The Misery Machine - The Case of Mary Anne Welch

Starting point is 00:00:00 Mary Ann Welch was born on October 23rd, 2017 to parent Seth Welch in Tatiana Fusari of Salon Township, Michigan. She weighed six pounds and 14 ounces at birth, which took place at home. The couple already had two children, a two-year-old son named John and a four-year-old daughter named Elizabeth. Pictures of Mary show her dressed in pretty pink outfits cuddling a tabby cat. According to her mother, Mary was a normal baby who was able to push up with her arm and look around during tummy time on her play mat. She'd lift her head up and watch her older siblings playing or would roll over on her back to reach for the rainbow toys dangling over her head,

Starting point is 00:00:40 giggling and happy. She also had a polar bear stuffy that she liked to play with before bed. Tatiana was a native New Yorker who moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, to reconnect with her mother. So that proved to be in vain when her mother kicked her out. She was studying early childhood development at Grand Rapids Community College and had hopes of starting her own daycare. It was there that she met Seth Welch in September of 2011.

Starting point is 00:01:05 According to Tatiana, he was charming, engaging, flirtatious. I was new, I didn't know anybody, so it was nice to have someone engage me. They moved in together after one date, but according to Tatiana, Seth became demanding and controlling early on in their relationship. Despite this, the couple were married in March of 2015. After she became pregnant with their first child, Elizabeth, the couple bought, a farm together near Cedar Springs and Salon Township. There they ran Black Acre Farm Products later renamed stewards of creation, selling honey, maple syrup, and homegrown fruits and

Starting point is 00:01:39 vegetables, which they also used to feed their family. Eventually they had their second child named John. Seth and Tatiana were deeply religious and had hand-painted signs nailed to fences and trees surrounding their farm, with saying such as, repent, believe, obey. God knows what you need before you ask him, and every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess to God. Seth often posted pictures of these signs on his Facebook page, along with picture after picture of highlighted verses in his Bible. He also liked to go on rants. He's going to do whatever we got to do.

Starting point is 00:02:14 Welch has also posted more than 100 hours of video on his Facebook page. This doesn't fit in with my worldly brain. His Facebook page is filled with bizarre rants against government, the Harry Potter series, Disney characters. He also reads from the Bible. I'd like to start with the scriptures. The couple chose to homeschool their children and were deeply suspicious of the medical system. Only their oldest child Elizabeth had ever been to a medical doctor.

Starting point is 00:02:42 The couple were reported to CPS in 2014 because THC was found in Elizabeth's system when she was born. They also refused to use a cranial molding helmet for Elizabeth as recommended by their doctor. Seth later claimed that doctors forged documents against him in order to make a bogus CPS claim and said that all Elizabeth had was a cough. This seemed to be a part of a pattern Seth had for mistrusting medical professionals. He claimed that CPS was called on him just for changing physicians, so at that point he was done with medical doctors in his own words. Tatiana only had home births after that, which Seth bragged about, saying that gravity just shoots the baby right down, and that they have a midwife come in to do the dirty work that

Starting point is 00:03:26 anybody could do. These were his words. Regarding Seth's viewpoints on vaccines, he stated, quote, it didn't seem smart that you would be saving people who weren't the fittest. If evolution believes in survival of the fittest, why are we vaccinating everybody? Shouldn't we just let the weak die off and let the strong survive? End quote. Unfortunately, the controlling behavior that Seth exhibited earlier in their relationship only worsened. According to Tatiana, Seth was an aggressive and abusive husband who once pointed an AK-47 at her head and nearly shot her when he accidentally fired the gun. She claimed he essayed her, beat her, and threatened to kill her if she ever cheated on him.

Starting point is 00:04:07 While she was pregnant with her youngest child, Seth tried to perform an exorcism on her, smacking her between the shoulders with an open hand, reading Bible verses aloud, saying, be gone. In April of 2018, Tatiana began working a second shift at McDonald's, so Seth was in charge of caring for their three children and tending to the farm. Little did she know, just a few months later, tragedy would strike on their farm. On August 2nd, 2018, Seth called 911 to report that they had found 10-month-old Mary dead in her crib. His voice had no sense of urgency, as he said, I don't know if this is the right place to report this to. One of my children is dead. The dispatcher asked how long ago he had found the child,

Starting point is 00:04:54 to which Seth responded, it had been about an hour and a half, which was not true at all. It was later determined that Mary had been dead for more than two hours. He told the dispatcher that he had called his lawyer first thing to ask what he should do, and then called the police while waiting for his legal counsel to arrive. It should be noted that his lawyer was his own father. The dispatcher reiterated that Seth had found the child an hour and a half, before and had called his lawyer first before calling 911, which Seth confirmed.

Starting point is 00:05:24 The dispatcher asked him, when was the last time he had contact with his child? And Seth told them it had been the day before at about 3 p.m. where he put her to bed. He said that around 10 a.m. the next morning, he decided to go check on her because it had been way too long. Knowing that this was utterly ridiculous, the dispatcher asked Seth if it was normal for his children to sleep from 3 p.m. to 10 a.m. the following day. The dispatcher then asked Seth if he thought the child was beyond help when he found her, and he replied, Oh yeah, she was dead as a doorknob.

Starting point is 00:05:57 When a dispatcher asked how Seth was holding up, he said, you know, just another day. It is what it is. Tatiana had apparently attempted to resuscitate the child after they woke up to find her dead, and she told the dispatcher during the call that Mary was cold and not breathing. The dispatcher in question was a total rock star. And asking probing questions during the 911 call, he was actually able to make a case against Seth in the future. We have some of the clips of that call, which we will share with you now. How long ago did you find this jail?

Starting point is 00:06:47 Basically, you got the place. The sheriff's deputies responded to the family's home on Algoma Avenue, where Mary was pronounced dead at the scene. At the time, it was unclear what had led to the baby's death. Seth was cooperative with police and was willing to let them search the home, but they declined in order to wait for search warrant. What investigators did find once they searched the home was appalling. At the time of Mary's death, the house was filthy, buzzing with flies and mouse feces throughout the home. Mary's crib mattress was torn, stained, and the back was covered in mold. There were packages of food in the kitchen, but limited baby food. Three containers of baby formula were found in the home, two of which

Starting point is 00:09:54 were expired. Like he did with most things, Seth took to Facebook to announce the death of his child. He said, quote, heart is about shattered right now. Woke up to find Mary dead in her bed this morning. This evening had our children removed and placed on a no contact because Taddy and I are the worst parents ever, end quote. During his initial police interview, Seth looked bored and impatient while waiting in the interrogation room. He showed absolutely no sign of grieving his daughter.

Starting point is 00:10:25 But instead, he slouched in his chair, paced absently around the room and spent long minutes examining, picking, and nibbling at his fingernails. At another point, he seemed to scratch his legs, and then his groin, then sniffed his fingers and chuckled to himself before resuming his bored nail nibbling. He also spent a lot of time playing on his phone. When investigators finally came into interview Seth, he spent the initial portion complaining about his history with medical doctors treating him and Tatiana unfairly. When asked about when he had noticed that Mary was thin, he casually said that she had been thin since she came out. When asked about food, he said that he would feed Mary tons of solid food. At dinner, he would give her three or four

Starting point is 00:11:08 Gerber containers. According to Seth, she'd just wolfed them right down, no problem. He said she'd begun to get solid food around April because Tatiana was pregnant again. The first time Seth showed a hint of emotion during his interrogation was when he said they noticed Mary's sleeping longer and longer in the weeks before her death, sometimes 15 to 16 hours straight. And that's why he didn't think anything of it on the morning of her death. He went on to say that there was never a time when he thought there was really anything wrong. He woke up around 8 a.m. that morning, did some chores, and then went back to bed. Tatiana had gone to the neighbor's house before coming back and finally checking on Mary. She found Mary and called to Seth, who came and saw that Mary

Starting point is 00:11:48 was dead. With a shrug, he said to investigators, that was that. In police interviews, Tatiana claimed that she had fed Mary at about 2.30 p.m. on August 1st, before she went to work for her 3 to 11 p.m. shift at McDonald's. Seth was responsible for watching the children in the evening and overnight. During his initial interviews, Seth claimed to have fed Mary that evening before he went back to sleep and that Tatiana would breastfeed her at night. However, investigators determined that Mary had not been given food, water, or had her diaper change during the time before her death. Tatiana claimed that when she got home from work around 11.30 that night, she looked through a hole in the door at Mary's bedroom to check for movement, but otherwise did not attend to Mary.

Starting point is 00:13:01 After that, neither parent checked on Mary until late the next morning when Tatiana found her dead body. During interviews with investigators, Tatiana admitted that Mary was thin for her age, but they weren't concerned because her older sister Elizabeth had also been petite. Mary was just going through a gross spurt in her eyes. Seth said of Mary's thinness, it's something that we watched, but I just didn't let it get to me. He said they might have been concerned if she was sickly in any way, but she was always just skinny, in his words. Tatiana said that Mary was breastfed and beginning to eat solid foods and described how she would make a nutritious meal for Mary with fruits from the garden blended with breast milk. The investigator asked, when you look at her size and you can see every bone in her, her body, do you think she was healthy? Tatiana looked upset and didn't answer until they asked

Starting point is 00:13:55 when Mary had lost that weight. Then she mumbled that it had been just the past two days. The investigator replied that he had never seen a child that skinny and asked again at what point did Tatiana notice that something was wrong? What stopped them from seeking help? Tatiana struggled to answer, but then said they've been praying about it heavily in the past three or four days for Mary to gain weight. She said that she and Seth were very faithful and trusted that God would make it okay. They didn't think they needed to bring Mary to a doctor. She pushed down any personal misgivings as being a lessening of her faith and thought she was being doubtful of Christ. The investigator pressed, do you guys think

Starting point is 00:14:37 that God doesn't want us to use doctors? She replied no, and agreed that God puts people in place to help, including doctors. The investigator said, two days ago, I could have looked at this child and said she has just hours to live. At what point in this illness did you think that she could die? Tatiana said that she did think that Mary could die, but she was delusional. She said, I suppose I don't have a good reason for you. I'm sorry. Despite her degree in early childhood development, Tatiana later testified that she didn't notice that Mary was unhealthy and didn't know why she had died. I know I'm sure this was addressed so what are some of the things they told you to look out for if you did have a student that came to school and had failure to thrive?

Starting point is 00:15:30 Not eating. What physical characteristics? Fin, bones. Shunken in cheeks. Ribs showing. Thin arms. Do those things in your own child. So you know that you can call 911, right? Yes. So then why not call 911 immediately when your child's not moving? That's what I don't understand. My little girl, I'm sorry I don't have an answer for you. I was just so... Never could imagine that could happen.

Starting point is 00:16:17 After Tatia on his interview, Seth joined her in the interrogation room where they held hands. She was visibly upset, but he seemed almost nonchalant. At one point, he shrugged and said sarcastically, because we're such bad parents. She told him that the cops focused on why it took them so long to call 911 after finding Mary dead. And he replied, I told you like six times. I was waiting for the lawyer because I knew this would happen.

Starting point is 00:16:44 It's their job to fill cells. It's their job so they can fill two cells right now. Tatiana then asked, What are we going to do? Seth looked at his fingernail some more and said, we'll go home and get really baked. And then I'd like to not talk any more about it today. Seth and Tatiana eventually admitted to police that they had noticed that Mary was skinny and

Starting point is 00:17:04 underweight as early as a month before her death, but did not seek medical attention because they were worried that their children would be taken away from them. Their distrust in medical doctors also seemed to have played a part in their lack of action. When the officer in Seth's initial interview said that he could see all of Mary's bones and asked if that wasn't an alarm for them, Seth replied that he doesn't trust the medical system. He said, I know how they work, and I know how they're in business and healthy people don't make them any money. He said he'd never encountered a health problem that didn't work itself out if they were patient. In a Facebook rant posted two weeks before Mary died, Seth described doctors as skillful magicians and experts in charm.

Starting point is 00:17:48 In another post he called them the priests of the medical cult. His rant continued, The righteous shall live by faith. It's God who is sovereign over disease and those sorts of things, course, untimely deaths. Seth later said to news reporters, in the Bible it says good food is our medicine, so we fed her. We were feeding her chicken, potatoes, apples, cheese. We were giving her the good stuff. She died. It's a tragedy. The Lord giveth. The Lord taketh. However, there was no proof that they were feeding any of this food that he mentioned. An autopsy revealed that Mary had died of malnutrition and dehydration, and the death was ruled a homicide. Quite strange when they're claiming she's eating chicken and apples and things of that nature.

Starting point is 00:18:33 The medical examiner found that Mary's muscles had wasted away. She was in a state of chronic malnutrition. She was described as having sunken eyes and looked like a 100-year-old baby. That was the coroner's response. The examiner said that she couldn't crawl or lift her head. It would have taken weeks for her to get to that state. At the time of her death, 10-month-old Mary weighed only 8 pounds, just 1 pound and 2 ounces more than she was at her birth.

Starting point is 00:19:00 birth. Seth Welch and Tatiana Fusari were arrested and held without bond before being charged with felony homicide and first-degree CA. After their arrest, the couple's two other children were placed in the care of Seth's parents, and a petition was filed to terminate parental rights. Both Seth and Tatiana seemed to be baffled by their arrest. When the charge of first-degree homicide was read to them during their first court appearance, Tatiana began weeping and Seth looked absolutely astonished. His mouth falling open in outrage when he heard that he would be facing life in prison without the possibility of parole. During Seth's trial, Assistant Kent County prosecutor Kimberly Richardson described Mary's death as nothing short of torture. Holding a picture

Starting point is 00:19:44 of Mary's starved body, she said, what injury did she have? Her whole body was an injury. Her entire body was injured. Look at this poor little thing. She had no muscle, none. Her muscles were atrophied. her body ate itself. Prosecutors suggested that Mary's father allowed the child to die because he considered her too small and weak to help on the farm he was planning in what he described as natural selection. Prosecutors also told the jury that Seth had requested medical attention for himself while he was in prison.

Starting point is 00:20:15 So his professed fear of medicine was not genuine. From jail, Seth granted news station W-O-O-D-TV 8 an exclusive interview. I believe I'm being unfairly charged and being made an example of for my very strong faith. Getting Seth Welch to share his story publicly took no convincing. You go ahead and record it, sir. We asked questions and he answered. So are you saying that you had no idea before this that something was wrong with Mary? No, she was a skinny girl.

Starting point is 00:20:50 I was very shocked and I went to my cell and I cried and I cried. And I laid down flat on my face and I just cried out in prayer. I could tell from looking at Mary, I could tell because her skin was gray. Her cheeks looked sunken like they weren't when we put her to bed. I knew she was dead. It's dangerous to take your kid to the doctor's office these days. She just died, sir. And we provided everything for her and we have all the evidence to prove it.

Starting point is 00:21:23 In June of 2020, Seth Welch was convicted in a jury trial, a first-degree homicide, and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He is currently imprisoned at the McComb Correctional Facility in Lennox Township, Michigan. Ladies and gentlemen, of the jury, I've been informed that you have reached a verdict. If so, would your foreperson please rise? Have you, in fact, reached a verdict? Would you kindly hand the verdict form? Let me ask, is it signed? All right, very much. On the count of felony murder, count one, guilty of felony murder as charged.

Starting point is 00:22:15 On count two, guilty of first degree child abuse as charged, and consistent with the instructions that the jury was given, there are no other boxes that are marked. Ladies and gentlemen, the jury I'm going to ask if all of you collectively would please listen carefully to me. I'm going to ask you to respond out loud collectively to my next question. Was this and is this your verdict? Yes. All right. In 2021, Tatiana was also convicted a first-degree homicide incensed to life without parole.

Starting point is 00:22:50 She received an additional 15 to 30 years for first-degree CA, despite her claims during the trial that Seth's abuse against her was the reason she didn't seek medical attention for her baby. She's currently imprisoned at the woman's Huron Valley Correctional Facility. The felony murder again, the statute requires what I sense was sorry to life without the possibility of all. While awaiting trial, Tatyana gave birth to a fourth child in jail. Her two older children remains in the care of their grandparents, but the new baby boy was placed in a separate foster home. Therapists recommended that the new baby not have any contact with his older siblings, but that decision remains to be determined.

Starting point is 00:23:31 Mary Ann Welch's emaciated little body was cremated, and she only had a plain granite plaque on her gravesite. It simply says Marianne Welch, October 23, 2017 to August 2nd, 2018. She had no obituary, and as she was just a baby, not much is known about anything she might have grown up to enjoy. Let's just hope that Mary's in a better place, free of pain, with the full belly and caretakers that love her. Thank you.

The Misery Machine - The Case of Mary Anne Welch

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