Teacher convicted in boy’s rape in ’90s dies

SEATTLE — 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, died Tuesday. She was 58.

Her lawyer David Gehrke told multiple news outlets that Letourneau died of cancer.

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

Police discovered them at 1:20 a.m. June 19, 1996, parked in a minivan at the Des Moines Marina.

Letourneau, then 34, initially told officers the boy was 18, raising suspicions that something sexual was going on.

At the police station, Fualaau and Letourneau denied there had been any “touching.” They claimed Letourneau had been babysitting the boy, and took him from her home after she and her husband had a fight.

About two months later, the evidence was undeniable: Letourneau was pregnant. 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 7 1⁄2-year prison term.

Letourneau and Fualaau married 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.

Fualaau’s mother filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit claiming the city and school district failed to protect her son. But a jury found against the family.

MARK GREENBERG/ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT AND THE INSIDER Mary Kay Letourneau and former student Vili Fualaau pose in 2005 at their home in Seattle. Letourneau died Tuesday.