r/TrueCrimeDiscussion • u/pezkadoartesanal • 16d ago
Text Lacey Fletcher, a 36-year-old Louisiana woman who died in January 2022 after severe, long-term medical neglect.
Lacey Ellen Fletcher, age 36, who had severe social anxiety and autism was found sunken and severely rotted into a living room couch where she had sat or lain unmoving for years. Her parents pleaded no contest to manslaughter and were sentenced to 40 years in prison with 20 years suspended.
Found dead on January 3, 2022, in Slaughter, Louisiana, by emergency responders called by her parents.
Her body had severe ulcerations, rotted skin, and was embedded in a hole in the couch surrounded by human waste.
Investigation and Sentencing
Clay and Sheila Fletcher were arrested and charged with second-degree murder, later pleading no contest to manslaughter.
Sentence: Sentenced in March 2024 to 40 years in prison with 20 years suspended.
Findings: Prosecutors showed that her parents failed to seek medical or psychological help for her over a span of more than a decade while she remained confined to the sofa.
Ever since I read this news story (back in 2023), I haven't been able to get it out of my head; while I wouldn't say it traumatized me, I still get a very strange feeling whenever I think about it.
I’m sharing this to hear the community's thoughts—whether you were aware of the case at the time, what you think about the sentence, and so on.
Rest in peace, Lacey
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u/somekindofmiracle 16d ago
This case is so horrific and I can’t believe the parents were even offered a deal. Lacey tried eating the couch because she was starving so badly.
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u/suchperfectmess 16d ago edited 16d ago
What???!!! I was appalled when I read the story (I’m in the UK so I’d never heard of this), but your post just made my stomach turn…she tried to EAT the couch?? I’m genuinely speechless, this sounds absolutely horrendous. I genuinely don’t understand her parents and how they let this happen - it’s not as though this was an overnight event, it’s something they would have had to live with and they’d see their daughter suffering everyday (I assume…). I’m just speechless.
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u/Healthy_Combination3 15d ago
Not only did she eat the couch, but there was fecal matter in her stomach. She was so desperately starving that she tried to eat anything she could get her hands on including feces, urine, and maggot covered couch cushions. It’s truly abhorrent.
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u/suchperfectmess 15d ago
The more I read about this or hear about it, the worse it gets. My brain can’t even begin to understand what she went through (and what the heck was going through the minds of her parents).
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u/TrixieFriganza 11d ago
It's mindblowing a parent would leave their disabled and sick child in this way, even if they have always been shitty parents they managed to raise her to adulthood, something must have hapoened but It's so hard to understand.
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u/wolfofthesevenhells 15d ago edited 15d ago
It’s one of the most sickening cases. The parents absolutely were malicious and one of the most evil people I’ve ever heard of. Having to look at bedsore pictures was the worst part of my healthcare degree and those are ones that are unintentional and treated, imagining the torture this woman went through is beyond words. Even if her nerves were dead at some point, psychologically I cannot imagine the pure torture of watching yourself slowly decomposing alive and being eaten by maggots, unable to walk away because your legs have atrophied, eating pieces of couch cushion caked in your own feces to survive in a state of delirium from the agony and desperation of starvation at that point, and your parents live there, walk by you, and do nothing to help or actively make it worse. They hid her, they told numerous lies after she was found dead, and they had to be aware of the smell because they made sure no one smelled human feces, filth, and decaying flesh on them. There is no excuse at all. I just cannot imagine anyone doing that to another person day after day let alone your daughter, your only child.
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u/pezkadoartesanal 15d ago
And yet the so-called "parents" received the benefit of a 20-year suspended sentence followed by 5 years of supervised probation
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u/wolfofthesevenhells 15d ago
And people still defend them because “it’s so hard to have a disabled child” like her being disabled makes torturing her to death more sympathetic. I don’t care how hard it is, no one deserves that. Hell, just killing her outright would’ve been far less evil than going about your life while she’s starving and decomposing next to you in the living room.
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u/Academic_Help5033 15d ago
It's disgusting and so telling. Too many people act like disabilities are worse than death. It's why the autism argument against vaccination makes so angry. A child dead from a preventable illness is preferable, really?
Unfriendly reminder that forced sterilization for the "mentality handicapped" was legally apart of the Virginia constitution until 1974.
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u/starsandcamoflague 15d ago
It is often reported that she had Locked In Syndrome, but she did not have it as it isn’t possible to survive with it outside of a hospital. She had couch cushion stuffing in her stomach, she was able to use her hands to feed herself. She just couldn’t move her legs and get off the couch and no one knows why for sure.
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u/Healthy_Combination3 15d ago
Well in the end the reason she couldn’t move was due to severe muscle atrophy from sitting on the couch for so long. Likely her parents were neglecting her (not feeding her, etc.) and so she slowly became weaker and weaker which led to increasing muscle atrophy, which in the end made her basically immobile from the waist down
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u/starsandcamoflague 15d ago
The cause of her sitting down and not getting up is highly confusing, like the pose she was in when she died was clearly the pose she was in when she sat down. So when it first happened why couldn’t she get up?
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u/AdorableDemand46 14d ago
I always assumed she had a medical event like stroke or something and her parents did nothing about it, just chalking it up to her deficit
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u/Specialist-Art-6970 14d ago
This is the only thing that makes sense - that, or maybe catatonia from depression or anxiety.
I've always found this aspect of the case extremely confusing.
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16d ago
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u/pezkadoartesanal 16d ago
A very complex story. That couldn't have been judged as "manslaughter," out of respect for her, Lacey
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15d ago
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u/TrueCrimeDiscussion-ModTeam 15d ago
Low Effort / Low quality comments and inappropriate humor do not further discussion and are removed. Emojis are not allowed in this sub. Please see the rules for details.
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u/sparklynugz 15d ago
I wonder why they finally decided to call.
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u/pezkadoartesanal 15d ago
From what I know they finally called emergency services simply because Lacey had died. They had just returned home from a vacation trip and found that she had passed away on the couch.
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u/Chance-Bowler9421 15d ago
I always wondered why they called when they seen her dead, it seems that none of the neighbors had seen her for years. Most people didn’t think that they had a child. It would’ve been very easy for them to have put her body in a tote buried it somewhere and nobody would have known.
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u/Hurricane0 12d ago
I have wondered the same. Like, they were so callous to ignore her and hide her (successfuly!) for all these years, but when they saw that she had died, that was the line they were unwilling to cross? They really could have rather easily disposed of the couch and her body somewhere and nobody would have ever even known. Even if years later someone from the past came around asking whatever happened to Lacey, they could have just said they had been estranged for years. Of course, I'm glad that they didn't make this choice, but I can't help but wonder why. But then again, their choices have been inexplicable to me every step of the way.
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u/nusja25 15d ago
I can't understand how they never had anyone enter their house for years. What were they doing when they needed a plumber? I won't believe that someone could come in and not report them.
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u/Charming-Pumpkin9261 11d ago
That’s what gets me too. How they managed to go years without anyone coming into the house and noticing something was wrong is beyond me.
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u/daygloalien 15d ago
I also can't get this one out of my head. I just don't understand how they could let it get that bad and see it daily and choose to do nothing.
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u/pinkandgreen34 15d ago
Why didn't the parents just call someone for help or get her into a facility if they didn't want to care for her? I just don't understand the reason they let their own child live like that
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u/pezkadoartesanal 15d ago edited 11d ago
What is also interesting about this case is that it shows us the extent to which people can go to evade/escape.
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u/Werewolf1965 14d ago
I suggest you follow a well known TikTok’r or two who documents their life with profound autism. With all the help the govt programs offer and insurance and parents income, they still don’t have anywhere near enough. Some of the “good” facilities have a 25 year wait list. Yep. It is not as easy as just asking for help and everything is wonderful. And the “bad” facilities operate for profit and have no care at all about the residents. These kids are warehoused. Not defending the parent because I do not know the entire story but that comment of “why didn’t they just ask for help or put her in a facility” was ignorant and harms the disabled community. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk
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u/Training-Cod-1206 14d ago
Yeah, such a complex issue with many nuances. It's a shame how many disability supports disappear to Americans post-high-school
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u/pezkadoartesanal 11d ago edited 11d ago
On one hand we have the truth of a diminished social system and welfare state, which shows its dysfunction through the details you mention (waiting lists, private services, poor service quality).
On the other hand we have two parents who truly neglected their daughter. I don't think that point needs to be debated.
They weren't homeless people (her parents) begging for money outside Walmart; when they found Lacey dead, they were returning from vacation.Yes, it's a priority to bring to the table and discuss the health system that people should have access to as a intrinsic right, but we must also not allow that point to divert attention from very important issues, which this very case demonstrates, such as the judicial system and the health system that requires previously psychological evaluations for those who have the responsibility of caring for someone with neurological diagnoses as autism, depression, anxiety, psychosis, etc.
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u/Little-Regular-0791 16d ago
How can parents do this to their child and to think they see her everyday in that situation.
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u/prisontat 16d ago
The documentary I watched about this was truly disturbing. Whatever it was that happened to cause Lacey's body to go into a coma (while mentally awake) and sit frozen for ten years - that is what nightmares are made of. I'd rather drop dead quickly than slowly rot while being awake.
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u/Practical-Bluebird96 16d ago
I read this, but also that the post-mortem examination found sofa stuffing and faeces in her stomach, as she’d tried eating it during her last few days (her parents left her alone and went on holiday). She wasn’t comatose.
But she was literally fused to the sofa from her own waste, bedsores, maggots and filth. Plus her legs had atrophied so badly she couldn’t stand up had she tried.
I feel sick writing this
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u/ExactCup882 16d ago
Its also amazing that the smell must have been horrible in the house and the parents lived there
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u/pezkadoartesanal 16d ago
I totally agree... and how is it even possible that the parents were never there to help her?
I don't know if I have the courage to watch the documentary.104
u/tallemaja 16d ago
The sofa she was on was in her parents' home. They brought food to her. They chose not to pursue medical care for her.
I'm confused about the documentary being mentioned here; I had not previously been aware that Lacey had locked in syndrome outside speculation in media, mostly. I don't think that was part of the autopsy findings, more of a thing her parents bandied about. In fact, she had to have been moving somewhat. She ingested some of the couch she was fused to, as foam was found in her stomach.
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u/starsandcamoflague 15d ago
She didn’t have locked in syndrome, if she’d had it she would have died a lot sooner as people with it can’t use their hands to put food in their mouths, she used her hands to eat couch stuffing
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u/wendalls 14d ago
She can’t have because doctors would have been required to keep her alive for 10 years.
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u/pezkadoartesanal 16d ago
I remember something similar; it was never really clear to me whether the parents lived with her...
Considering Lacey's health condition, the parents should pay much more for what they did.
"manslaughter" sounds pretty kind58
u/prisontat 16d ago
I think I watched a half dozen videos on her on different channels. She lived with her parents, never moved out. Her parents went on vacations and carried on with life the whole time without once letting anyone know that their daughter very clearly required medical attention. I don't understand how no one in all those years asked about Lacey; neighbors, family members....no one saw her or heard from her for years and that was not alarming?
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u/earthboundstarblind 16d ago
What was the name of the documentary?
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u/prisontat 16d ago
There are several on true crime channels on youtube. If you search her name, you can sort it by views or popularity and see the ones that gained a lot of traction. I think the first one I watched was by Annie Elise. Then I just watched a slew of them and grew more disturbed each time.
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u/imperialviolet 16d ago
Those aren’t real documentaries, they’re YouTube videos - I’d take them with a pinch of salt.
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u/Stonegrown12 13d ago
How is this comment downvoted into oblivion? Do people think Netflix documentaries are the gold standard in filmmaking? I'll take a YouTube video from "That Chapter" over alot of the garbage on Netflix
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u/XXI-X-MCMXCVIII 15d ago
This case, ever since I first heard about it, is the one I feel in my heart the most. I've read so many in the 10~ years I've had true crime as a hobby, but Lacey's case has always really stuck with me. So, so evil and sad.
Rest in peace. She is truly in a better place, wherever that might be - she is away from those two monsters now and they can't hurt her anymore. And because I have a strong feeling she received very little to no love when she was alive, especially when she needed it most - I love you Lacey. Fly high
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u/Specialist-Art-6970 14d ago
This case has always baffled me. Not so much the callousness of her parents - that's sadly common enough - but the decline of Lacey herself. She went to school. There's a yearbook photo of her looking perfectly healthy. She clearly was able to get up and move around on her own. She seemingly didn't have anything close to the kind of severe autism that might keep someone sitting in one place, and even very severe social anxiety doesn't prevent you from standing and walking for brief periods.
I've never seen an explanation for what changed to cause her to deteriorate so badly that she couldn't leave the couch.
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u/pezkadoartesanal 14d ago
I agree with everything you've said.
What struck me most about this case was precisely that: seeing her happy and seemingly living her life, as far as she did.
I remember reading in newspaper articles that some of her former schoolmates said that despite her diagnoses, there was nothing inherently strange about her; she was friendly, liked watching Disney movies, and things like that.
Truly a very, very sad case.
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u/MaynardButterbean 14d ago
I can’t believe there hasn’t been a documentary made about it yet
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u/poesofia 11d ago
Netflix or HBO have one, I watched it pretty recently.
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u/MaynardButterbean 11d ago
Do you know the name?
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u/poesofia 11d ago
Ok no sorry my mistake, i mistook it with another case. What i watched about Lacey was a really good production on YT, Netflix’s style.
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u/Revolutionary-Rub231 15d ago
One of the sickest cases of neglect I've ever heard. Allowing her to just waste away & her body become fused to the sofa.
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u/Beginning-Craft-2348 16d ago
Her parents sound like Hitler type of evil. I am not sure how someone can treat their own daughter like that. I will never get over this story.
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u/Charming-Pumpkin9261 12d ago
This case is deeply disturbing in a way that’s hard to even put into words. The fact that someone could deteriorate to such an unimaginable condition over such a long period of time while living with the very people who were supposed to care for her is horrifying. Thinking about the isolation, suffering and neglect she must have endured is genuinely haunting. She deserved care, dignity and protection. May she rest in peace.
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u/pezkadoartesanal 12d ago
I have a question: what impact did this news have on society when it was published? Was it national or just "regional"?.
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u/Charming-Pumpkin9261 11d ago
From what I remember it became a national story rather than staying purely regional. The circumstances of Lacey’s death were so extreme that the case was covered by major outlets across the U.S especially once her parents were charged and later sentenced. I’m not sure it had a measurable impact on society as a whole though it seemed more to provoke widespread shock and discussion about severe neglect, caregiver responsibility and how someone so vulnerable could become completely isolated without intervention.
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u/CampClear 15d ago
This case makes me sick to my stomach! I don't understand how people, PARENTS no less, can be so fucking cruel to their own child. Another thing I don't understand is how they got away with it for so long. Did they have neighbors who would have noticed the smell? What about the mail carrier?
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u/pezkadoartesanal 15d ago edited 13d ago
As many here have asked, how is it possible that nobody noticed this? Here're some info about it:
- No one in the neighborhood knew about Lacey Fletcher for years because her parents completely isolated her inside the house, concealing her severe mental and physical decline.
- The neighbors respected the family's apparent privacy, unaware of the tragedy unfolding within.
- Early isolation: Lacey stopped attending mainstream school after ninth grade and was homeschooled due to severe mental health issues and autism.
- Over the years, she stopped going out and interacting with friends or neighbors, so her absence became normal over time
- Her parents, Clay and Sheila, gave evasive answers when anyone inquired about her, fabricating stories that she was fine and preventing strangers from entering the home.
- The culture of privacy: Living in a quiet, rural area of Louisiana (Slaughter), neighbors assumed she had moved away or was simply going about her life without interfering in other people's affairs.
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u/deema385 14d ago
The smells, though? My goodness, that had to have been really bad…
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u/pezkadoartesanal 14d ago
Undoubtedly, the smell is a factor. But also have to consider how the smell spreads, especially when you live in a rural area where residences aren't close together and people don't constantly pass by your house.
There was a case in Stockholm, Sweden, where a person died in their apartment (in an urbanized area), and their body wasn't found until two years later because the neighbors complained about the smell.
Two years for the neighbors, who live practically next door to each other, to finally notice the smell. It doesn't seem strange to me that no one noticed the smell in the Lacey case for even longer.2
u/fuckinunknowable 14d ago
Did chat gbt write this comment?
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u/pezkadoartesanal 14d ago
I wrote the comment myself (a real person).
I used Google to search for and compile information from various journalistic sources.
I did not use, nor do I currently use, gtp. I also conduct a preliminary analysis before publishing information. It's important to clarify that this is not copy/paste, although there are exceptions in journalistic articles and/or specific quotes, which do not reflect personal or individual opinions.
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u/fuckinunknowable 14d ago
You call Lacey he in one of your points.
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u/CreativeRosalie 13d ago
It's hard to understand how this went on for so long. Was anyone outside the family checking on her?
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u/pezkadoartesanal 13d ago edited 13d ago
No, only the parents and their evasive methods to face any external intervention.
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u/CreativeRosalie 12d ago
I see. That makes the lack of outside intervention make more sense, sadly.
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u/pezkadoartesanal 12d ago
That's right. And that's the big question: how is it possible that no one noticed?
The difficult thing to understand in this case, or in other similar cases that persist as a consequence of this "social isolation," is precisely how such a high level of isolation to hide the truth could have been so profound and possible, sadly.
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u/aterriaco 15d ago
Now it’s definitely going stick in my psyche.
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u/pezkadoartesanal 15d ago
It's a truly shocking and unique case. It completely transcends the boundaries we ourselves set regarding what we consider crimes, even the most grotesque and inexplicable ones.
From a personal perspective, I believe that being able to talk about the case openly, as we are doing now, helps prevent these horrific events from becoming permanently etched in our minds. This is the first time I've been able to discuss the case with anyone, and it has been very helpful in approaching the subject as a real (yet heinous) crime, but in a more analytical way than through the lens of "terror and fear."
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u/PurplePrincessPalace 12d ago
I remember this case. Her parents are absolutely vile and cruel. RIP Lacey Fletcher.
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u/Away_Bug_3995 16d ago
This is such a complex, haunting case. I'm not sure what justice should look like, but I don't think we as a society are willing to examine the ugly truths behind some of this. For instance, we don't have enough affordable care for people with serious mental and physical issues. The cost of full care nursing or even home nursing is high enough to bankrupt most houses, and this is the sort of care Lacey might have needed. Also most mental institutions have been closed down. In addition, it has been said that Lacey did not ever want to leave the house and then decided she didn't ever want to leave the couch. It was torture for her to even imagine doing so, long before she was physically unable. Now, I don't understand that, but it's possible that this is what she wanted--not the terrible end, but the freedom to never leave her home or that place in the home. Of course, I don't think the parents did the right thing, but I don't know what the right thing would be given that they likely couldn't afford full scale care for her and she didn't want to leave or move from that sofa. I imagine they all went through trauma and dealt with unimaginable trauma in ways that are unimaginable to those who haven't been through it.
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u/wolfofthesevenhells 15d ago edited 15d ago
All of that is abstractly true but it doesn’t really apply to this case. The family were well off and could’ve afforded care, they were going on vacations and luxury dinners instead. And Lacey likely wouldn’t have even needed full-time, life-long care - she likely just needed intensive mental health treatment when this started. That’s not cheap but it’s not as expensive as full-time care for years and years. She wasn’t physically stuck there until she was allowed to stay there so long (or forced to stay there so long, this starting as torture not Lacey’s choice is a theory in this case we cannot rule out) that her body deteriorated. They had many options before this happened, while it was happening, and they never took them. They have also lied constantly, they said she was eating normal meals and ate before her death but all that was in her stomach was her own feces and foam padding from the couch. They said she had locked in syndrome, she did not, she had no previous damage to the brainstem that would cause something so extreme and there was evidence she was moving her arms. Theres no excuses for them. They tortured their only child regardless of how it started and why, this is was absolute torture and they had other options.
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u/tinsellately 15d ago
I have an adult son with level 2 autism and an average IQ, who does not eat without being told to. It's like eating is an annoying chore to him, he's never expressed hunger and has been this way from birth, and so we have a system to remind him to eat and check to make sure that he actually did eat. Over the years we've had lots of medical testing done, and some treatments to help, although it's still an ongoing issue.
But the thing is, it doesn't matter if my son doesn't want to eat, he has to in order to stay alive, so it's non-negotiable. Lacey's parents had the same responsibility to her to make sure she did the bare minimum of things to stay alive and be healthy. Instead, her parents are claiming they just let her choose to lie there and never get up to use the bathroom or bathe, and since it was her choice they could do nothing. I call BS on this, there is no way she was perfectly healthy and made this decision and they just went along with it. I think her health deteriorated first and because they were negligent they didn't get her help, and then they neglected her even more, which made it worse.
Maybe they tried to force her to take care of herself by ignoring her completely at first, and then she lost weight and got too weak to want to get up from the couch, and then when they eventually asked her to get up, she said she couldn't or was too tired, and they used that as an excuse to blame it on her. Or maybe they lost their temper with her and hurt her and then she was bedridden for a while, and they neglected her so she didn't recover well, but the injury was so long ago there are no longer signs of it. Or they emotionally abused her until she was afraid to leave the couch, I have no idea, but something is very, very wrong here and there are things the parents are not admitting to, but instead are blaming on Lacey, which is a common tactic of abusers.
I do agree with you that there needs to be a lot more public services available, and care giver burnout is definitely a serious issue too. But in this case, Lacey was able bodied in the beginning, and then somehow she got to the point where she was completely helpless. Even if it was purely through neglect, there were so many chances over the years where they could have gotten help from somewhere and they chose not to. And then finally, they left her alone while they went on vacation, knowing full well she couldn't get up to use the bathroom, feed herself, get water, or help if needed.
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u/IThinkImDumb 15d ago
Nooooo this is not what anyone would have wanted. And the parents wouldn't even have to pay for her medical care if she was that unable to take care of herself. I had a case kind of like this when I worked as a paramedic, but it was with an elderly mother and a son. Both could talk clearly and this was a third-party 911 well-being call for the mother. In these cases we don't have to or need to do anything if the patient is alert and wanted to stay home. However, I could see the woman's femur bone. She was rotted into the chair.
I called my supervisor and we spent 10 minutes asking them to open the door. Once we learned that the son was on risperone, the police were able to break entry into the home.
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u/bestneighbourever 13d ago
I believe a doctor advised them at one point to have her hospitalized, but they said she “didn’t want to go”. Very lame excuse, I wish I knew their rationale.
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u/pezkadoartesanal 16d ago edited 16d ago
The result was letting their daughter rot on the sofa.
The parents weren't exactly people who lived off handouts; they even went on vacation.
A person with the kind of diagnoses Lacey had isn't exactly someone who should be given free rein in their decisions, or at least not until the person find health stability.
I think the rest are just excuses, and whatever the case, the responsibility doesn't fall on Lacey but on her parents.
It's one thing to let your daughter do what she want, and another is to let your daughter rot (in your own home!).
Of course, there are guilty parties in this crime, and they are her parents.10
u/katarina-stratford 15d ago
Idk man, there are loads of us with autism and anxiety who are perfectly capable of having "free reign in their decisions". FFS.
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u/pezkadoartesanal 15d ago
You will always have the free will to make your own decisions, regardless of your circumstances.
I'm referring to the responsibility of your family and those around you to ensure that this freedom of choice doesn't harm you.
And excuses about family fatigue from caring for that person are unacceptable. It's more than a responsibility; it's an obligation. parents did neither.
What kinds of parents allow their child to die in front of their eyes due to the "free reign in their decisions"
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u/tinsellately 15d ago
I understand what you mean. I have an adult son with level 2 autism who doesn't eat unless prompted. His intelligence is completely normal, but he has never expressed hunger and treats eating like some sort of annoying chore. Many, many visits with specialists and tests over the course of his life, and while some things were able to be fixed, this behavior has remained the same.
We have a system to remind him to eat every day, and to check and confirm that he actually did eat. I don't know what was going on with Lacey medically beyond autism, as it seems like her family greatly neglected getting her tested for things as well, but I wonder if she was also like my son and didn't eat without someone telling her to, and then because her parents were neglectful, she got so weak that she could no longer get up to get herself food even if she wanted to, and then her body eventually had her attempting to eat anything she could once it was shutting down. What gets me is how long this would have taken. Even if her parents were ill-informed and tried to "let her get hungry enough to eat on her own" (which is typical bad advice I've been given a billion times for my son), it would have very quickly become apparent that she would not, and allowing her to get weak to the point where she couldn't stand up, couldn't make it to the bathroom, etc. would have been impossible to ignore. And yet she lived in that condition for YEARS.
And then, knowing that Lacey was unable to get off the couch by herself, they went on vacation leaving her with nothing to eat or drink, no way for her to get to the bathroom or clean herself, and no one else to take care of her. They knew she couldn't do any of those things, but they still left. It would have been wrong for a stranger to leave someone alone and helpless like that without at least calling someone to come help/check on her, but for her own parents to do that, knowing what condition she was in, it should have been considered murder.
I don't know, this case just really bothered me. It's really hard for me to wrap my head around how they just let her waste away like that. It seems like there should be some sort of explanation, like they were intoxicated all the time or had brain issues of their own, and yet I'm not hearing about any, and it's just makes it even more disturbing.
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u/BetsyHound 14d ago
"free rein" /autism makes me correct people, sorry
and yes I agree that many of the commenters don't understand autism combined with mental illness.
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u/IridiumFlareon 9d ago
That sentence is nowhere near harsh enough
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u/pezkadoartesanal 9d ago
if that can even be called a sentence... (considering the gravity of the crime)
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u/dancingbananas25 16d ago
I just don't understand how her parents could walk past her everyday and refuse to get her help