Mary Kay Letourneau, jailed teacher who married student, dies

SEATTLE (AP) — Mary Kay Letourneau, a teacher who married her former sixthgrade student after she was convicted of raping him in a case that drew international headlines, has died. She was 58.

Letourneau had been living in the Seattle suburb of Des Moines and died of advanced colon cancer, her lawyer David Gehrke said.

Letourneau was a married mother of four in 1996 when she taught 12-year-old Vili Fualaau in her class at Shorewood Elementary in Burien, a south Seattle suburb.

They had a daughter — and then, later, another one, conceived in 1998, after Letourneau had pleaded guilty to child rape but before she began serving a 7½-year prison term.

Letourneau and Fualaau married on May 20, 2005, in Woodinville, Washington, after her release.

Fualaau and Letourneau characterized their relationship as one of love at that point, even writing a book together — “Un Seul Crime, L’Amour,” or “Only One Crime, Love.” Their story became the subject of a USA Network movie, “All American Girl.”

But it didn’t last a lifetime: King County court records show Fualaau asked for a legal separation from Letourneau on May 9, 2017.