The mother of the woman who was found "melted into a couch" allegedly got her daughter's age wrong during the 911 call for help.
The case of Lacey Fletcher, who was found sunken into a hole in a couch, shocked the world after her death in January 2022.
The 36-year-old's horrific death, which was deemed to be a case of "severe and chronic neglect", was so shocking that the coroner who attended deemed it the "worst" death he'd ever witnessed in his entire career.
Now, it has emerged that Lacey's mother, Shiela Fletcher, got her own daughter's age wrong when calling 911 to report that she was not breathing.
Discussing the case in a video for NewsNation, host Ashleigh Banfield revealed: "Mom also didn't know the age of her daughter and had to be asked three times on the 911 call what was the age of her daughter.
"She finally settled on 31 but Lacey was 36."
Her guest, Dr Michelle Dupree, who is a retired forensic pathologist, also explained some of the injuries on Lacey's body when she was found, which included decubitus ulcers, also known as pressure sores, some of which were so deep that bone was visible.
Dr Dupree explained: "Because she was sedentary, she was not moved, pressure builds up and it erodes the skin. It basically rots and not only did it rot the asking but it rotted all the way down to the bone. The bone was actually exposed.
"This is the worst stage, it causes sepsis, the person becomes infected and basically blood poisoning and that leads to death, and it is from neglect."
Warning: The below video contains images that some may find distressing:She revealed that the decubitus ulcers could have happened within around 10 days and the bruising that was visible on her back would have come on quite quickly due to the other issues happening with her body.
Dr Dupree revealed: "She was alive when she was filled with maggots and the bed sores, so she had a horrific death."
She added that it was "absolutely" possible that Lacey had been in that state "for months" before she eventually died.
A clip of the original 911 call was also played in which the parents, Clay and Sheila Fletcher, both 66, claimed they were doing CPR on Lacey, however, Dr Dupree believes the sounds that were heard were the couple "faking" the noise of breathing as Lacey was already dead and not in a fit state to have CPR performed on her body, which could not be moved or stretched out to facilitate the maneuver.
Lacey was also severely emaciated when she was found, weighing just 100lb, with coroner Dr Ewing Bickham, who attended the scene, claiming that no food was visible in her vicinity, barring a small bag of boiled sweets.
He told the outlet: "The only thing I saw was a small bag of hard candy, and that was it. That's the only nourishment she probably had."
Tragically, he believes that Lacey had tried to eat the foam from the cushions around her in order to survive and stave off the hunger, adding: "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."
Clay and Sheila were were arrested and indicted on second-degree murder charges following Lacey's death, for which they pleaded not guilty for the past 18 months, before pleading guilty to lesser charges of manslaughter this week.
Lacey's cause of death was ruled to be sepsis resulting from "severe chronic neglect".
