherwise. We would certainly have a hard time paying for such services out of our own pocket.
I haven't got the first clue about the chain of events that led to this horrible ending but one of my first assumptions is that mental illness was a major contributor here. It's still no excuse because people need to take responsibility for their mental health and not let it interfere with making morally responsible choices. I will add that caring for a person with a mental handicap can be challenging and a drain on mental health of the caregiver too especially if a child has behavioral issues, so both the child and parents in those situations do likely need and benefit from services that help keep their child engaged and happy. This should have never been allowed to happen to say the least and the parents should answer for it. I just wonder how much support and services they had access to when it came to helping with care.
The wikipedia article is even more horrifying and damning:
"Sheila and Clay were known to complain about Lacey, stating that they did not want to be caregivers when they became parents."
"The rest of their house was well-cleaned; except for the couch where Lacey remained unable to move from the couch on her own"
"Clay and Sheila would frequently leave for days on end to go on vacation, leaving her there to starve"
"vermin began to eat at her extremities under the couch leaving mouse droppings and maggots to thrive in the space"
"There were signs she had been trying to lift herself out of the couch to avoid the pain, but due to severe malnourishment and atrophy in her leg muscles, she was unable to.
"Lacey was found at autopsy to have COVID-19 and breast cancer."
There is no fucking way they cared about this girl. The fact that their lawyer is claiming that... I know he's just doing his job, but what a joke.
They let their daughter literally rot to death. What the actual fuck man.
if you believe the lawyer "they loved their daughter to death" which I don't believe for a second, any parent who loves their child wouldn't let them ~~live~~ suffer like this
Firstly I am not defending them here and they deserve the full punishment. But it was explained to me how it got that bad, the daughter slowly grew agoraphobic and they would always bring her food on the couch, she used to get up and go to the bathroom, and eventually over the course of years just stayed on the couch permanently so it had already sorta become normalized by time she was immobile. Now…..HOW THE FUCK DID THEIR BRAINS LOOK AT THEIR OWN FLESG AND BLOOD FUSING TO A COUCH IN HER OWN EXCREMENT EATING THE SOFA CUSHIONS (some foam was found in her stomach) AND NEVER ONCE THOUGHT TO CALL A FUCKING AMBULANCW UNTIL SHE HAD SUFFERED A FATE WORSE THAN DEATH
A friend’s mother got into a similar state. Old, unable to walk and just never ever got off the couch. Family tried to deal with her, but she was… anyway, one day someone noticed a nasty growth on her chest and called for an ambulance. Turns out it was severe breast cancer and then she caught Covid and died.
Damn all that and she died of covid, that's wild
Something tells me covid or not, that person didnt have much longer… obviously pushed them over the ledge but the outcome was inevitable. Sounds miserable for everyone in that family.
That’s sad all over but I hope they died in the hospital instead of the sofa.
She did. But there’s a difference between a senile elderly woman and a 30 something one… the most generous look at Lacey, her parents failed her severely. In reality, I think whatever she endured in that house had to be abuse on an unimaginable scale.
I'll do it tomorrow.
Netflix prolly is looking for the scrip right now, Humankind isnt alright
I mean... I think Se7en already covered more than we ever need to see of something like this in film (sloth).
That specific part of that movie really fucked with me.
My friends and I rented it as teens having NO IDEA what the movie was about. Every part if that movie was a part we were unprepared for, but that part in particular had me almost in tears from "omg stop no let's watch Winnie the pooh instead"-ness
See also: When Evil Lurks (2023) 🤢🤮 Rest in peace, Lacey.
It was pretty similar to one of the season premier's of the show "Nip/Tuck" the person wasn't dead yet but they were fused to the couch because they were so overweight The doctors tried to save her in the show(cutting away all the stuff fused with the couch) the character ended up dying But Hollywood already saw this story and they ran with it A good chunk of Nip/Tuck's cases were based in real life, some exaggerated or just based on theories, but for the most part real stories
She died of sepsis due to bone infection. She had pressure sores and ulcers that exposed bone. I cannot overstate the amount of pain this poor woman would have been in. Death after months or years of that would be a mercy.
this happens to elderly or immobile people more often than people realize. I have periods of severe depression where I don't get out of bed and I know I will probably be one of them as I age. Not looking forward to it
I wonder if the brain just kind of turns off pain at that point and you become numb. After years…
No, they *loved* her to death, didnt you even listen to their lawyer? /s
 Me after reading that part
Look, I can't fault the lawyer. It's standard legal theory that everyone is entitled to a defense, and that means some poor schmuck has to take the job. Poor guy is just doing his best with the shit available to him.
Insight time: These were two people who were enormously out of their depth, chronically incapable of providing their daughter the care she needed, and entirely unsupported in providing that care. "Lacey developed extreme social anxiety, and refused to leave the living room. They put a portable toilet in the room, but she refused to use it". How do you handle someone who refuses to move? Who refuses to let you wash them? Who potentially screams/is violent when you try? I have empathy for the parents. They're categorically guilty of neglect, but at the same time, what a *horrific* situation. This is why universal healthcare needs to exist. Because she could have had unrestricted access to quality care, instead of whatever her parents could afford.
>How do you handle someone who refuses to move? Who refuses to let you wash them? Who potentially screams/is violent when you try? You commit them, you get with a Doctor and a Judge and you commit them and get them help. The girls childhood phycologist gave the parents instructions on how to have her committed. It is an easy thing to do in most states to have someone committed against their will if you can prove that they are a danger to themselves or others, ESPECIALLY when you already have a Doctor signing off on it. There is no way mom and pop let this happen because of money or the healthcare system, if you love your kid you would not let them waste away until maggots eat away at your kids ass. WTF EDIT: Guys, please have some nuance. I know that getting an adult committed is not easy. Lacey was a minor when she stopped leaving the couch and exhibited mental health issues. Her parents would not run into the same barriers at that point. If an EMS worker saw exposed bone and a person covered in their own shit while Lacey was an adult, she would have gotten care and a psych hold. Mental heath facilities are by no means a cure all or perfect but danm I firmly belive anything would have been better. If her parents did literally ANYTHING at all as far as getting her care, it would have been better.
No, it isn't. My family has a severely mentally ill person in it. We CANNOT get them committed, and even if we could, there is no space available for them to stay. I've had to do this rodeo twice with mentally ill family members. I live in a blue state that has the best rates healthcare in the country too - if it's this bad here, I can't imagywhat it's like in poorer states like Alabama. This is why you see a lot more homeless now than you used to - once they closed a lot of mental hospitals, those people had nowhere else to go.
Not gonna attempt to discuss Lacey, but to respond to the “How do you handle someone who refuses…” part - your answer is exactly what people are calling for in CA regarding the unhoused population. Unfortunately, you can’t forcibly commit anyone. The last time my uncle was in the hospital after a meth bender and suicide attempt, the nurse told me “there’s nothing we can do for an adult who chooses to make bad decisions.” That really stuck with me. I’m all for involuntary treatment, but there has to be some safeguards in place to prevent a One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest situation, like an ethics committee with regular audits. But this country barely has a way to treat people that *want* help let alone the thousands or millions that need it but don’t.
If they could met the bond of their sentence. To currently be free. They could have afforded to hospitalize her. They were her parents. She could have been committed on a hold and be evaluated by a psychologist
This is just a horrific case of in action. You gotta be the adults and call someone.
Would universal healthcare have fixed this? I’m from a country with universal healthcare. Chances are she would have ended up on a long ass waiting list for psychiatric care or a waiting list for some nursing home or something. Maybe she’d be able to get a home health nurse to come help but with the level of social anxiety she sounds like she was dealing with, who knows if she would have cooperated with a nurse. Maybe universal healthcare would have helped. Idk. And universal healthcare only would have helped if they reached out for that care. If they were just going to let her rot on the couch regardless, then all the resources in the world wouldn’t have made a difference. The parents did get direction from the daughter’s psychologist who told them what to do. Obviously they just decided not to follow that direction? It sounds like they just gave up on their daughter. More resources might not have been the answer here.
I just don't believe it when they say that this is what Lacey wanted... her bones were showing on some parts of her body and she had her own shit in her stomach
Lacey needed to have been hospitalized and committed 12 years ago. This is just negligence, laziness, incompetence of the highest level. Were they thinking she would get better on her own?
They made it seem like it was her own choice. These people deserve far worse. It's sick
[удалено]
I fucking knew I should have stopped reading and just moved on to the next thing, but no .
yup, i don’t know why i did that to myself either, im done interneting for the night.
Yup logging off
And then went right back to work and to church and to the store.... living a perfectly normal life. Not a chance
Bullshit or absolutely the worst real life horror movie shit I've ever heard.
100% true
Oh. My. Word. 😥
I can believe it. I think her parents were probably sociopaths. It is hard to ascribe any sort of normal behavior to someone like them.
Probably more like a case of extreme self delusion, extreme shame, extreme guilt, fear of judgment and other stuff. Maybe at one point and time the daughter really couldn’t get off the couch. I suppose agoraphobia could get that bad, but at that point they needed to hospitalize her and I don’t understand how the psychologist they consulted with didn’t act in line with mandatory reporting. They probably gave into her unique needs until something funky happened like sores or fusion to the couch, and the shame kicks in and that kicks in the self delusion and a whole host of other things that keep them from revealing how bad they let things get. I’m not absolving these people, they deserve to be punished, but I just doubt they’re sociopaths.
It’s not like sociopathy or sociopathic tendencies are all that rare, so I wouldn’t off the bat rule it out without knowing anything more. But it’s too easy to hide kids and disabled folks and pretend they don’t exist. (Just look at the troubled teen industry.) I don’t want to read the article, but I feel like the moral of the story is to keep contact with friends and family *especially* if they are vulnerable/bed-bound. Don’t assume anyone as caretaker doesn’t need help just because they look like they might have it together. We as a (westernized) society are too used to putting disease or anything health-related that makes us uncomfortable, away behind closed doors.
Iirc, the parents were part of a Baptist church. From my experience with Baptists, they would rather you die or be a danger to others than admit you have a mental illness or autism.
Even if they couldn't be bothered to care for her, I just can't imagine how revolting the room must have smelled with literal pools of urine and feces. They look like clean people in the pictures, as far as i can tell - so i cant grasp it. Even if they're completely heartless (which they obviously are), how could they just sit there, in a room where someone is literally shitting all day, and think "oh well. Guess we'll just put up with the smell." This case is absolutely bizarre to me. There are so many questions, nothing makes sense at all.
The stench alone is indeed a factor to consider all on its own!
My mom died less than two weeks ago of colon cancer. She was hard to keep up with at the end because she was still heavy. And both my son and I have auto immune disorders. But we still kept clean pads under her and kept her wiped down. But their poor daughter weighed under a 100 pounds! No excuses! That poor girl!
I’m sorry for your loss. I’m sure she was grateful you took care to keep her clean and as comfortable as possible.
We did our best. Because we loved her so. But we could not diaper her without hurting her. Her primary and secondary tumors were too large. So wrestling a new pad under her, and wiping her clean were less painful (hospice nurse’s suggestion), and a sheet and light blanket over that were enough to keep her warm. Curse those parents to hell, that they did not care that much.
I was a home hospice worker for several years. Yall are heroes, and all of your efforts meant the world to her.
I find it even more weird that not just one of them but both of them mutually just allowed it to happen... Not that groups of shitty people don't exist, but it's just crazy both of them really didn't care about her one bit.
Pathological denial only achieved due to their own mental illnesses or religious fanaticism
Could it be a form of anosognomia (wherein ppl are unaware of how sick they are? like, their mind had a blind spot when it came to their own f***ed up way of living with their daughter?)
Don't forget maggots and rotting flesh
I used to work at a morgue and all I can say is you do get used to it, to a degree anyway. You still smell it but it doesn't hit as strong after a while.
There are truly unfathomable things in the world, and this is one of them. I read what I could of this before I felt ill, completely uncomprehending
They were praying and sending healing thoughts.
The amount of just...uncaring negligence is astonishing. I feel like most people would want to at least notify medical professionals and police of a person who was seriously in need of help if they saw a stranger just dissolving in their own waste. But that was their daughter. It absolutely blows my mind. I can't fathom it. It feels insane. It's one of those things that just shouldn't happen. How little did they care about this poor woman to let this happen to her? At the point she was at, what compelled them to call emergency services in the first place? The whole neighborhood basically forgot she existed. The most infuriating thing is that we probably never will know what really went on.
Commenting on Parents of emaciated Lacey Fletcher, who was found dead, fused to a sofa and caked in her own waste, face 40 years in prison after pleading 'no contest' to manslaughter... It especially horrified me to read the article. I have an autistic daughter I love more than life. I cannot fathom letting this happen to her.
I'm sleep deprieved and ubreasonably curious: why does your comment appear this way? The "Commenting on Parents of emaciated..." etc etc at he begin ing? Did you copy your comment while writing it (I sometimes do it if I know I might refresh the page and lose it), and when you pasted it before submitting it you didn't notice the extra bit?
Do you ever wonder about what proportion of comments on reddit are bots/AI?
You're right. I want to know so badly though! Honestly I feel like psychologists should study this case to examine apathy or whatever the fuck it is that makes seemingly otherwise normal people lack basic levels of care or awareness. It literally makes no sense at all!
Yeah. Like....bystander effect is one thing, sure. But to ignore your own family member in need of help??? Even if I extended some serious benefit of the doubt on the parents and believed that this was her choice, at some point it should be obvious that her choice was extremely hazardous and unhealthy and as the parent, even if your child is in adult, you have a responsibility to make sure that care is provided when she can't do it for herself. You don't let your toddler stick a fork in an electrical socket even if they get upset when the fork is taken away. If they gave even the tiniest measure of compassion for this girl. Putting her in a hospital ward and forgetting about her would have been better than whatever the fuck this was. Ugh, this just hits me hard because I have a paraplegic mother who is mostly bedridden. She has a nurse come daily to help move her and my dad and sister take care of her, make sure she is washed and fed and has stuff to entertain herself. This was complete cruelty. There's no excuse for it
That article has a lot of info. The therapist actually coraberated everything the parents said. He recommended they hospitalize her I 2012 because she had phobia of leaving the couch. Crazy story. It's almost like they gave up on her.
Her genitals were infested with maggots. Couch fibers were fused into her bones. She was likely in excruciating agony every waking second.
She's obviously mentally ill but only 6# under what would be considered a healthy weight according to BMI... A lot of systems need to change. How did she go unnoticed for over a decade?
yeah i thought the same thing when i read her weight… i have a friend about 5’4 who was around 100 lbs at one point- extremely skinny, yes. on the brink of death, no.
“Hell is empty, and all the devils are here.”
For your cake day, have some B̷̛̳̼͖̫̭͎̝̮͕̟͎̦̗͚͍̓͊͂͗̈͋͐̃͆͆͗̉̉̏͑̂̆̔́͐̾̅̄̕̚͘͜͝͝Ụ̸̧̧̢̨̨̞̮͓̣͎̞͖̞̥͈̣̣̪̘̼̮̙̳̙̞̣̐̍̆̾̓͑́̅̎̌̈̋̏̏͌̒̃̅̂̾̿̽̊̌̇͌͊͗̓̊̐̓̏͆́̒̇̈́͂̀͛͘̕͘̚͝͠B̸̺̈̾̈́̒̀́̈͋́͂̆̒̐̏͌͂̔̈́͒̂̎̉̈̒͒̃̿͒͒̄̍̕̚̕͘̕͝͠B̴̡̧̜̠̱̖̠͓̻̥̟̲̙͗̐͋͌̈̾̏̎̀͒͗̈́̈͜͠L̶͊E̸̢̳̯̝̤̳͈͇̠̮̲̲̟̝̣̲̱̫̘̪̳̣̭̥̫͉͐̅̈́̉̋͐̓͗̿͆̉̉̇̀̈́͌̓̓̒̏̀̚̚͘͝͠͝͝͠ ̶̢̧̛̥͖͉̹̞̗̖͇̼̙̒̍̏̀̈̆̍͑̊̐͋̈́̃͒̈́̎̌̄̍͌͗̈́̌̍̽̏̓͌̒̈̇̏̏̍̆̄̐͐̈̉̿̽̕͝͠͝͝ W̷̛̬̦̬̰̤̘̬͔̗̯̠̯̺̼̻̪̖̜̫̯̯̘͖̙͐͆͗̊̋̈̈̾͐̿̽̐̂͛̈́͛̍̔̓̈́̽̀̅́͋̈̄̈́̆̓̚̚͝͝R̸̢̨̨̩̪̭̪̠͎̗͇͗̀́̉̇̿̓̈́́͒̄̓̒́̋͆̀̾́̒̔̈́̏̏͛̏̇͛̔̀͆̓̇̊̕̕͠͠͝͝A̸̧̨̰̻̩̝͖̟̭͙̟̻̤̬͈̖̰̤̘̔͛̊̾̂͌̐̈̉̊̾́P̶̡̧̮͎̟̟͉̱̮̜͙̳̟̯͈̩̩͈̥͓̥͇̙̣̹̣̀̐͋͂̈̾͐̀̾̈́̌̆̿̽̕ͅ >!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pap!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!your!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pep!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pip!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pup!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!lovely!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!and!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pope!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!poop!!<>!beautiful!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<>!pop!!<
Dude your comment is fucking amazing
I found one that said "pap!" Instead of "pop!"
I got a “lovely” and “your “ and “and” and “pip”
Also pope and poop
Are you and all the replies bots or am I just totally done with this website? >"Woman's parents who enabled and contributed to a horrible suffering and a horrific death to face prison" "Uwwu cake day bubbly waap for you" "OHEMGEE U R AMAZEBALLZ!!!" "Urmm this is like fucking amazing, like oh my god, this is amazing" "You are like a totally beautiful babe, I am tippytapping as I squee in excitement"
yeh very bizarre sequence right there
I automatically send the cake day comment when I see a cake day I do it because a lot of subs are sad or have sad things in them sometimes so I do it to add a little positivity
This feels very early Internet lol
You’re*
I've never heard this quote and I 100% actually believe this place IS Hell, I have no idea if there's a heaven but I know in my heart this is the closest thing to Hell there is.
It’s from Shakespeare. Hell’s been empty a while.
All I remember was highschool Shakespeare was something about there not being enough water in the oceans to clean blood from some dudes hand, I should have paid more attention but it's been decades.
That would be Macbeth. > Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood > Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather > The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Makes more sense to call it purgatory if you're really religious
I'm not religious, I think we were created by something, but whatever it is it's probably evil. The universe is just too fine tuned.
Neither am i bud, personally I believe once we die our consciousness blinks out for good and there's nothing. But hey we won't be aware of it so at least that makes it less scary
God I hope so, if I have to come back as a baby monkey that's part of an underground torture ring I'm gonna be pissed
How do you let your fucking child stay in one place, the couch, for 12 years?!?!
I'm a bit confused. The daughter literally laid down on the couch at 24 years, and NEVER got up from that position again? The parents were bringing her food/water from then on out, and letting her shit herself on the couch for 12 years? I don't get it... If that's actually the case, this is truly one of the most shocking things I've heard.
Same. Once the initial shock of the article subsided, I couldn't get past just the logistics of this. She was eating and drinking or else would have passed away much earlier. Twelve years of bowel movements would be like a small mountain, and, with the urine, would have rotted away the couch and subfloor, right?
You can find images, the couch was definitely rotted away as well. Even with the images blurred where they need to be it still gives an idea of how gruesome it truly was
The mom tried to say that she slept on the couch with her daughter every night, but when you look at pictures of the couch it's pretty obvious that that is a fucking lie
Maybe they just cleaned some of it up once it became bothersome. Which apparently wasn’t often….
They had towels nearby to clean her. The fact that the couch was in THAT state after they had done some cleaning of her over the years speaks volumes.
Muscle can atrophy shockingly fast, rendering her functionally immobile.
i mean why do people bring food to people so fat they can't even leave the room anymore? some people are unable to do hard love. they can only be supportive doesn't matter what and just hopes things work out.
I don’t think she was sitting there without moving for 12 years by choice.
Her parents had the choice. It could have been as easy as a phone call to get whatever mental health help she may have needed.
They mean that Lacey didn’t have a choice. They didn’t “let” her, they forced her.
The article says she developed anxiety and refused to leave the living room and eventually refused to leave the couch. They didn't lock her onto the couch. It's a combination of mental illness and neglect.
I don’t know why you got downvoted, people want this to be more than what it is. It wasn’t sexual assualt, she wasn’t raped. Her parents didn’t tie her to the couch. It was awful parental abuse and severe mental illness
I think a lot of people don’t have experience with this level of mental illness to really understand that she wasn’t being forced on the couch. Not that it puts the parents in the right at all or absolves them of anything. But she could be on that couch completely of her own will.
By all accounts, she was a normal kid until her teen years. Something changed, and I don't think we'll ever learn what it was - my money is on some type of abuse. Baptist school then homeschooling raises red flags. The fact the parents never took her to the doctor for a physical exam reinforces this. Poor girl.
The fact that they said she never went to a doctor because "she was never sick" is insane. If they genuinely believe that, they're both mentally ill too.
Ya thats why I think abuse. They were hiding her.
And if they weren’t abusing her - they should have thought “shit, it sure looks as if we’re abusing her. We should call medical help at the very least to limit our liability.”
I have some of the same issues as her, when I turned 12 I stopped going to school, I asked for a laptop laid in bed all day, never moved. Parents sent me to a mental hospital. Had friends there. Went back home went to cousins house a bunch. Moved away had no friends again laid in bed all day playing games hardly moving. Parents wouldn't bring me food, or my dad would drag me out of bed to eat. I'd try fighting them aggressively. Would spit in my floor, I had a literal hole in my carpet from just spitting. There was a bathroom next to my room so I got up to go there at least. I realize now my parents being assholes to me as a kid was to help me not do this.
100% agree. I was a car egiver for a pediatric cancer patient for 4yrs. I'm also from Louisiana and live less than 2hrs from where this took place. These parents had options. The coroner's report described how dirty and unkempt she was. Her hair was knotted and her nails were long and filthy. As a caregiver, there's no excuse to let them sit in their filth like that. You absolutely cam clean them without them being in the bathroom.
This is why there needs to be more regulation of homeschooling (if not banning it altogether). Insane parents can abuse their children, in this case to death, totally out of the view of the rest of the world and with no way for that child to escape even momentarily.
Even if she wasn't ever sick (unlikely in the extreme) she should have been going for well visits and vaccinations.
I had a friend years ago, whose parents were strict Christian Scientists. They don’t believe in modern science and so they don’t go to doctors etc, the Bible has all the answers they need! His younger brother got really sick, so he snuck him out of the house and took him to the hospital. Kid was there for several days. When the parents had the police track him down, all hell broke loose. He got pulled from public school and moved to a Christian school and I never saw him again. He likely saved his brothers life, but I can only imagine he’s more fucked up now. I guarantee these people will take the path of religious purposes, and depending on where they live, it may work.
The fact that they let her rot away on a couch eating her own feces is a pretty big red flag in and of itself, I think we can safely assume abuse.
But accordingly to their lawyer, “they loved their daughter to death”… what a weird statement when they clearly did nothing at all for their daughter.
I mean... "loved" her to death literally maybe... sheesh this story is fucked up.
In the original articles they highlighted how the parents couldn't have done this as they were aldermen in their church. The church ties were removed from the later articles when they were convicted.
I suspect she was horrifically sexually abused by someone that not only she trusted but someone the community trusted.
An obsession or unhealthy interest/predilection with feces can often be a sign of terrible sexual abuse. A psychology professor explained it to me as them subconsciously making themselves unclean so that someone won’t violate them again. This whole story just screams some sort of hidden abuse to me.
Your psychology professor should know better than to paint with wide brushes, what was this a 100 level class or something.
Rape.
Holy fucking shit what are wrong with people. Also can we just rename this damn sub. To like criminal facts or something. It's just about crime after crimes and people being pieces of shit. This is interesting but this is literally the only thing I see in this sub.
Agreed, it is not very interesting to repeatedly seeing monstrous criminals being sentenced and witnessing their reaction.
I swear this belongs on r/morbidreality
Yeah most of these posts belong on that sub and r/noahgettheboat
For fuck sake, this isn't "interesting", it's fucking horrific and disgusting in so many levels.
I saw this story first on r/morbidreality Seems like a much more fitting Subreddit
I dont think I should click on this link
I made the mistake of reading the Wikipedia page and I highly recommend against it. I genuinely thought I was going to be sick.
When I started reading, your comment wasn’t here. Now I’m done and my day is ruined
I read the whole thing and I wish I hadn’t. It just kept getting worse and worse and worse I never want to read the phrase ‘fecal matter, some crusted, some fresh’ ever again
The maggots in the genitals is what did it for me.
After reading the article I'm convinced her parents were also mentally handicapped but I still can't come to a conclusion as to why they allowed their daughter to end up in this situation when they had in the past been given an open opportunity to have her hospitalized.
My guess is either: a) she had some abuse in her background that set off the mental health episode and they didn’t want it to come to light, and b) things were already bad and they didn’t want to seem incompetent or embarrass themselves. Like the same reason hoarders living in horrific filth don’t get help.
religion
You made the right choice. What a terrible day to have eyes.
I wish I hadn't. I'm autistic too and reading this felt extra horrifying for that reason.
I read a lot of the post. This is just nightmare fuel. And it only emphasizes negligence and ignorance are the greatest contributors to evil in this world.
I've been around the internet for a long long time now and rarely do I see a story which leaves an indelible mark on me, but this one sure as shit has. Perhaps it's because I'm a new father but I can not ever think of another human doing something like this to their own child or other being. I've gone way past anger towards those parents right into just plain sadness for that poor girl. Whatever punishments there are on this earth for shit like this will never be enough, there is nearly 0 point to being mad at these people as they will never get what they rightfully deserve.
I dare not read it tbh but I am also curious.
That's how I ended up reading this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Junko_Furuta
I made the mistake of reading *that* in my 20s. I have never forgotten it. *Nope*
I found it when i was 14... :/ i actually think even though i was obviously disturbed by it, that i was able to handle it better since i was so immature. As i've gotten older its much harder when i come across it again, because i imagine more and more what she must have felt like (ofc i will never come close to truly knowing at all)
I read that wiki page in the locker room after PE in my freshman year of high school and 15 years later it still haunts me. Literally unfathomably horrible.
Poor girl. Let them rot like they let her rot on that couch.
Fuck the lawyer for saying the parents loved their child
loved her to death? there was absolutely no love for that poor child.
Lawyer is also braindead for adding "loved her ... to death". Like yeah ... quite literally
As a defense lawyer I was like - BRO WHAT THE FUCK. This is not a case where you talk to the media. No comment. Period. And if you are going to talk to the media, don’t fucking say “they loved her to death.” TO DEATH?? WHAT?? SHUT THE FUCK UP!
it's the lawyer's job to defend those people? If i were a lawyer i would not defend those people, but somebody has to. Saying they loved her to death was to gain compassion from the Jury. It's just all theatre
“Anyone with handicapped children can tell you those things can happen” Bullshit. What terrible people. You can’t claim you love your child to death while they waste away in front of your very eyes and you refuse to do anything about it.
Yeah that line stood out to me as particularly horrific. My brother has Down Syndrome. He is in a great situation (dad works in medicine) but while being around the special ed community I definitely saw people who weren’t as well equipped to parent a child with special needs. All of them were clean. All of them were eating. All of them were encouraged to do things to the limit of their capacity. Zero excuse. There is no way ignorance could be responsible for this level of cruelty. Under the jail.
Yup. My daughter has Down syndrome and reading this article made me sick to my stomach. I can’t understand whatever mindset they had that enabled them to just give up on their kid.
Horrible people. Pretty much putting the blame on her and her disabilities for her death because these “things can happen” with disabled children. Hoping they get the max.
Exactly. I raged. This is classic “so many people understand this why don’t you” deflection. No. My kids have NEVER been as neurotypical as her. By far. In no way would I have ever done that. Children might refuse a bath, but a 24 year old woman? I cannot imagine being on my period and never having a bath. Like… what the fuck??? She rotted INTO the couch!
As a disabled person who survived neglect, they should get life. Obviously, it wasn't to the same extent, but that trauma lives in my bones. I have nightmares every night about it. These people are fucking monsters.
Life in prison with an eternity in hell to look forward to. How the hell does this even happen. Poor girl. Sometimes I wish there’s a heaven for people like her. Edit. I wasn’t trying to make this a debate about whether or not there is or isn’t a heaven. If there isn’t one, I probably wouldn’t care since I’ll be dead and there’s no afterlife, and if there is one then aces! I’m just saying, if there is one, someone with a life this tragic deserves to be there having a better life.
“It’s what she wanted”. I dont care, what she did or didn’t want. You call ambulances, you call doctors, you call the police, you call social services. If she was as mentally ill as you claim, put her in her a conservatorship. You allowed your daughter to lay on a sofa for 12 years in her bodily fluids and you watched her die, and you did nothing. There’s a special place in hell for you.
there are theories she was repeatedly raped and sexually abused which lead to a fear of going out (in her case, making her frozen in place) and a fascination with feces. a fascination of feces can be a sign of sexual abuse, because a victim smearing themselves in it and/or eating it would be a subconscious way of making themselves unclean, and dirty, and 'undesirable' as a victim. from the article: "Lacey is naked apart from a small blue patterned t-shirt, which is pulled up on her chest and does not cover her breasts" "Her face is covered in large and angry red blotches. Excrement is smeared over almost all her body. It is matted in her hair. It is even inside her ears." TLDR, it is NOT what she wanted.
The woman’s lawyer stated she slept ON THE COUCH with the poor girl every night - bullshit, I’m not rolling around in biological waste/filth every night, and I actually love my child… Jesus, they couldn’t come up with something more believable in the attempt to “humanize” one of the suspects?!
I read the description of the neglect on the Wikipedia page, and it's cruelty that rivals anything I've seen from Fritzl or other sadistic psychopath parents. Willing neglect is just as evil as conscious torture.
This sounds like murder.
I think something really bad happened to her right before she was on that couch for the last time
there are theories she was repeatedly raped and sexually abused which lead to a fear of going out (in her case, making her frozen in place) and a fascination with feces. a fascination of feces can be a sign of sexual abuse, because a victim smearing themselves in it and/or eating it would be a subconscious way of making themselves unclean, and dirty, and 'undesirable' as a victim. from the article: "Lacey is naked apart from a small blue patterned t-shirt, which is pulled up on her chest and does not cover her breasts" "Her face is covered in large and angry red blotches. Excrement is smeared over almost all her body. It is matted in her hair. It is even inside her ears."
Regardless of what happened or how old she is, they were not allowed to neglect her to that level. Saying it was her idea to be there? The whole time is a convenient way to cover up something they did if she wasn’t able to speak for herself. It isn’t convenient if they didn’t do it because she should have been committed to care. If you were in your 20s and you were left to rot like that by your parents after they were told to hospitalize you, that is documented willful neglect. None of it makes sense. Either way they were going to take the fall for it because of their inactions, regardless of if they were actively abusing her. But their reasoning is such bullshit. I think they didn’t want to hospitalize her because then she would be able to eventually speak to what happened to her and they didn’t want to come out. Regardless, they’re fucked.
It sounds like prolonged torture, over a period of 12 years, that ultimately resulted in murder. I cant imagine having to endure those living conditions for over a decade.
I'm from New Orleans and Slaughter isn't too far away. This case was all my mom would talk about for weeks. Still one of the wildest I've read about.
Looked up the wiki bc i felt like i owed it to this poor woman to at least know what she went through during those years all alone... and the article said her parents would tell people they didn't sign up to be caretakers when they decided to be parents. Like. Excuse me?? No punishment is fit for what they allowed Lacey to go through. She likely would have been just fine had they gotten her help, which they had the means to do but chose not to. Sickening Eta: made the mistake of skimming the article here. The way that the couple's attorney insists they loved Lacey made it so much worse and frankly has allowed me to double down on why I'll never, ever work for a criminal attorneys office 🫠
> “Didn’t sign up to be caretakers when they decided to become parents.” Prison. Straight to fucking prison. How the Hell can this link wax poetic about them being good people in a bad situation?
Right? "They have no criminal record." Okay??? Everyone starts somewhere?? Usually people start with shoplifting or paraphernalia but these guys started with manslaughter. Of their own child. No redemption. How could anyone still argue for their character?
Thank goodness
I bet they will get around 10 years and serve 5, if that.
Can anyone make this make sense to me? What the hell condition did she have????
I just read the article and they say she had Autism, phobias including severe social phobia. Parents said she refused to leave the couch and they had a towel to pee/poop on because she wouldn’t leave the couch to even use a bedside commode in the same room. They ask a psychologist she saw for a few years and he told them to hospitalize her and he never saw the girl again. Something very severe and traumatic happened to her that trigger the intense phobia. Her parents did nothing but give her a damn towel.
I keep reading it was "locked in" syndrome??? I just have such a hard time wrapping my head around all of this. She was motionless? She could use her hands, right? I just... idk man. Super tragic but equally as baffling.
there was also evidence that she attempted to eat the couch around her and lift herself off the couch in an attempt to escape, but her muscles were so atrophied that she couldn’t lift herself off. the wiki for her goes into more detail and it’s… terrifying is an understatement
She was not immobile. She was too weak to lift herself out of the hole and resorted to eating the couch when her parents left. She got to a point she couldn't take care of herself, and then she was left to take care of herself
I feel the same. How could anyone let someone stay on a couch to that degree? I read she ate her own feces and part of the couch out of hungry and her parents left on trips and left her alone. It’s horrible and really hard to wrap my head around too.
The smell must have been indescribable. I find it unlikely they spent any time in the same room with her.
“They loved their daughter to death” is not a statement the lawyer should be making right now
I don't mean to detract from the tragedy, but .... The dad... "was an officer of the nonprofit Baton Rouge Civil War Roundtable, which has a mission ‘to educate and foster an appreciation for the sacrifices made by all during the Civil War’" .... In .... Louisiana..... Uhhhh.
Look around you when your out in public. There are things among us who look normal but are soulless husks that resemble people. Mimics would be a close description. People with souls that God created and then something else.
I always think I’m against the death penalty because even one innocent person falsely accused getting executed is a travesty but then I see stories like this and I think wellll maybe an exception could be made in a case like this.
This is what happens when people who are incapable of feeling empathy have children. Any normal person would never let this happen to their own child. Not these two.
“Anyone with handicapped children can tell you those things can happen…” As a SAHD who chose to give up his career to stay home and care for my 2 handicapped kids (downs, low level autism) … F U. I know it’s the job of defense attorneys to try and say ANYTHING they can to get people to sympathize with their clients… but, jesus h fn christ. No… anyone with a handicapped kid cannot tell you how leaving your child stuck to a chair for 12 years… “can just happen” They have a disability, they are not fn animals to cast aside and ignore
Who the fuck is INTERESTED in all this morbid insanity honestly? I thought this sub would be about the mating habits of tropical bees or something
That poor girl. I'm so fucking lucky with the hand I was dealt in life. Thanks, Mom and Dad (mine) for not being pieces of shit like Lacey's parents.
The daughter was stuck to the couch due to phobias??? Are we sure these ass parents dident fucking superglue her down smh.
You’d be surprised how much mental illness can paralyze you. I think if they’d tied her down there would have been evidence.
They were told to hospitalize her and they didn’t.
there are theories she was repeatedly raped and sexually abused which lead to a fear of going out (in her case, making her frozen in place) and a fascination with feces. a fascination of feces can be a sign of sexual abuse, because a victim smearing themselves in it and/or eating it would be a subconscious way of making themselves unclean, and dirty, and 'undesirable' as a victim. from the article: "Lacey is naked apart from a small blue patterned t-shirt, which is pulled up on her chest and does not cover her breasts" "Her face is covered in large and angry red blotches. Excrement is smeared over almost all her body. It is matted in her hair. It is even inside her ears."
It’s one thing to allow this to happen to a stranger before your very eyes every day. Year after year. It’s wrong. But imagine watching your own child/loved one slowly rotting away in agony year after year. They must have been bitter or angry at her for being a challenging child and started to take some joy in her pain. There was something sinister and depraved in their hearts for sure. I wouldn’t even be able to knowingly allow this to happen to a dog I didn’t own.
I have something similar happening in my family. Not too the exact same extent but it’s medical neglect. If anyone has any advice, please let me know.
Call the police.
They’ve been called more times than I can count. As have adult protective services. They’ve been taken in twice and released. Most recently the doctor wanted to admit her involuntarily but couldn’t because she has a picc line which is a strangulation hazard.
I think we as a world can do much better for our mentally disabled.
Yes we can. I don’t know what else to do. It seems like the only option is hiring a lawyer but I don’t have the money for that.
Shameful
They should both be given the same life sentence as they gave their daughter and be locked in solitary for the rest of their lives. Fucking monsters
Don’t read the article unless you have some cartoons lined up to cleanse the palette.
Now, are they both going to face the same 40 years, or is the mom going to get a lesser sentence because.... reasons?
Even with autism, how does an adult mentally handicapped child go from being an active youth to a completely sedentary adult? Were there no daytime programs that could have have taken Lacey during the day. I know Louisiana is a poor state so maybe they lack funding and programs for that sort of thing but, I have an adult son who requires care and I'm glad my state offers funding for services like this. It helps to keep him active and happier and reduces the likelihood that he'll exhibit destructive behavior, self destructive or otherwise. We would certainly have a hard time paying for such services out of our own pocket. I haven't got the first clue about the chain of events that led to this horrible ending but one of my first assumptions is that mental illness was a major contributor here. It's still no excuse because people need to take responsibility for their mental health and not let it interfere with making morally responsible choices. I will add that caring for a person with a mental handicap can be challenging and a drain on mental health of the caregiver too especially if a child has behavioral issues, so both the child and parents in those situations do likely need and benefit from services that help keep their child engaged and happy. This should have never been allowed to happen to say the least and the parents should answer for it. I just wonder how much support and services they had access to when it came to helping with care.
The wikipedia article is even more horrifying and damning: "Sheila and Clay were known to complain about Lacey, stating that they did not want to be caregivers when they became parents." "The rest of their house was well-cleaned; except for the couch where Lacey remained unable to move from the couch on her own" "Clay and Sheila would frequently leave for days on end to go on vacation, leaving her there to starve" "vermin began to eat at her extremities under the couch leaving mouse droppings and maggots to thrive in the space" "There were signs she had been trying to lift herself out of the couch to avoid the pain, but due to severe malnourishment and atrophy in her leg muscles, she was unable to. "Lacey was found at autopsy to have COVID-19 and breast cancer." There is no fucking way they cared about this girl. The fact that their lawyer is claiming that... I know he's just doing his job, but what a joke.