Mary Kay Letorneau dies of cancer at the age of 58
Mary Kay Letorneau made headlines for her affair with Vili Fualaau, a 12-year-old student, when she was married with four children in 1996. She served a seven year sentence for her rape conviction. After her release from prison, she married Fualaau and had two children with him. She died at the age of 58.
Mary Kay Letourneau, the former Seattle teacher who was convicted in 1997 for raping a 12-year-old student she would later marry, died on Tuesday from cancer, her lawyer said.
David Gehrke, the attorney, told Q13 News that she suffered from cancer for about nine months.
In this Feb. 6, 1998, file photo, Mary Kay Letourneau listens to testimony during a court hearing in Seattle Letourneau, who married her former sixth-grade student after she was convicted for raping him, has died. (Alan Berner/The Seattle Times via AP, Pool)
Letourneau pleaded guilty in August 1997 to two counts of second-degree rape of a student who was 13 at the time. She was 34, married, and had four children.
FOX NATION DETAILS THE LETOURNEAU CASE AND OTHER TOP NEWS STORIES FROM 1997
She later married the student, Vili Fualaau, in 2005 — after serving her seven-year prison sentence. The student was 22 by then. They had two children and Faulaau filed for legal separation in 2017, the Q13 Fox report said.
She knew her actions were wrong morally and professionally, but she took the risks in part because of her diagnosed "hypomania," a type of bipolar depression, Gehrke told local media.
The case came to light in June 1996, when police discovered the two at about 1:20 a.m. in a minivan. Letourneau told officers the boy was 18, raising suspicions among the officers. Fualaau and Letourneau denied there had been any "touching." Instead, they said, Letourneau had been babysitting the boy and took him from her home after she and her husband had a fight.
About two months after the incident, Letourneau became pregnant with the couple's first daughter.
The two had previously characterized their relationship as one of love, and even wrote a book together — "Un Seul Crime, L'Amour," or "Only One Crime, Love." Their story was also the subject of a USA Network movie called "All American Girl."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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