A Louisiana couple who allegedly left their daughter on a couch for 12 years, surrounded by maggots and feces, until she died has been charged with murder.

Clay and Sheila Fletcher were indicted in second-degree murder by a grand jury Monday for the January death of their 36-year-old daughter, Lacey.

Lacey was found dead at their East Feliciana Parish home on Jan. 3, “melted” into the couch after sinking through the upholstery from a lack of movement, WBRZ previously reported. She weighed just 96 pounds and was covered in her own urine and feces.

A coroner said she died of “acute medical neglect.”

District Attorney Sam D’Aquilla told the Advocate that Lacey’s parents said she had Asperger’s syndrome and suffered from social anxiety she developed in high school. They claimed they cleaned her regularly, but didn’t take her for medical treatment because she wasn’t sick.

Neighbors told WBRZ they hadn’t seen Lacey in five or six years.

If convicted, the Fletchers face up to life in prison with no parole.

Source: nydailynews