Woman Melted Into The Couch For 12 Years - Tragic Case of Lacey Fletcher

[Music] bada bing badao Lacy Fletcher could probably hear them packing for their New Year's trip they're going to celebrate ringing in 2022 by going out of town and leaving Lacy to rot by herself it's hard to say if Lacy felt relief in that moment knowing that they're going to be gone or if she felt fear because what if they don't leave her food would she just starve to death what if they didn't leave her water you can go longer without food but not water right just a few days what if they don't even come back

back what would happen to her then all she could really do in that moment is sit in that chair and watch them leave I mean what other choice does she have she's trapped unable to leave her prison unable to see the sun Lacy can't walk outside she can't talk to her friends anymore go to school she's not even able to walk into the kitchen to grab food whenever her stomach rumbles we don't know if she even knew what day it was or if she could hear the New Year's Eve fireworks would she work it out

from the fireworks that it's 20 22 now or would the loud noises just terrify her we don't know any of this for certain we just know that Lacy Fletcher was a prisoner of the couch she had been left there hungry covered in feces naked unable to eat unless one of them decided to bring her food her body was dying while she was still alive there were parts of her flesh that were rotting there were maggots crawling in and out of of her hair in and out of her bones munching down at her dead flesh and

she's still alive if she looked down there would have been certain parts of her body where she could see straight through her skin her tissue her muscle and see her bones there were giant holes all over the lower half of her body she was completely covered in feces there was feces in her stomach inside her stomach in her mouth and even her ears she been trapped on this couch for the past 12 years of her life by the time that she was found she had melted through the couch into a hole and her skin was

fusing with the brown leather the only contents found in her stomach would be sofa cushion foam and feces did she eat it out of desperation was she fed it we don't know the worst part is we're still unclear why any of this happened there are theories that range from locked in syndrome where someone is fully conscious but unable to move their bodies trapped inside their own minds there are theories of full-blown torture with Lacy being a victim for someone's sick sadistic pleasure for over a decade there are a lot of wild theories but we have

no definitive answers all we know is Lacy Fletcher would die in one of the worst slow torturous deaths imaginable and nobody helped her [Music] as always full show notes are available at Rotten mangle podcast.com one of our wonderful researchers that worked on this case is autistic and she was instrumental in the process of gathering data for this case she's also provided us with links to autism resource pages that will be in the show notes now with that being said as with all cases please let us know if you have any thoughts or any additional details

about the case down in the comments and with that let's get started there's a very rare condition out there it's called locked in syndrome less than a thousand people in the United States have it at any given point most sufferers are victims of a stroke or a traumatic brain injury and even though it's a very very rare condition it seems to be a big fear for a ton of people I mean maybe it's the nature of the condition maybe it's because of the natural human fear of not being able to communicate with one another it's

terrifying and it's exactly how you picture it locked in syndrome you're awake your mind is Flowing it's going a million miles an hour if you're lucky you can open your eyes and look around see what's around you but really only as much as you can move your pupils that's it when you try to talk nothing moves you can't push out the words it's like when you're in a dream and you're trying to scream for heal but no words come out and you start getting so flustered and frustrated with yourself but you wake up and you

realize that's just a nightmare this is locked in syndrome you can't even move a single finger you can't even swallow your own saliva and soon droel is going to be seeping out of your mouth while doctors and loved ones look at you concerned worried because they don't know how this happened you're trying to give them a sign of hey I can see you I can hear you I'm here but there's nothing that you can move your body is locked and you are locked in your brain 90% of people die within the first four months that

they're locked in and a lot of doctors can figure out that they're locked in but can't find a way to get them out one Survivor of locked in syndrome stated my cognitive capabilities were 100% I could think and hear and listen to people but I couldn't speak or move the doctors would just stand there at the foot of my hospital bed and talk like I'm not in the room and I just wanted to scream like hey people I'm still here but there was no way for me to let them know he remembered hearing the doctors

tell his family in the room that he had a 2% chance of survival and even if he did survive he would be completely comos he remembers hearing the conversation and seeing his wife break down and beg the doctors to not turn off his life support machines and he was just screaming no I'm right here don't turn it off I'm right here but nobody could hear him he couldn't move his lips he couldn't move his mouth another Survivor said I could do nothing except listen and I could only see the direct area in front of me

based on how the nurses would position me in bed so if they flip me over to the left I could only see that point of the room he reported that he could feel every jolt and twinge of pain he could even feel itchiness you know you have that itch in your back he said it was miserable he's in constant pain but he's completely at the mercy of his doctors for pain meds and this is a miserable way to live but there's no choice you don't have the choice of exiting your life or telling someone hey

I can't do this he said I couldn't tell anyone if my mouth was dry if I was hungry if I had an itch that needed to be scratched I felt disgusting all the time I was constantly drenched in sweat my skin was so sensitive to minor sensory changes it felt like it was burning all the time it felt like it was on fire he was in constant pain he was afraid of dying and that's all he could think about all day but worse than that he was afraid of being trapped inside of his body forever

all he could do is talk to himself he said he had to create another voice to talk to himself two voices he could calm himself down he would say things like how are you doing Jake not too bad just waiting on my meds it's coming soon don't freak out Jake you're going to be okay when Jake wasn't talking to himself he was talking to the nurses they just didn't know it they would ask him Hey Jake can you hear us and he would be screaming at the top of his lungs I can hear you I'm

right here but nobody could hear him and the highlights of his day was when nurses would come in and talk to him even though they had no clue that he was quote in there the ones who sing to him were his favorite while they would flip him over they would sing to him but most of the days he would just lay there in a completely empty room unable to move sometimes his family and loved ones would come over into the hospital room and they would just scream at each other about what they were going to

do with him fighting about him as if he's not right there listening to all of this that's terrifying yeah and there's no way of these people there's no medical equipment that can detect that I think right now ey fluttering is the quickest way that doctors will detect it it still takes about a few days for them to even find out that you're locked in yeah so most of these people these survivors they said it took multiple days for the doctors to be like oh my gosh I think he's blinking like please blink twice if you

can understand what I'm saying right now wow I mean I can only imagine there must be so many who couldn't control their eye movement either so we don't know just how many of people have passed while they've been locked in we're not sure and once they're locked in they remember everything these survivors they remember everything in detail and they were cooperating it with the nurses and doctors so it's not just like hallucinations that they had these are real events they're completely conscious there is a device right now I think that they're working on where it

can try to communicate with you through your brain listen that's what I was thinking don't is there so many like brain scans they can check like what area is moving and stuff I imagine it's very expensive right there was a man in France who wrote a whole book just by blinking one eye to someone who was transcribing it and then he passed almost immediately after it was published Jake said other times he was so bored he would just count to 1,000 and then start all over again 1 to 1,000 it was absolute hell he felt

like he was being tortured he always wanted to know what time is is it what day is it how long has it been but he can't even ask anyone and then there's just so many depressing thoughts in his mind there were days where all he thought about the entire day was his own funeral who's going to show up what it's going to look like who's going to say what for marsh the other Survivor he said he was really lucky his wife and children were there all day but even that was just lonely he said during

the day I was lucky I never spent a single day when my wife and one of my kids wasn't there but once they left it's just it's lonely not in the way of missing people but loneliness of knowing there's no one who really understands how to even communicate with you Marsh and Jake were two of the lucky ones there were rumors last year in 2020 that a woman a young woman in Louisiana was not as lucky that she had been locked in her own brain for the past 12 years and all she could do was

sit on the couch and stare at the wall until she passed so in 2022 this story goes crazy it's a horrifying story that that's coming out but it was made even more terrifying by the fact that that woman probably didn't even have locked in syndrome so what does that mean why would someone sit there on the couch for 12 years she's able-bodied why didn't she get up Al so she's not chained no or trapped we don't know so that means if she's not locked in there is something worse more Sinister that made her unable to

move from the couch for the past 12 years of her life Slaughter Louisiana has a population of less than a thousand people but it does have a very interesting name they were briefly part of a small internet discourse because of their unfortunate Police Department name the slaughter police yeah so not great from a marketing standpoint and there was this question of why the hell is there a town name Slaughter anyway there were some rumors that the area had some of the first slaughter houses in Louisiana or that something very ominous happened there giving it the

name Slaughter Louisiana but it's actually just named after the original owners of the land Mr will and Joe's Slaughter but it's a very very very small town less than a thousand people about 800 people and it's the type of place where you don't have to leave the town for anything there are schools two churches pharmacy Food Mart small businesses that sell farming Goods a rehab facility short and long-term care for the elderly and even though it's the definition of rule the houses are super spread out so you can have as much privacy as your heart

desires Slaughter has that small town comfort where you're like okay my dog is missing guess what likely all 800 residents are going to come out and help you search for your dog until they're back home it's just one of those towns I mean they even have like a small government with residents voted in as what they call Alderman and these Alderman will help vote on issues affecting the community so the alderman they're supposed to be approachable figures of community that you can turn to for literally anything like if you have a disabled family member and

you think there needs to be better accessibility at some part of the town you go to the alderman if you think your job that has nothing to do with a government requires better sexual harassment policies like you work at a fast food chain you're like you go to the alderman even if you have a deeply personal issue where maybe you have an anxious relative who won't leave the house and is becoming reclusive and is not socializing with anyone you go to the Alder they literally went to the alderman for anything Sheila was probably the best

elderman to go to she was also the vice mayor of the Town literally was V Ed into that position so if the mayor couldn't attend a meeting Sheila would show up in place of the mayor her husband clay was also well known in the community he worked for a nonprofit called the Baton Rouge Civil War Roundtable they uh would organize events and field trips to historic sites to quote provide nonpartisan atmosphere to Foster learning and respect for our civil war Heritage it's a lot you know there's a lot of red flags and some of the

members joining the official Facebook group would post quote non-judgmental pictures of the KKK and make make racist jokes about the Obamas so I don't know it doesn't seem like clay was the one personally posting those or endorsing that kind of activity but just to give you preface now clay and Sheila they're the go-tos for the community anyone's got a problem you go to clay or you go to Sheila they're church goers they've got the mindset of wanting to help others they would probably help you first with your oxygen mask on a plane before putting their

own on always asking how's your day how's your sick Grandma well if your Grandma needs anything just give us a ring we're right down in the street but who asks how Sheila and Clay are Robert blade Senor asked he lives across the street from them and he remember the couple having a young daughter and he hadn't seen her in like jeez I mean God knows how long right over a decade for sure maybe like 15 years ago last he saw of her she was exercising down the street running around with some dumbbells in her arms

I mean she did that a lot and then she stopped one day he just kind of assume like all the other kids in the neighborhood though she got into college moved into the city met a boy got married started a new life and then never found the time to visit small Old Town Slaughter ever again right or maybe she did and he always missed her I don't know she just look like a young woman she was uh she had these little little what do you call the little weights that you hold in your hand the

little dumbbells she was exercising yes she was she'd walk from her house around the circle and she used to do that you know I don't know two or three times a week so so one day this daughter would have been about 30 years old at this point Robert was on his front lawn talking to Clay about you know things going on in the neighborhood and he thought to ask oh yeah Clay how's Lacy how's she doing what's she up to now moved away oh uh no she's still here she still lives here she's fine clay

quickly changed the subject at that moment it was very likely that Lacy was unable to walk fused to the couch trapped and death has a smell when the body starts to break down and decompose there are over 800 chemicals that react with the air and with each other and it creates a very distinct scent and we always hear about it in cases the investigators could smell death that it's the scent that once you smell it you can never forget it and to a degree I feel like we can all kind of imagine what it's like

I'm sure it's not a pleasant scent but people actually say it's more than that it's really distinct it's not just the worst scent that you've ever experienced there's so much more to it death has a sickly sweet scent so underneath the smell of fecal matter waste Decay like you would imagine a piece of raw steak left outside in hot humid cabin air would smell like after 3 months in the summer it's like that but underneath it there are almost these sweet notes everyone describes it differently I went down a lot of forums with a lot

of coroners and crime scene investigators crime scene cleanup Crews some describe it as a thick it's almost like it hangs in the air like this thick honey scent underlying this rotten meat garlicky feal matter scent it's like honey but you want to throw up others say no it it's almost a little floral like you know when you are around flowers that have a very unique scent and you almost want to gag kind of like that some say actually it's that almond it's that sweet almost kind of nuttiness and then there's that overpower sing fishy even

sour scent that overtakes it all one redditor an EMT describes it as smells like if you left cheese out in the hot sun for a week and then you put it into a stale sweet tea iced tea mix and then you just let it sit in that mix hot iced sweet tea mix for another week and then you smell it it's actually even thought that humans and other animals evolved disgust for the scent so the main underlying scent is called putri and it's the chemical compound associated with decomposing bodies and apparently humans evolved into being

so literally primitively disgusted by it because it protects us from disease and predation from scavengers studies go even further to suggest that it triggers a fight or flight response in humans just the smell of a dead body even if you don't know it's the smell of a dead body you smell it way out in the woods you have a figh or flight response that's what some people believe and there is a company out there that just recreates the scent of human human death that's their whole business model the scent of human remains and they sell

a formulated version of it and to put it simply they bottle up the scent of human death and sell it the website describes it as quote represents odor of two 140 lb cadavers for the low low cost of $850 and it's not for any weird Sinister reason well hopefully that's not why most people are buying it it's mainly used by cadav dog trainers so that they don't have to use real human remains to train kadaver dogs to find dead bodies but there's actually a lot of kadav dog trainers that don't like to use these scents

they'd rather go to a body farm and purchase body parts because they argue it's just not the same like you try to replicate it with the chemicals that is Created from decomposing bodies but it's so difficult to replicate the smell of death precisely it is such a unique scent I mean there's so many varant factors the scent depends on the person that died the surrounding conditions is there Wildlife or the body is the temperature the humidity they said humidity is the worst on a dead body and Slaughter Louisiana was a humid hot town I'm not

sure how much Dr brickham knew when he drove up to the little white house on January 3rd 2022 I wonder if the neighbor's Christmas trees and all the New Year's decorations were still up making the drive feel I don't know even more eerie right but once he parked that car he gets out he walks past the well manicured Green Lawn he opens up the front door and it's like he's hit with this invisible force field it's a smell he couldn't breathe he said he said there was a stench an odor feces feal matter urine you

you couldn't hold your breath Dr brickham had smelled death before but this this smell it's literally embedded into the fabric of the house that's how thick and pungent it is it felt like the scent was going to follow him home and linger for weeks Dr bham enters the living room and you know when you spot something that's just feels out of place it makes you feel very unsettled like you can't quite put your finger on it but it just feels weird imagine it's snowing outside and there's someone standing there out in the snow staring at

your house with nothing but their swimwear on and you're just looking out the window like I feel like this is odd like yes I'm worried that they're going to get sick but there feels like there needs to be a Sinister explanation for this because it's just that out of place Dr bickham walks into the living room most of the living room is pretty tidy a little clutter like any normal house but all over it was pretty well organized I mean it's pretty evident that someone in this house is maintaining the living areas making sure that

they're always well kept cleaning up organizing everything except the couch in the center of the living room the dark brown leather couch was the source of this smell and Dr biham had been hit with it when he walked into that house and he could almost see Steam like emanating from it the couch looked like it was melting the couch was soaked with urine and feces human excrement the waist was seeping through the couch bottom onto the floor where it looked like any second the floor nobody cleaned the floor underneath the couch it looked like the

floor was going to crumble in on itself from the Gathering of all the liquid and feces there was an 18in gap between the couch and the wall the wall looked moist like it looked like there would be condensation drop like on the wall from Steam from liquid and the couch just looks so out of place I mean you wouldn't even expect to see this type of couch in an abandoned home it looks like a regular normal living room and then they just have this couch that everyone in the family and visitors go and pee and

poop on and then nobody cleans it up that's what it looks like and it's just melting it's like a weird time capsule just the couch is rotting it's bizarre and this is the living room of a couple that's pretty well respected in the community in a house where the rest of the place is extremely well-kept and there are signs of life and this is the couch that's in the center of the living room but as Dr bickham got closer he found who he had come here for Lacy Fletcher was laying in the living room couch

she's not laying on the couch she's laying in the couch there is a huge person-sized hole in the leather couch almost to the floor I would imagine it and there are pictures just imagine your dog nod through all of the sofa cook cushion fluff and there's just a hole in the couch she's literally in the couch she's slumped to one side sitting cross-legged her eyes are wide open her mouth is wide open she's completely nude except a small blue pattern top that's pulled over her chest so her chest is bare what Dr bickham could see

her bones not because she was that emaciated which she was very malnourished but parts of her body had been rotten and eaten by maggots while she was alive I can't I mean just think of the mental trauma for someone who would be alert and aware if they were to look down and see their own flesh being eaten by maggots there were maggots crawling in and around her hair all over her body she was covered head to toe and feces it was found in her mouth in her stomach in her ears she had been eating it

or she had been fed it we don't know the sofa arms were covered in scratches this is not a situation where Lacy's body was left on the couch to decompose after her death and the feces and urine it came out during the decomposition process this is not that situation Lacy was kept alive on that couch for 12 years she had been alive for 12 years not able to get up to even use the restroom she had been soiling herself and then either eating or being fed her own feces while being trapped on this couch for

12 years her flesh had been rotting while she was alive maggots were eating away at her while she was alive and she had just recently passed away and the two people who lived with her her parents the ones who walked past that couch every single day walked past it to head into the kitchen to the garage to the backyard Sheila and Clay Fletcher they were now standing in the kitchen with no explanation on what the hell had happened when I first walked in the house it smelled of feces Fe material however you want to put

that politely it it stunk when I got to the body the individual was basically sitting in a in a hole filled with liquid stool and urine I was able to to place her body in a in a in a black black body bag and I took it down to jeffson Paris for autopsy it's the worst form of medical neglect I've ever seen I mean I don't I I don't know any other adjectives or adverbs to add to that Lacy was pronounced dead at 3:07 p.m. on January 3rd 2022 but it's likely that she passed away

at least 24 to 48 hours prior she could have passed away New Year's Day 2022 the world around her would have been celebrating the start of a new year something fresh and Lacy would have been laying dying in her own excrement Sheila Fletcher got a little bit more talkative at the police station and side note this isn't even immediately after authorities took lac's body away Sheila was interviewed January 18th Lacy's body was found January 3rd so the police didn't do anything until 18th they really did not treat the parents like Persons of Interest or even

suspects so they I mean it's a small town right so they all know each other and now Sheila tells authorities January 18th that Lacy had social anxiety and had met with a psychologist over a period of 3 years when she was back a teenager Lacy was 36 when she passed so you're talking about like decades ago eventually she stopped seeing her doctor decades ago Sheila and Clay contemplated getting Lacy committed into a specialist medical fa facility but for whatever reason that never happened in the interview with the police Sheila insisted that Lacy refused to leave

the couch it was a personal choice that she made so she and Clay they did their best to accommodate her on her wishes like they set up a toilet for her like one of those portable toilets that you see at hospitals they put it right next to the couch with some baby wipes baby powder a fresh change of clothes a stack of Lacy's favorite movies to watch they were all there all Lacy had to do was get up but she didn't never want to leave the cou ever that's what they said maybe it's laziness so

they gave Lacy a towel on the couch to use as a toilet Sheila stated that she would have to take the towels from Lacy the ones covered in feces clean them and then bring her new towels I mean it was a whole thing Sheila also stated that she would have to clean Lacy's body and bed sores and not once did Lacy ever complain about pain which I don't know is just really unbelievable and even if someone doesn't complain about pain if you can see someone's bone Sheila stay that Lacy had lost her appetite last Autumn

so back in 2021 but when they the Fletchers cuz they went on a New Year's trip when they got back from their trip from New Year's on January 2nd the day before Lacy died she listed that she made her half a sandwich and gave her a bag of Cheetos she stated Lacy ate it then according to Sheila the mom Sheila went to sleep on the chair on the living room next to Lacy's couch near Lacy near the rotting hole in the sofa and at around 10: p.m. when she left fell asleep for the night Lacy

was still alive when she woke up the next morning Lacy was dead that's what Sheila Fletcher said but Sheila Fletcher is a liar in my personal humble opinion Sheila stated January 2nd 2022 Lacy ate half a sandwich and a bag of Cheetos this is not what would be found in Lacy's stomach during the autopsy all they could find in her stomach was sofa foam and feces no sandwich no Cheetos and if Lacy had been sitting there on that couch for 12 years that means this hell would have begun around 2010 and she would have almost

certainly been in pain since day 1 they said that she's been sitting there for 12 years they said that it's been years they didn't give an exact estimate but the coroner said about 12 years wow now skin exposure to urine and feces is painful and can start stinging within hours it happens more frequently with infants it's actually called a diaper rash and it can get very serious if not even kill infants and it's not even done purposely most of the times that babies have diaper rashes it's not abuse it's typically just because they're very sensitive

now the main symptoms are red rashes on the buttocks if left un addressed for too long it can quickly escalate into a full body Fever full body chills and a full body Rush urine and feces contain ammonia now ammonia is very corrosive if your skin is in contact with ammonia for long periods of time it can cause irritation and even Burns that could have happened within the first few hours of the first day that Lacy had soiled herself on that couch now if a diaper rash is left untreated the skin starts to swell it can

transform into these rashes that have these white bumps all over that ooze clear fluid and then the skin starts to peel causing these open sores it's very painful and if there's still urine or feces that's there to make contact with those open sores you're at a dangerous risk of infections yeast infections might be one yeast dermatitis could be another thing those are dark red areas of the skin usually filled with these raised yellow fluid filled pules this is likely all happening near the private regions because she was found sitting cross-legged so she's genuinely sitting in

a pile of her urine and feces which makes everything much more sensitive and painful cuz these are your private parts side note if Lacy still had her menstrual cycle at the beginning of all of this she may not have due to malnutrition or other reasons but if she did that means there would have also been blood rotting into the sofa and blood attracts flies flies would have been attracted to Lacy and her wounds that were all primarily again in her NE like down regions also infections for the private regions are incredibly painful and that is

just the beginning this is still when everything is treatable fairly easily painful but not like life-threatening typically even without urine and feces the high risk of painful infections just sitting or laying in one place is horrendous for the body bed sores have you heard of bed sores they're going to be one of the first things to show up bed sores occur when there is continuous pressure on parts of the body usually by sitting or laying in a single position for an extended period of time so you're cutting off blood supply to that specific area which

causes the surrounding tissue to start dying within 2 hours the tissue starts dying humans are very sensitive because that tissue is not getting enough oxygen because blood has oxygen in it and you're not getting blood flowing there and it can happen in 2 to 3 hours so you're like okay well why don't I get bed stores when I'm falling asleep we're constantly moving even shuffling like this is moving so if you're sitting on a chair for 8 hours studying if you're moving a little bit it's hard to get bed sores this stops it from developing

but if you're unable to move around a bed sore is going to happen because there's a lack of oxygen like it's not preventable the skin will die and the bed sore will just look like a red blotch on the skin so it it it starts looking like a sunburn and it feels a little hot to the touch kind of like a sunburn warm it might even be a little itchy very similar to a sunburn but eventually it turns purple and by that point if left untreated the skin will break open and you're just going to

have this painful wound that becomes easily infected and then it collapses on itself it's like a crater size blister some bed stores I saw pictures on Reddit I honestly don't know I should not have gone down that route there's like dinner plate sized bed sores and you can see all the way to the Bone and it's not just Skin Deep that's the problem these bed sores collapse and they go deeper and deeper until you literally have swiss cheese like holes on your body they reach into the muscle all the way to the Bone if you

see a really bad picture of a bed sore you can see muscle tendons bones joints just in a hole in someone's body it's like an exposed tunnel for people to see inside of you once a bed store develops you have to treat it and dress it every single day multiple times a day it is absolutely horrendous for the patient and the caretaker and bed sores are very very very slow to heal with bed sores genuinely prevention is the only key all you can do is move around so that's why when you have bedbound patients one

of the first things that caretakers or nurses learn is you have to flip the patient every two hours there's no question about it and that's why when you go to nursing homes and maybe your grandparents have a bed sore it's taken so seriously because when you hear the word bed sore you're like okay it's not that big of a deal but it's a very clear indicator that there could be abuse happening some really bad bed sores take days months even years to heal some may never heal they may need surgery and when it's super serious

bed sores can lead to death once they get infected it leads to sepsis and death bed Source cause the death of more than 24,000 people each year and again the saddest part is most of the time bed sores are completely preventable I feel like it's very safe to assume that Lacy went through all of that and more by the time that her body was found the Flesh on Lacy's bottom had been worn away and eaten it was gone like she had no thighs no butt her back and butt area it was impossible to tell what

part was a human being her skin and flesh were so rotten and half eaten by maggots there were other areas that maybe looked a little bit more like human skin but it was completely yellow which is typically a sign of infected skin Lacy had bed sores that went all the way down to her bones her skin was rotting away from constantly sitting in a mess of feces and acidic urine she had a severe case of gang green which is when your flesh is dead so the tissue changes from red to Black and then you're left

with dead tissue which is very dangerous because again you're at risk of infection which can kill you the only tiny bit of relief in all of this is hopefully with her injuries being that deep into her skin hopefully it destroyed her nerve endings there's a chance that it might not have but there is a chance that it did so maybe she had lost feeling in some of these parts of her body around the injury sites we don't know for sure but we can only hope that she didn't feel what was slowly happening to her body

for 12 long agonizing painful years and it wasn't just the lower part of her body her entire backside was a mess of raw rotten flesh she was completely covered in raw red blotches and Lacy's wounds were being cleaned not by her parents but by maggots maggots were crawling in and out of her consuming her dead flesh and for this case the maggots did more to help Lacy than her own parents like I know usually we talk about maggots and it's not in a positive light but maggots have a very important role in this world so

they eat dead flesh in medical history and sometimes even today maggots have been used as a way of helping clean wounds so maggots they leave usually they leave healthy flesh alone and just feed off of dead flesh which needs to be cut away anyway because you're at risk of infection and in Lacy's case it seems to have worked to the point that she did not die of sepsis and infection for the first 12 years the maggots kept her alive by eating the dead flesh on her wounds while her parents did nothing for her in my

opinion we know that Lacy was left with no real food or water in reach and Lacy on some level was aware enough to know that she needed to eat her body seems to have grasp for anything that she could get and the sofa foam was the only thing in reach that n feces cuz that was what was found in her stomach not half of a sandwich or Cheetos that's just the physical trauma of her body we don't know to what extent and how bad the emotional and mental trauma was for 12 years we don't know

if this is even the full extent of her physical trauma technically there could have been things that happened to her years ago that wouldn't be present during the autopsy now Dr bickham's official report stated Lacy died of sepsis as a result of severe medical neglect which led to Chronic malnutrition acute starvation Lacy only weighed 96 PBS at 36 years old immobility acute ulcer formation bone infection which ultimately led to sepsis and death and one last thing about Lacy's autopsy Sheila Fletcher stated she never took Lacy to the doctor because Lacy had never been sick which

like let's not even unpack how ridiculous that statement is like we don't even need to go there but that alone seems to be another lie or at least a very misguided statement because Lacy had Co when she died most of clay and Sheila Fletcher's friends did not even know that they had a daughter but there were people that remembered Lacy the ones who went to school with her in Slaughter Louisiana or the ones that saw her running around the neighborhood when she was younger they all just just assumed that she had grown up moved out

of Slaughter maybe settled down nearby in Baton Rouge got married the ones that knew that the Fletchers had a daughter they remembered Lacy as being a very friendly kid she was fun to be around she had a lot of different interests she was you know like a lot of people obsessed with Disney she loved anything Disney World Disneyland Disney movies characters that's her happy place she would send friends links to videos of Disney also Mariah Carey and Country Music very interesting mix but she was someone that just had a very wide range of Interest she's

very active she loved bowling volleyball those were her favorite activities and everybody's favorite word to describe Lacy was just just sweet like as sweet as can be she never acted out she didn't seem like she was creating trouble or you know when you have younger kids there can be certain things that they do or say or maybe they're acting out that might indicate that something darker is happening within maybe it's happening at the house there's just these little indications right Lacy didn't have any of that she was a happy go-lucky kid that likeed to have

fun now side note Lacy was diagnosed as autistic when she was younger and just to give you a bit of context autism is a neurological condition it is not an illness and it's a lot more common than people think around 1 in 36 children were diagnosed as autistic in 2023 and it generally affects the way that people communicate for a few reasons and I'm not saying it's good or bad it's just a different way of communicating many autistic people report feeling their senses a bit more so what seems like a quiet room for some people

can actually be sensory overload for an autistic person some autistic people report having excellent memory for facts and very strong problemsolving logical minds but they might struggle with social cues or small talk or some autistic people have reported finding it difficult to read facial expressions and eye contact there has been a lot of stigma and Prejudice attached to autism for a very long time and I think there's is today but I think being able to see the world in slightly different ways is a great thing different world perception is not necessarily better or worse it's

just different and I think we need different perceptions there's a common saying in the autistic Community if you've met one autistic person then you've met one autistic person cuz it's not really something where you can generalize and say oh if you have autism then you feel ABC and D it's such a wide spectrum that people can be very different from one another with very different needs and different ways of communicating so keep that in mind because Lacy's parents would often tell people yeah Lacy's just super quiet and withdrawn and she doesn't like socializing but her

friends at school were so confused they're like are we talking about the same girl right now are we talking about the same Lacy I mean sure I guess she's kind of quiet compared to like the class clown but she would go out of her way to welcome people and try to build connections I mean she's very opinionated and very passionate about a lot of things she loved new experiences and she loved A change in her routine so I I I don't know what the parents are saying to a lot of Lacy's childhood friends it felt

like her parents didn't even know who she was and side note her parents were allegedly wishy-washy with Her diagnosis sometimes they would state that Lacy had aspirer syndrome which is no longer used as a diagnosis anymore by the way sometimes they would describe her autism as quote mild other times they would describe it as quote severe which side note from when I been told the better verbage to describe autism is high or low support needs but these are allegedly the verbiage that Lacy's parents used so this is not me describing Lacy Lacy's doctor Dr bickham

Dr bickham the one that went to Lacy Fletcher's home to find her was her primary care physician when she was younger wow he was friendly with the Fletchers like he knew the Fletchers he was their doctor he's also the town coroner small town yeah Dr bickham would even describe Her diagnosis as quote severe autism and social anxiety but again this just doesn't really match the way that Lacy's friends describe her so it's confusing and just to clarify Lacy did have unique interests but it doesn't seem to have anything to do with autism like just flat

out so one of Lacy's old classmates would say yeah I saw her around 15 years ago and she was definitely different from other kids her age I mean I knew that she wasn't your typical teenager this is all a direct quote she was smart she was smart as hell but I guess the best way to describe her was she wasn't as mature as us she still liked childish things like not teenage things when she was 17 or 18 she was more into Disney movies and Country Music which again I I don't know how that's very

different she would invite us over to watch Disney movies despite being more withdrawn but it's just not my forte again she just had her own interest I would hardly call that strange or a reflection of Her diagnosis so a lot of Lacy's friends they're shocked when at 16 years old Lacy gets pulled out of public school at the end of 9th grade and she started to get homeschooled her parents stated that she had to be pulled out of school immediately but it's so unclear like why side note back then homeschooling was not very common and

the Fletchers they never gave examples of why at least not yet of what made them think you know this is it we need to pull her out of school for her own good we need to make sure that her Sports her friends her socialization we need to cut it off all they said was that la autism got worse which is strange because autistic people can struggle in a rigid School environment and they may need to be homeschooled either permanently or for a short period of time but usually it's very important that there's a support network

in place because literally every human on this earth needs a support group to help manage stress and keep up with interpersonal relationships so that they don't get isolated but they just cut off all of Lacy's friends even if a kid is homeschooled it is in the parents best interest to let them keep their already established friendship but allegedly none of that happened allegedly once Lacy started getting homeschooled she was seen outside less and less in fact it just seemed like the couple stopped bringing Lacy up in conversations even the last time someone distinctly or at

least reports remembering Lacy being brought up in conversations was in 2010 Lacy would have been 23 at the time the Fletchers walked into Dr bickham's office without Lacy and stated our daughter Lacy is becoming reclusive she never wants to leave the house or the couch interestingly the Fletchers could have easily taken photos or videos to show Dr pickham what's going on I mean that seems like the very logical Common Sense thing to do but they brought along no footage just told him we don't know what's going on based on the Fletcher's description it sounded like

lacy was dealing with extreme and sudden agoraphobia which is a disorder when people are afraid of Open Spaces like public areas on the milder side it can be someone that has very extreme social anxiety does not want to be in places that they're not comfortable with or cannot deem as a safe space which public spaces you know they tend to be a bit more unpredictable but on the more extreme end you have people who never leave the house they deem the home or even a certain room of the home to be the only safe space

in the entire world for them and even stepping outside of that safe space could result in a panic attack so this is very serious now typically agoraphobia is more likely in people that already struggle with anxiety Y and it can get worse over time if it's not helped or treated someone's safe space can actually get smaller and smaller so when it used to be the whole house someone with agoraphobia can be like actually now it's only the back of the house actually now it's only the living room which we have no idea if this is

even what's happening to Lacy all we have are her parents at her doctor's office saying she doesn't want to get off the couch and she's being antisocial for all we know she could have been tied to the couch side note that is a theory later that comes up and another side note some people have just put the autism as a blanket statement over anything going on with Lacy at the time and why she was pulled out of school and again sure maybe maybe something was going on with Lacy but we don't have proof and autism

doesn't suddenly change a person drastically an autistic person who can speak make friends have hobbies go to school use the restroom by themselves they don't just suddenly wake up one day and don't do those things but a lot of people are like oh autism like that's not how it works we have no idea why Lacy was pulled out of school we have no idea what caused her parents to pull her out of school so just to recap Lacy is pulled out of school at 16 she was last seen by Robert blad Senor exercising outside when

she was 21 the Fletchers tell Dr bickham that she stopped wanting to leave the house at age 23 Lacy was emailing a friend of hers at 27 and Robert blad Senor asked clay about Lacy and he said that she was fine and at home and then changed the subject when Lacy was 30 6 years later Lacy Fletchers was found dead on the couch at 36 years old Lacy Fletcher sat down on the couch one day whether it was against her will or not will be argued later but she never got back up how is that

even possible the first theory that came about online was that Lacy had locked in syndrome which we talked about earlier in the episode because when this case broke a rumor started that she had locked in syndrome and everyone including major news outlets they just ran with it they said that she had locked in syndrome because it just answered all the questions of why and how is an able-bodied woman sitting in her own waist for 12 years until the couch fell apart locked in syndrome was kind of this neat little package that answers every little question

and gives people peace but it's not true Lacy did not have locked in syndrome she was able at some point to email her friends or at least dictate what she wanted to email to her friends she was able to feed herself and even swallow the sofom and feces so even if you have locked in syndrome and someone is force feeding you something you cannot swallow you have no control over any of your muscles except maybe your eyelids you are fully locked into your body which it appears lazy was not side note Dr bickham would later

state that he had never heard of locked in syndrome in his entire career refuting the idea that Lacy Fletcher had this syndrome and while she may not have had locked in syndrome it is a very real thing that does exist it's just very rare but it doesn't seem like La had it which leads us to the most confusing question of all of this then why didn't she just get up there are a few theories on why but the belief is regardless of how it started her leg muscles probably atrophied to the point where she could

no longer be able to get up even if she wanted to so she started off able-bodied but her leg muscles might have been completely dead let's say for whatever reason you are unable to get up from a sitting position whether that be from inner mental or outside physical Force you cannot get up your physical body is going to react to that have you ever slept and your leg fell asleep where you've been in one position for so long that your leg goes numb and then when you finally take the pressure off that leg you feel

that tingling pins and needle feeling and it's just uncomfortable and if we realize it's happening most of us can do something about it if we're able-bodied but if Lacy had been sitting in that same position for long enough her leg muscles would have atrophied on their own and started wasting away becoming locked into place paralyzing her over time the pain and rotting of the Flesh in her thighs and butttocks would have further paralyzed her muscles as well Lacy was found in her legs crossed in a position that most people would actually deem and describe as

defensive rather than comfortable like how long can you actually sit crisscross applesauce without getting uncomfortable so let's just say that's how she first sat down on the couch again we can't say for certain if this was or was not against her will because there are online theories about it but let let's just say she sat down like that soon within minutes or hours blood would flow more slowly to this area which can lead to what I talked about the the bed sores but it gets worse because this loss of blood is basically a crushing injury

not as a description but that's what they call it like as if you're getting crushed it just gets more and more dangerous over time as well the tissue around her legs and butt we're dying if it gets really severe surgery or even amputation would be necessary to correct the problem at a certain point since Lacy had been sitting for that long even getting up could kill her so it's not like her parents are saying she just didn't want to get up from the couch she could die by getting up from the couch not to over

complicate it but if you have a crushing injury like compartment syndrome when there is high enough pressure on a limb or part of the body that blocks blood flow to that compartment of the Body for example Lacy's legs and behind area pottassium starts to build up and then when you get up or the pressure is suddenly taken off of that area all that potassium has nowhere to go except straight into your bloodstream and this Rush of massive amounts of potassium causes a heart attack and you can die Lacy had been on that couch for 12

years by year 1 it would have been shocking if Lacy was even able to use her legs at all she would have been fully paralyzed this is likely what could have happened to Lacy's physical body but again why why did she sit down and never get up even when she felt her legs falling asleep even if she must have felt extreme discomfort in that position why didn't she just move or reposition herself or get up entirely okay fine let's say that she didn't want to get up from this couch this couch is her safe space

there was some sort of mental barrier why didn't she change her positions around there are two theories that people have considered online either there was a mental or emotional reason Lacy did not get up or she was physically tied down in the beginning until her legs atrophied let's explore the first theory that she chose to be on the couch and just to preface even if it was Lacy's Choice the fact that her parents didn't do anything to help her that's not okay in my opinion if this theory is even true I think it's still a

tragic horrible case of neglect neglect that border abuse because of how severe it is but some people theorize that Lacy had developed agoraphobia at 16 and it escalated developing worse and worse every single year until it reached a point where Lacy's only safe space was the couch that she was on she didn't want to get off the couch and the theory goes that the Fletcher parents they didn't know how to handle this they thought lazy was being this lazy teenager who didn't want to socialize work or go to school and it started off as a

stubbornness problem well if you don't want to get off the couch we're not going to take care of you but eventually that evolved into the Fletcher parents building resentment and denial towards Lacy in the condition this is again a theory this theory is the kindest towards the Fletcher parents it's the theory that her parents became so overwhelmed by her quote issues that they just kept ignoring the quote problem for 12 years until until Lacy died some people argue that caregiver resentment is very real and that maybe her parents were in denial about how bad it

was getting until it was too late one detail that I guess supports this Theory not really because I have a hard time getting behind this Theory but anyway a supporting detail I guess you could argue is that Lacy was still emailing her friends in 2014 when she was around 27 years old a few of her old high school friends received emails and they sounded very much like lacy they were filled with passion and she was sending them Links of videos from Disney not of her at Disney but like of Disney there was no hint that

she was trapped anywhere or being abused we have no idea if Lacy was given her phone had access to her phone to send these emails we have no idea if she told someone what she wanted to say in the email and someone sent it we have no idea if someone wrote the email for her we have no clue we just know that these emails were sent under her email address and they sounded very much like her and I guess the people that are in support of this Theory they think if Lacy's parents were actively abusing

her or torturing her in some way would they want her to have her phone to message her friends like what if she told them something what if she reached out for help and then a few years before that Lacy's parents went to Dr bickham remember to talk about how Lacy was becoming very socially reclusive why would they do that why wouldn't they just act like she went to the big city moved on got married went to college side note I I saw arguments as well that some autistic people struggle to explain when they're in pain

and explain exactly how much pain they're in which has led to serious issues but I don't know how that applies because that's usually for injuries that can't be seen from the outside like appendicitis I want to include it because it has been mentioned but I just don't think that autism really has anything to do with this case other than the media reaction of justifying and almost answering Lacy's death by just saying oh blanket statement autism but other than that I don't see how the fact that she was autistic applies to the questions that need to

be answered Lacy had sores all over her flesh that was rotting maggots were eating away at her consuming her right in front of her parents who cares if she was Autistic or not like I don't think anyone needed for her to verbally say hey guys I'm in pain and there have been theories of how Lacy went from being a socially active 16-year-old girl to not leaving the couch one of the more popular theories are severe agoraphobia some people speculate that Lacy could have also developed schizophr with the average age of onset tending to be around

20 to 30 for women so they're like what if she was schizophrenic and perhaps schizophrenia was causing her hallucinations that made her terrified to leave the couch in fear of some sort of perceived danger out there or maybe she had some sort of brain injury that caused her to suddenly behave differently and her parents had no idea how to give her care another supporting theory is that Lacy was kept alive for 12 years a person can usually only live about a few days without water and a few weeks without food and although Lacy was severely

malnourished she was getting enough food and fiber to at least defecate which side note this is a big part of life extreme constipation can actually cause death on its own by blocking the intestines and the colon so Lacy was getting enough food to defecate and pass urine she also had all of her front teeth when she died so someone whether it was Lacy or her parents someone was helping her brush her teeth for her could the parents have been in so far in denial that they just didn't understand that Lacy could no longer move and

get up on her own or even use the toilet right next to the couch maybe they thought even in year 10 that her legs had not atrophied even though they were completely rotten and eaten by maggots they just thought that she was being stubborn and a lazy kid or they thought that they were being good authoritative parents they're like you're stubborn well we're not going to do what you want us to do after all some people argue that the parents clearly brought her a toilet to use and put it up right next to the couch

provided her with baby wipes and baby powder for her as well as an option to have clean clothes that were sitting right next to her and her favorite movies laid out on the side someone's brushing her teeth which caregivers have stated brushing a patient's teeth is actually a very strenuous stressful process why would they do that unless to a degree they cared about her that's the theory I don't believe it and I'm very reluctant to State when I don't believe theor strongly I I just don't see this one it doesn't answer any questions for me

like never say never so sure maybe this is how the Fletcher parents felt personally but it's still not really acceptable in my opinion I mean ignoring someone's depression maybe I could try to understand it a little more maybe they're locked in their room and they don't talk to you they don't communicate with you that's something where I'm more kind of like maybe the parents didn't fully understand it or maybe they're very ignorant about these mental illnesses but when someone has sores down to their bones like their body is a mixture of holes and black and

blue from tissue death and there are maggots crawling around eating your child consuming your child's flesh how can they be in denial even in very rare cases we might sometimes hear once in a blue moon stories of people keeping their loved ones diseased bodies like no matter how much decomposition is happening because these people are in denial of their loved one's death but that denial typically extends all the way into other aspects of that person's life they will be in denial about their loved one's death they will still talk to them they will still talk

about them with other people as if they're still alive but for the Fletcher parents they were completely normal when they went outside to socialize they never spoke about Lacy later on it's as if she didn't exist most of their friends didn't even know that they had a kid if they were in denial wouldn't they talk about Lacy as if she's still alive and doing well she's just being a lazy kid and not melting into the couch it's like they're hiding it in my opinion you know people online have stated when parents love their kids and

will do anything for them but their circumstances are just really bad they don't have the funds to get their child the proper care the state won't help there's no other option they feel lost and heartbroken that they can't do more for their child that is clearly not the case with the Fletchers the Fletchers would have enough to pay bail for the both of them that amounts to $72,000 in cash they could have easily found Lacy a long-term facility to help her because they can't be the ones to help her so it's not that they had

a lack of funds not only that they live in Slaughter Louisiana the community there is incredibly strong everyone wants to help their neighbors they're popular members of the community you're telling me that the community wouldn't have rallied together to help Lacy but the point is the Fletchers didn't even try so while denial I think is a powerful thing and being a caretaker is a very complex role I don't believe that the Fletchers could have been in denial for 12 years every parent that I personally know even seeing their child sick with a cold a flu

for a day it physically and mentally pains them but it is a theory so I have to tell you about it one of the Fletcher neighbors even stated the Fletchers are good people who just made bad decisions one nzen commented on the case and said it can be extremely stressful for caregivers could Lacy have avoided her tragic end if more support and help were given to the parents who cared for her support to the parents yeah they may have been really helpless and did not know what to do wow yeah what a I think it's

a pretty horrendous comment to make could Lacy have avoided her tragic end the comment said another netizen points out they didn't even have her in a private room ignoring her like they walked by her every single day and watched what happened that's disgusting that's not denial and another big thing to note the parents weren't so in over their heads that they didn't have time or energy to be a part of the community they always showed themselves in a very positive light to their neighbors and colleagues they were very much active in social life so they

seemed involved in other interpersonal relationships so they had the energy for that yeah and and the fact that it's been so many years it's like every day it's a decision every minute every hour is a decision that they're making and it's only not to save her life and more and more painful for her to be alive in that state too exactly so now we head into the third Theory the Fletchers were torturing their only daughter Lacy this is the theory that most people including law enforcement seem to believe a lot of it has to do

with the fact that Sheila even outright lied to the police stating that Lacy's last meal was the sandwich and the Cheetos and and we know that's not true and there are two versions of this Theory uh I would say that law enforcement probably believed the latter Theory but the former Theory I'm going to run through it the first version is that people believe that something traumatic happened to Lacy and then it spiraled into this so this is very conspiracy Vibes this is based off of zero evidence just from what little facts we know about the

case some netizens have kind of Spun together a theory of what they think might have happened the first theory is that she was somehow injured she had some sort of brain injury and all she could do was sit there or a traumatic event caused something in her brain to shift like essay could be an example of a traumatic event and I know that essay is a wild Theory to just throw out there some netizens believe this Theory a bit more because clay and Sheila went to see Dr bickham in 2010 they stated that Lacy was

acting differently and some people who have been sexually abused will try and make themselves seem repulsive to their attacker like they refuse to wash or they will have kind of a drastic shift in their personality because of the trauma which still is very crazy Theory just to toss around but I don't think that anyone is trying to string together heinous things for the sake of it I think people are genuinely trying to understand how this could happen to someone and how evil someone has to be to just watch it happen anyway the theory continues that

after a traumatic event whether it be essay or some sort of physical injury Lacy was no longer the same and maybe the theory is her parents caused that shift in some way shape or form and they can't get her help because she might tell someone they can't get her admitted because she might tell someone so they just sit her down on the couch and from there her legs start atrophying and it escalates into this situation where they still do not want to get her help there's also a theory that she was tied to the couch

in that position until her legs naturally atrophied and that is again purely a theory there is zero evidence that she was tied to the couch on her before the day she died but she was on the couch for the past 12 years and like we said within the first year her legs were probably paralyzed and stuck in that position so we don't know if maybe the first year she was on that couch she could have been tied up who's to say so the conspiracy is something bad happened parents don't want it to get out Lacy

is forced on to couch till her legs atrophy parents kept Lacy alive to torture her again this is purely based on Theory and not fact now one aspect that people cannot get over is the fact that Lacy was found nude except the shirt pulled over her chest the nude part maybe the parents stopped dressing her because they knew that she would just soil herself again but why not let her have her top on why was it pulled up above her chest did it hurt the wounds on her back cuz then they said that she wasn't

in pain and she never said that she was in pain so why would it be pulled up it just feels extra degrading like either take it all the way off or pull it down I I guess a lot of people have been reading into it it feels very humiliating the other theory is something was going on with Lacy where she was terrified to leave the couch but the parents believed that she was just being a difficult teenager so they stubbornly told her fine sit on the couch then and they started torturing her basically out of

spite even before Lacy passed with just sofa foam and feces in her stomach she was malnourished it was chronic so that means over time Lacy was not getting enough nutrients or food so the parents they're going out to eat they're going on trips they're going away for the weekends hanging out with friends Lacy was alone starving that sounds like torture some people think that even the toilet seat and the cleaning supplies being so close to the couch was a form of psychological torture like look at everything you could use if you just get up but

you can't cuz why was it there I mean it's really clear like half of her body has disintegrated and melted what do you mean get up to use the restroom I think anyone with a brain in my opinion would know that she cannot get up to use that toilet even if it's pulled up right next to the couch she can't even move her position and a lot of people argue the te thing that's not the parents being in denial that feels like torture that feels like you're keeping her alive to prolong some sort of torture

like this is no way for a parent to see their child live but if that's the case why would Sheila call 911 when Lacy died most people didn't even know the Fletchers had a daughter and the ones who did they thought that she moved away and started her own life nobody was suspicious of the Fletchers in any way why wouldn't they just dispose of her body even bury her in the backyard Who would know one neighbor reported that someone might have forced Sheila to call the police and just to preface there is no proof about

what I'm about to say but there's a running Theory based off of an allegation given by a third party that is not involved so take it with a bottle of salt allegedly Sheila didn't call 911 because Lacy's heart stopped and she wanted her to be saved or wanted the authorities to know that her daughter was dead allegedly there was a neighbor who peaked through their window that last day on January 3rd saw Lacy on the couch and told the Fletchers what the hell is going on inside your house like maybe they had come over to

knock on the door and they didn't answer or something or they had looked through the window when the Fletchers had gone away for New Year's we don't know but they threatened the Fletchers if you don't call the cops I'm going to call the cops so Sheila was forced to call 911 and Report Lacy being dead the timing of that though yeah that's what one of the neighbors had stated that they were told we have no idea if this is true either way one nzen commented on this case and said I think her parents are liars

and considering the lotions and other toiletries that were reportedly found near the sofa with clean clothes I believe some sort of psychological torture was happening in conjunction with the prolonged starvation and there's something else that bothers me if the media is correct about Lacy and she was found almost completely Ned her top pulled up above her chest why was this an attempt to further humiliate her and as unlikely as it may sound given the circumstances was she essay this is all speculation of course we will have to wait for the trial for the truth to

come out that is what a comment says now other commentators say I believe one Fletcher will turn on the other in hopes of not dying in prison but I guess none of the theories really answer every question neatly and again they're just theories just lingering questions and another one is how did the parents live with the smell how did nobody smell it on them so to try and answer that question maybe the parents developed old factory fatigue nose blindness it's when your nose gets so used to a certain smell that you can no longer smell

it actually we do this all the time so it's like how your eyes can technically see your nose 24/7 but our brains block it out our nose can smell our own house scent but our nose blocks it out so that if there's any other foreign scent like a dangerous so the toast is burning we can smell it better instead of becoming over stimulated so maybe that can explain why the Fletchers were able to live with that smell but what about the other people how could they not smell it on them oddly no one ever reported

a smell coming from the Fletchers or the house the Fletchers were finally arrested and Dr biham the coroner had fought to get a team of Medics on standby outside the courtroom while pictures of lacy were being viewed by the jury just in case he said the jurors are storekeepers farmers many of them have never been exposed to this kind of stuff so I need a medical team to be outside the courtroom the da stated that the photos left the courtroom speechless he said when I was presenting the case and showed the pictures and gave the

timeline the expressions of the grand jury was utter shock like the clock on the wall never moved again there was just complete silence some jurors were gasping in horror some were just staring out in disbelief so this was not the actual trial the jury were there to decide whether or not the parents would be charged with manslaughter negligent homicide or second deegree murder negligent homicide is when someone's criminally negligent Behavior causes another person's death but the requirement I guess you could say is that that person responsible failed to realize that their behavior was so dangerous

that it could kill someone like the intent was not to kill one of the most notable cases would be an air Peru flight that crashed and killed 70 passengers and crew to oversimplify it pilots and crew realized that something was wrong while they were flying they were way too low in altitude but they didn't know that so their reading instruments were off and it's because a maintenance staff of this flight team had put adhesive tape on static ports of some of the instruments while they were cleaning and forgot to take it off and these static

ports are so important on telling the pilot how high up they were so when they tried to do an emergency landing they fell into the Pacific Ocean and they all passed he was charged with negligent homicide so it is ingrained in flight staff make sure nothing is covering the static ports but because of his negligent Behavior people died but he never had the intent like he didn't have a Manifesto in his house of like I'm going to kill people this is the lightest of the three charges that were on the table for Lacy Fletcher's case

the sentencing for negligent homicide is typically 0 to 5 years manslaughter is very similar to negligent homicide in the sense that someone's Behavior caused another person's death but it has also done so without premeditation or intent meaning nobody sat there thinking if I do action a I'm going to kill person B so I need to do action a because my goal is to kill person B the idea is more Oops I Did action a for whatever reason and it ended up killing person B so for example voluntary manslaughter a good example would be if you

come home and you see your wife in bed with another man you grab a lamp and in your fit of passion and anger because you were provoked into this response you slam the lamp down on the man's head and he dies so there is a level of risk recklessness associated with manslaughter but you weren't coming home on the drive thinking I can't wait to kill this person I need to kill this person a lot of it comes from the provocation like you were in a crime of passion almost the sentencing for manslaughter is typically anywhere

between 0 to 40 years and then the Third charge that was being considered for this case the harshest of the three was second deegree murder which is intentional homicide that is not premeditated if it's premeditated it would be first-degree murder an example of second deegree murder would be you're burglarizing someone's home and the homeowner comes home and you accidentally kill them you didn't go in there with the intent to kill anyone you're not trying to be a murderer you're just trying to make some money right but you went there to rob the homeowner and then

you killed them you knew the risks associated with robbing someone so to compare for manslaughter you come home your wife's cheating on you it's the Heat of the Moment there's a shock of emotion that might have led you to do something when you're burglarizing someone's house and the homeowner comes home you can't argue I was In the Heat of the Moment I wasn't expecting them to come home it's their home you knew that there is a chance that they could come home yeah I mean this is exactly the definition of second degree murder it's murder

yeah so you know there is intent but there's not necessarily premeditation of like we're going to go into their house rob their valuables and then kill them yeah right now the da was fighting for second deegree murder charges which a lot of people wanted to see first-degree murder but I guess legally second deegree murder made the most sense and it could lead to a life sentence the da argued with the jury we don't treat animals or neglect even our pets in that way if we have an animal in that condition you take them to the

vet if you're not cap of providing the care for that pet you get help you can't say Lacy wasn't in pain on murder you have to have intent did they want to kill Lacy I want to say yeah they wanted to kill her Lacy hadn't seen a doctor in 20 years the jury said they would be indicted and charged with second degree murder so the parents will be tried they have pled not guilty and it doesn't seem like there is a trial date set yet but it does seem to be like it'll be sometime in

2024 we will keep an eye out on that it's just um it's a lot both of Fletcher's bail were set at $300,000 each they used a bondsman which means they had to put up around 12% of that bail so they would have needed $72,000 in cash to cover for the both of them which they paid and again shows that if they really wanted to help Lacy they could to a degree afford to help her the couple's attorney Steven Moore released a statement on behalf of the parents and he said they don't want to relive the

pain of losing a child through the media yeah wow they have been through a lot of hard heartache over the years anyone who has lost a child knows what it's like oh my God don't even start on that I that's even more triggering for parents to hear that all I saw were parents on Reddit like ready for blood yeah the couple also went to post on Facebook in just one sentence Mom and Dad love you so much about Lacy's death they never mention Lacy's passion for Disney her favorite country song The Way She Loved To

Be Active and move her body or engage in sports nothing one redditor wrote Lacy's parents horrify me how could they allow this to happen they insist that she chose this life if so she wasn't in her right mind to choose they had a duty to help her and not stubbornly say fine there then until it became a living nightmare that was absolutely evil in my opinion if this was about Pride it's just as evil as if they tied her to the couch if they restrained Lacy it was sadism it was still sadism even if they

didn't restra her because empathy and love would soften their hearts to not allow Lacy to suffer and be degraded like that other netizens just simply commented on this case there is no excuse there is no explanation what are your thoughts on this and if you're a parent do you have any extra thoughts on what it's like to be a parent like how can you see your child like that does it make sense to be in denial about something like this is the only viable theory that they just wanted to torture their only daughter please leave

it in the comments and and please be safe I will see you guys on Wednesday for the next episode bye