Locked-In syndrome is a neurological condition where the whole body, not including eye movements, is paralyzed, but the person undergoing an episode is still fully awake.
“That would be so scary. I don’t know what I would do in that situation, and I would hope that I have a family who assists me,” sophomore Cameryn Kophamer said.
You probably would’ve thought this was the case for 36-year-old Lacey Fletcher, but what lies deeper is years of neglect and severe mental disability. Sitting on a couch in her parents’ house for 12 years, Lacey rotted away until her passing in 2022 due to sepsis.
“I would not wanna be on a couch for 12 years. I don’t know what would bring them to do such a thing,” senior Daniel Regelado said.
Lacey’s parents, Clay and Sheila Fletcher, were well known in their small town of about 800 in the panhandle of Louisiana. Their daughter, Lacey, had severe social anxiety, autism, and was non-verbal. Lacey was known by her neighbors to be a normal, quiet girl who would often go outside to exercise. After her neighbors had not seen her for years, Dr. Bingham walked into her parents’ house, with the smell of death hanging in the air.
“Well, they couldn’t have been good people if they let their daughter rot on their couch,” sophomore Ashlyn Houston said.
On January 3rd, 2022, Lacey’s parents made a call to 911 saying they had found their daughter unresponsive on the couch after a weekend trip away. When Lacey’s body was found, however, she was found sunken into the couch, covered in her own excrement, with maggots in her hair and body that ate her lifeless body away, and covered in bed sores. The house reeked of urine and feces, with the surrounding area of her couch moist with condensation and a buildup of liquid, presumably urine.
“I would be grossed out and horrified and would immediately think it was the parents’ fault,” junior Anahi Sanchez said.
After she was found, Sheila and Clay Fletcher were arrested and charged with second-degree murder. They were sentenced to 40 years in prison, but were later released on bail. However, in June of 2023, both were later charged again with second-degree murder by a grand jury. They ended up leading no contest to the manslaughter charge and were sentenced to 20 years in prison, and obtained a 20-year suspended sentence after their time was over. It was stated that both Sheila and Clay did not want to take care of their child when they became parents, leaving her to rot on their couch after she fell sick, preventing her from leaving her house or the couch. They said that they are honoring their daughters’ wishes to never leave the couch, which is highly skeptical.
“They are definitely not honoring her wishes if they just let her rot like that,” freshman Kritika Bhardawaj said.
The public found widespread outrage and horror upon finding out about this case, and it also shed light on the reality of many experiencing abuse and neglect, often going unnoticed. This case remains one of the most infamous cases of neglect in the country.
