A Matter Of Hearts

Monday, May. 04, 1998 By JOHN CLOUD/SEATTLE

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Moore believes that Mary has bipolar disorder--most people know it as manic depression--an illness with a raft of possible symptoms, from irritability to hypersexuality. Moore theorizes that "psychosocial stressors" in Mary's life--the most crucial being the news of her father's cancer--tipped a disorder that had been mild and all but unnoticed into depression followed by a nervous breakdown. "I think she was very interested in this boy, and she had often extended relationships with students after school," Moore says. "But by [June 1996], she was overly elated, highly revved up and nearly delusional." Moore notes, "The father had always been the man in her life--and even the husband was for a time--but then she really began to see this boy as the man in her life."

Mary has never fully accepted Moore's diagnosis, and her friends disagree over its accuracy and importance. For their part, prosecutors think she's more evil than ill. Whatever her true state, in June 1996, she and Vili became more than close friends. He had stayed at her house many times before. Soona was working nights making pastries, and she thought the sleepovers at Mrs. Letourneau's were healthy for Vili. But he had begun writing Mary romantic poems, and at some point openly asked her to have sex. She declined at first.

Then, just after midnight on June 19, Steve and Mary were at home arguing, tossing threats and denunciations around as usual. Vili was there, but he left amid the fighting. Mary eventually followed him in the van, picked him up and drove to the marina in a suburb called Des Moines. Her van crept around the parking lot as they looked for a place to stop, and a security guard watched it run over a curb. Suspecting a drunk driver, he called the cops.

When they arrived, Officers Rich Niebusch and Bob Tschida couldn't quite figure out what they were dealing with. They shone a spotlight into the back window, and a startled Mary jumped from under the covers she and Vili were sharing and into the driver's seat. She at first lied and said her companion was 18, and Vili pretended to be asleep. But the officers questioned him and learned his age. He had just turned 13. Even as Mary tried to explain herself--there was a fight with my husband; we were just sleeping; I often watch Vili--they were concerned enough to call in a sergeant. After all, Mary was clad in a coat and T shirt but "was bare-legged below the T shirt," Tschida wrote in a report. The sergeant who arrived later reported that she was wearing a beige skirt. Regardless of this, it didn't look good, and Vili told the Globe that he and Mary had, in fact, been "close" to having sex that night.

Somehow, no one beyond the police discovered just how bad it looked. The cops called Soona, but Fualaau family lawyer Robert Huff says they spoke with her "for half a minute" before allowing Mary to tell Soona a G-rated version of the incident. "Mary's a great talker," Huff says, "and Soona calmed down." Soona then told the police it was O.K. for Vili to go home with Mary; for reasons that aren't clear, the police didn't press the issue. They never informed Mary's school, and they decided there wasn't enough evidence to file charges.