SEATTLE, Washington — Mary Kay Letourneau, a former teacher who was convicted of raping a 12-year-old male student that she later ended up marrying, died on Tuesday of cancer at the age of 58, according to reports.
Letourneau’s lawyer, David Gehrke, tells King 5 that Letourneau died of stage 4 cancer. “It was expected but sad anyway,” Gehrke tells KOMO News. “She was a good person.”
Letourneau became notorious in the mid-1990s when it was revealed she had been sexually assaulting a 12-year-old student, Vili Fualaau, who was a sixth-grader at Shorewood Elementary in Burien, Wash.
She initially was sentenced to three months in jail as part of a plea agreement in 1997 in which she said she would no longer have any contact with Fualaau. She gave birth to Fualaau’s child while awaiting sentencing.
However, shortly after being released from jail, she was found in a car having sex with Fualaau. A judge then sentenced her to seven years in prison. She gave birth to a second child while in prison.
After being released, Letourneau and Fualaau were married in 2005. The couple were divorced in 2019. Letourneau had four children from a previous marriage.