In the wake of Mary Kay Letourneau’s death, many are wondering about her victim and eventual ex-husband, Vili Fualaau. On Tuesday, Letourneau died after reportedly battling Stage 4 colorectal cancer for several months. She was 58 years old at the time of her death.
Fualaau, who is now 37 years old, was reportedly with her when she died. “Evidence[d] by him coming back up here and being with her and by her side almost non stop for the last couple of months, they still obviously loved each other, and she would’ve done the same for him if he was the one who had cancer,” lawyer David Gehrke told Q13 News, of Fualaau being with Letourneau when she passed away. Scroll down to learn more about Fualaau and his relationship with Letourneau.
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Early Life
Vili Fualaau was born on June 26, 1983. He is a Samoan American, and was in both Letourneau’s second-grade and sixth-grade classes at Shorewood Elementary.
Relationship with Letourneau
In the summer of 1996, when Letourneau was 34 years old, she began a sexual relationship with Fualaau. He was around 13 years at the time. She was eventually arrested and pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree child rape. As part of a plea agreement, she was not permitted to see Fualaau when she was released.
In 1998, just two weeks after completing her jail sentence, Letourneau was found in a car with Fualaau near her home, by police. She was again arrested and imprisoned. She was eventually released from prison in 2004, and the two of them married in 2005.
Children
Fualaau is father to two children that she shared with Letourneau. She gave birth to their first child in 1997, while she was awaiting sentencing on her first arrest. The couple’s second child was born in 1995. Fualaau was 15 at the time.
Separation
In 2017, Fualaau and Letourneau split, with Fualaau reportedly having filed legal paperwork in Issaquah, Washington, to end their marriage. Neither party is reportedly asking for alimony.
For the next couple of years, there was little talk regarding their split, prompting most to speculate that they had reconciled. Then, in 2019. PEOPLE reported that the couple filed in King County Superior Court to end their marriage. The legal paperwork indicated that the pair were negotiating their separation in private arbitration.
DUI
In 2018, Faulaau got a DUI after crashing his car in Burien, Washington. According to a report from TMZ, Faulaau was driving a Mercury Mountaineer, and collided with two other vehicles that were stopped at a traffic light. He initially agreed to a field sobriety test, but Letourneau showed up and told him to stop because their lawyer was on the way.
Faulaau eventually submitted to a blood test, and it was discovered that his blood-alcohol level was at a .08, which is the minimum level for a DUI. He also reportedly had THC in his system, which police had suspected.
Letourneau’s Death
Following Letourneau’s death, Faulaau and her family issued a joint statement. They are “deeply saddened” by her death, and that she passed away “peacefully” after battling stage 4 cancer for six months. “Mary fought tirelessly against this terrible disease,” the families’ statement added. “Mary, and all of us, found great strength in having our immediate and extended family members together to join her in this arduous struggle. We did our very best to care for Mary and one another as we kept her close and stayed close together.”
The statement went on to read, “We are endlessly grateful for the care and kindness received from the amazing professionals involved in Mary’s care. “Likewise, the kindness and compassion of friends and others who learned of her condition along the way proved an uplifting gift to us all.”
Letourneau’s Death (cont.)
“It is in that spirit that we ask for privacy and respect for our desire to focus on the road ahead for all of us who make up Mary’s collective family,” The families added. “We ask that our boundaries and need for privacy be honored with continued kindness and understanding.”
The statement concluded with the families explaining that they plan to “celebrate and honor the wishes of our wife, mother, daughter, grandmother, sister, beloved family member and loyal friend and concentrate on caring for one another.”
