US News

Mary Kay Letourneau, teacher who raped and later married a student, dead at 58

Mary Kay Letourneau — the former Washington state teacher who became infamous for her sexual relationship with a 12-year-old student she later married — has died of colon cancer. She was 58.

Attorney David Gehrke, who represented her in the case that shocked America, said Letourneau had been battling Stage 4 cancer.

Mary Kay Letourneau and ex-husband Vili Fualaau.
Mary Kay Letourneau and ex-husband Vili Fualaau.Bauergriffin.com

“It was expected but sad anyway,” he told KOMO-TV. “She was a good person.”

In the summer of 1996, Letourneau was a 34-year-old married mother of four when her relationship with sixth-grader Vili Fualaau turned sexual.

At about 1:20 a.m. June 19, 1996, police discovered them in a minivan parked in the suburban Seattle city of Des Moines Marina. Letourneau initially told officers the boy was 18, raising suspicions that something sexual was going on.

But back at the police station, 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 Fualaau’s child.

She pleaded guilty in 1997 to raping the youngster.

Mary Kay Letourneau listens to testimony during a court hearing in Seattle in 1998.
Mary Kay Letourneau listens to testimony during a court hearing in Seattle in 1998.AP

 

Their daughter Audrey was born in May 1997 while she was awaiting sentencing.

Through a plea deal, Letourneau’s sentence was reduced to six months — but two weeks after her release, she was caught having sex with the teen in a car and was jailed again.

By then, she was pregnant with the couple’s second child, a girl they named Georgia, who was born behind bars.

The kids were raised by Fualaau’s mother until Letourneau’s release about seven years later.

Letourneau and Fualaau married on May 20, 2005, in Woodinville, Wash.

They 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, “All American Girl.”

But the union ultimately didn’t last. They divorced last year, according to People magazine.

Letourneau was working as a paralegal for a time, and said in 2018 that she wanted to use her newfound skills to scrub her name from the sex offenders’ registry.

During their marriage, Fualaau maintained he did not see himself as the victim of a sexual predator.

“I’m not a victim. I’m not ashamed of being a father. I’m not ashamed of being in love with Mary Kay,” he said in 2013.

With wires