The coroner who examined Lacey Fletcher after she was found dead and "melted into the couch" has revealed the effect that her horrific death had on him.
Lacey, 36, was found dead at the home she supposedly shared with her parents, Sheila and Clay Fletcher, both 66, in Slaughter, Louisiana, in January 2022.
Both of her parents were later arrested and indicted on second-degree murder charges, but have this week pleaded no contest to a lesser charge of manslaughter.
Dr. Ewell Bickham, who was the coroner responsible for examining Lacey's body when she was found, has revealed the horror that awaited him and how it continues to have a lasting effect on him to this day.
Lacey Fletcher's death shocked the world. Credit: Handout
Dr. Bickham spoke to NewsNation about the scene he attended after being called out to examine Lacey, finding her emaciated and sunken into the couch she had clearly been on for a long time.
He explained: "When I walked in, the house smelled of a stench of, it smelled like a sewer, or septic tank and also a smell of death. I've never smelled that in my life.
"I've dealt with decomposed bodies. I've dealt with all sorts of death, degradation, whatever, never experienced this in all of my career."
The coroner had to choke back tears in the middle of the filmed interview as he admitted: "I've never seen a homicide like this. I have never seen an individual, a human being, literally tortured and allowed to die while she is alive.
"I've never seen that my life. I've seen decomposed bodies of someone that drowns and you find the body a week later.
"That's one thing and they're decomposed. Lacey did not decompose. She rotted in her own body, in that hole in that sewer, in the couch."
He admitted that the scene was so horrific that he could not eat nor stop crying for a week after seeing what had been done to Lacey in the lead-up to her death, adding: "It still bothers me today."
He revealed that when he entered the home, Lacey's father appeared to be "emotionless" while her mother had her "head between her knees" and he "saw a tear or two", but did not "stop to socialize" with Clay or Sheila but went straight in to see Lacey.
Dr. Bickham revealed that the only food he saw near Lacey was some sweets, explaining: "The only thing I saw the small bag of hard candy, and that was it. That's the only nourishment she probably had.
"I'll just be not trying to be too graphic, but in her stomach, she had the yellow foam from the sofa, and feces. So you take it from there."
He added that he didn't believe that her parents had been staying at the home with her at the time of her death because there is no way anybody would have been able to "stand the stench" that was coming from the room she was in.
It comes after Clay and Sheila finally changed their plea from pleading not guilty to second-degree murder for the past 18 months to pleading guilty to manslaughter on Monday.
Sheila's lawyer, Steven Moore, said outside the courtroom following the hearing: "They loved their daughter to death," adding that the parents are "completely remorseful" about her death, according to the Daily Mail.
Moore maintained that the Fletchers had never intended to harm their daughter, adding: "They were negligent, yes.
"It is clear they were negligent. They loved her to death, that is the true statement with the Fletchers. They loved their daughter to death.
"When you look back at it, you wonder, why? How could this happen? It did happen. But at no point did Sheila or Clay Fletcher ever have a single intent to harm their daughter. They loved their daughter to a fault."
He also referenced Lacey reportedly having autism, adding: "Anyone with handicapped children can tell you those things can happen.
"This is an extreme example of how that happens. They have taken responsibility. Now they look back they can't believe they got to the position they're in."
Moore admitted: "The things that happened to Lacey are horrible. But they cared for her daily. Sheila Fletcher would come home at lunch every day to care and eat lunch with her daughter every single day. She slept on the couch, with her daughter every night."
He added that the couple's life "revolved around Lacey" and that they were "blinded by her handicap" which led to her tragic end.
Heartbreakingly, it was revealed that Lacey had such bad bedsores when she was found that bone was visible, and documents also revealed that her body had been infested with maggots while she was still alive.
In her early life she had attended Brownsville Baptist Academy where she was on the volleyball team, but was homeschooled after ninth grade.
Her mother had taken her to a psychologist when she was 14, claiming she suffered from "severe social anxiety" and shared information from another psychologist that "Lacey had a below average IQ and suffered from autism."
She had attended 12 sessions between 2000 and 2002, and her parents had returned to report in 2010 that Lacey was "refusing to leave the house and in fact had begun to refuse to leave the living room of the house".
Neighbors of the Fletchers revealed in 2022 that they hadn't seen Lacey for 15 despite remembering her being "just a normal fun kid" before she vanished.
Her cause of death was ruled to be sepsis caused by "severe chronic neglect".
