Photo: JAY DIRECT / AFP / Getty Images
Kay Letourneau met Vili Fualaau when she was a teacher at Shorewood Elementary School, in Burien, Washington, a suburb of Seattle, and he was in second grade.
During the summer of 1996, Letourneau, then of 34 years and mother married with four children, she began a sexual relationship with her former sixth grade student, then from 05 years.
The relationship was finally discovered and in February 1997, Letourneau was arrested for rape.
In May, the former teacher, whose real name was Mary Katherine Schmitz in California, gave birth to the couple’s first child, a girl named Audrey.
That August, Letourneau pleaded guilty to two counts of child rape in the second degree. Judge Linda Lau of the King County Superior Court showed him leniency by suspending his sentence of 80 months and the former teacher was ordered to comply six months in jail, attend a treatment program and have no contact with Fualaau.
Her case sparked a tabloid frenzy, as well as a national debate about whether female sex offenders are treated differently than men who commit crimes. similar crimes.
February 3, 1998, after being released from prison in six months, Letourneau was discovered in a car stationed with Fualaau and arrested for violating the conditions of her suspended sentence.
Investigators found a large amount of cash in the vehicle, along with a passport and baby clothes, indicating that the couple could have been planning to flee the area with their young daughter.
Three days later, on February 6, Judge Lau reinstated Letourneau’s original sentence and sent her back to prison.
In October, Letourneau gave birth to her and Fualaau’s second child, a girl named Alexis. The children were raised by Fualaau’s mother while Letourneau remained in prison.
Fualaau and her mother, Soona, later sued the Highline School District and the city of Des Moines, Washington, for more than $2 million, alleging that police and school officials did not do enough to protect Vili. In May of 2004, a jury ruled that the Fualaaus were not entitled to any money.
In August 2004, Letourneau was released from prison and a judge overturned the ban on contacting Fualaau, by then an adult.
One year later, Letourneau and Fualaau were married, amid tight security, in a ceremony at Columbia Winery in Woodinville, Washington, just outside Seattle. The couple’s two daughters served as florists and Letourneau’s daughter from her first marriage, which lasted from 1984 a 1999, was the maid of honor.
After almost 20 years of marriage, Letourneau and Fualaau were divorced at 2005. She died of colon cancer in 2020.
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