Where is Vili Fualaau now? Mary Kay Letourneau's ex who was 12 when she raped him was by her side when she died
Mary Kay LeTourneau, who lost her life to stage 4 cancer at 58, had a dark history. A controversial and infamous Washington teacher sentenced to more than seven years in prison for raping a 12-year-old student, she was born in 1962 in Tustin, California, to chemist mother Mary E and community college instructor father John G Schmitz.
Mary met fellow student Steve LeTourneau at Arizona State University and the two got married after which she had four children. Her first marriage was a failure with extramarital affairs from both sides. Her attorney and former neighbor, David Gehrke, told the Los Angeles Times that she was "emotionally and physically abused by her husband" during their marriage and twice "went to the hospital for treatment, and police were called".
A well-respected teacher who taught the sixth-grade students at Shorewood Elementary School in the Seattle suburb of Burien, she got involved with a 12-year-old schoolboy named Vili Fualaau in her class. In the summer of 1996, their relationship went from platonic to sexual. Their relationship was hardly a secret. If rumors are to be believed, they were once caught on school grounds.
Gregg Olsen, author of the book 'If Loving You Is Wrong' called her a "child molester". According to CBS News National, Olsen said, "A janitor caught them in the stall, in a bathroom stall at one point. Other teachers saw them kiss," and described that in a 1995 video from a school holiday party, Vili was seen in a black tank top. In a year, she was pregnant and was sentenced to two counts of felony second-degree rape of a child. However, she reached a plea agreement for six months in jail, with three months suspended, and no contact with Fualaau for life among other terms.
Talking about the scandalous affair, Olsen then said, "They released her, and of course the second she got out, she went back to him." On February 5, 1998, she was caught in a car and LeTourneau was pregnant — once again. She was told to serve seven-and-a-half years behind the bars. Eight months into the prison, she got pregnant with another child.
However, Vili didn't feel he was a victim. In an interview with Inside Edition, he said, "I'm not a victim. I'm not ashamed of being a father. I'm not ashamed of being in love with Mary Kay."
While Fualaau's identity was kept hidden earlier, he soon opened up to the press and told Washington TV station KIRO that Letourneau's pregnancy was planned. "We made a plan. The only way to keep us together was to have a baby, so that baby would remind me of her." Once their second child, Georgia, was born, he spilled the secret of their relationship in a 1999 French book 'Un suel crime, l'amour (Only One Crime, Love)'.
In May 1999, while she was imprisoned for child rape, LeTourneau divorced her husband and he gained custody of their four children. Once released from prison, she rekindled her affair with Vili — who was an adult by then. At 21, he persuaded the court to reverse the restrainment order and the pair got married in 2005. At that time, attorney Anne Bremner claimed that Letourneau considered her relationship with Fualaau to be "eternal and endless" and said, "Nothing could have kept the two of them apart."
12 years later, Fualaau filed for separation from Letourneau in 2018 but withdrew it. Even after the legal proceedings, the two were often spotted together in the Seattle area. That same year, he was reportedly arrested for drunk driving and subsequently crashed his SUV to two cars in Burian, Washington. He allegedly had a dazed expression, bloodshot eyes and slurred speech when police in Burien stopped him on February 2, according to court documents obtained by TMZ.
In 2018, he was reported to be working at a home improvement store alongside his career as a professional DJ. Meanwhile, LeTourneau started working as a legal assistant. The final separation came in 2019 after which the two divorced in August.
Where is Vili now? 24 years later, he is 37. In May 2020, rumors floated that he had begun to see things differently. "He's starting to get some perspective," a source close to Fualaau told People. "He sees things clearly now, and realizes that this wasn't a healthy relationship from the start."