In 1997, Mary Kay Letourneau was charged with child rape after her husband discovered letters she had sent to one of his students, Vili Fualaau. By the time she was convicted and paroled, she had two daughters with the teenager.
In 1996, the town of Burien, located in the state of Washington in the United States, saw its usual tranquility interrupted.
The reason? Nail teacher Mary Kay Letourneau, an elementary school student, sexually assaulted one of her students, Vili Fualaau, who was only 12 years old.
The case made national headlines at the time because the teacher enjoyed great prestige in the community where she taught, was married and had four children. When she had to defend herself, she assured that she had not committed any crime, that they were indeed in a romantic relationship and that the student had persecuted her, absolving herself of any responsibility.
Létourneau had two daughters with his student and even married him after his release from prison. Years later, the raw case inspired Secrets of a Scandal (May December), a film starring actresses Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore that arrived on Netflix a few months ago.
Who is Mary Kay Letourneau?
Mary Kay Letourneau grew up in a large, strict family. Her father was an ultra-conservative MP Jean Schmitz who represented Orange County and also ran as the American Independent Party’s presidential candidate in 1972.
In 1973, a tragedy shook the family home. One of Létourneau’s brothers, just three years old, died after drowning in the house’s swimming pool. Even though the event was an accident, she did not hesitate to blame herself for her brother’s departure, since she was the one who had to take care of him.
Media turmoil hit the clan again in 1985, this time because of a scandal involving the family patriarch. Schmitz, who also worked as a political science professor at Santa Ana College, was caught having an affair with one of his former students, Carla Stuckle, with whom he also had two children.
After graduating from high school, Létourneau enrolled at Arizona State University, where she met Steve Letorneau, whom she married in 1985 and had four children.
The couple initially settled in Anchorage, Alaska, which was Steve’s hometown. However, they soon decided to move to Seattle, Washington.
Once settled in the area, Létourneau began working as a teacher at Shorewood Elementary School in a nearby town called Burien. He quickly gained the love and respect of his colleagues through his work in the classroom.
How the teacher met the student
Létourneau first met Fualaau in 1991, when he was 8 years old and in second grade. The little boy lived with his mother Soona, while his father was in prison for theft. He had a total of 17 brothers and sisters.
Although at first they were not close, this changed when the teacher realized that the boy had great artistic talent, which she decided to highlight.
Little by little, the relationship between the two men began to grow closer. Létourneau bought her equipment and even took her to museums. “I felt like one day I could marry my daughter,” the woman said.
The story took a turn in 1996, after Letorneau had problems in her marriage to Steven and suffered a miscarriage. This coincided with Fualaau, aged just 12, who bet $20 to a friend to show him that he could have sex with his 34-year-old teacher. And there they began to develop a “romantic relationship”.
“I remember I used to plan the next day, like ‘what I was going to do, what I was going to say, what surprise I was going to leave on his desk,'” Fualaau said. Data line.
Over the next few days, the woman and the teenager spent more time together and exchanged romantic letters. She even came to visit him at the home where he lived with his mother.
That same year, local police discovered them inside a van parked near a sports center. Létourneau assured them that she was Fualaau’s teacher and that they were not doing anything illegal.
The incident only ended when police called the teenager’s mother, who told them her son was with someone she trusted. “ “I said there was nothing between them,” he would later explain to THE Seattle Weather .
Although the relationship remained secret for several months, several rumors began to appear at Shorewood School. The facts came to light in early 1997, when the teacher’s husband, Steve, began to suspect infidelity and discovered romantic letters that Létoruneau had sent to the student.
What Steve didn’t know at the time was that his wife was 6 months pregnant with Fualaau.
The arrest and imprisonment of the teacher
After Létourneau’s husband discovered the letters, a relative of hers chose to report the situation to the school district.
A month after this report, the police arrested Létoruneau and charged him with rape of a minor. . Although his defense attorney said the adult and teen “were in love” and she didn’t believe he was committing a crime, they reached an agreement with prosecutors in the case for him to plead guilty. That also allowed him to access a reduced sentence.
At her sentencing hearing, Judge Linda Lau sentenced her to six months in prison, including time already served, on the condition that she complete a sex offender treatment program and have no contact with the boy for the rest of her life. At the same time, she gave birth to her first daughter with Fualaau, whom she named Audrey .
On January 2, 1998, he was released on parole. Despite the conditions imposed by the court, a few days later the police caught her having sex with the teenager in a vehicle.
The therapist who was treating her also notified child protective services that she had reconnected with the victim.
Based on this fact, the judge ordered the woman to return to prison. “Just a few weeks before his release from prison, he deliberately violated the terms of his sentence,” the judge will say.
During this brief period of freedom, she became pregnant with her second daughter with Fualaau. Georgine to whom she would later give birth at the Washington Correctional Center for Women.
Létourneau had to spend seven years in prison, and during that time Fualaau and his family took care of raising the girls.
In 2004, while he was free, he asked the same Judge Lau to lift the court order preventing him from having contact with Fualaau, which was granted. A year later, they were married at Columbia Winery in the town of Woodinville. At that time he was 21 years old.
In an interview they gave together to 20/20 In 2015, Létourneau was asked if she felt guilty about what happened to her former student. “I loved him so much and I thought, ‘Why can’t it just be a kiss?'” the woman replied.
They managed to live together for just over a decade, until they separated in 2017 and finalized their divorce in 2019.
The death of Mary Kay Létourneau
Létourneau was diagnosed with colon cancer after beginning the separation process. With her health rapidly deteriorating, Fualaau decided to see her again to enjoy her last months of life.
“She would talk to Vili or he would call her to see how she was doing. The marriage was broken, but they still loved each other. They had daughters together and he always said she was his first love. So of course he is sad about this loss. “He is sad for the girls, but he is also sad for himself,” sources close to Vili said. People.
Finally, he died on July 6, 2020 from stage 4 cancer. He was 58 years old.
Fualaau, for his part, was 37, slightly older than the teacher when they began their relationship.
Regarding his ex-wife’s last words, Fualaau would comment: “She told me that I am the most important person to her and that everything will be okay.”
Source: Latercera
I am David Jack and I have been working in the news industry for over 10 years. As an experienced journalist, I specialize in covering sports news with a focus on golf. My articles have been published by some of the most respected publications in the world including The New York Times and Sports Illustrated.
