True Crime with Rachel Shannon
39: They STARVED And TORTURED Infant to Death: "It's Survival of the Fittest"
Mon, 03 Feb 2025
When Seth Welch called 911 to report that his daughter had died, no one could have expected the disturbing conditions under which she would be found. 10 month old Mary Welch's emaciated body was found in a filthy crib, covered in urine and feces. From there, investigators uncovered this family's disturbing secrets: they refused to feed or care for their daughter because they believed that God chooses who lives and dies.
Chapter 1: What happened to Mary Welch?
Time and time again, we see these cases that involve parents who never should have been allowed to have children. This case involves a set of parents who had some very dangerous beliefs, which of course they pushed onto their children. Beliefs they would later use as excuses for the horrific treatment one of their children suffered.
And when you hear the details of this case, it will be up to you to determine if these misguided views are what led to this little girl's death, or was it an intentional murder from two parents who simply didn't want their child anymore? With that being said, let's get into today's case. Mary Ann Welsh was born on October 23rd, 2017 in Solon Township, Michigan to Southwesh and Tatiana Fusari.
Tatiana was originally from New York, but she ended up moving to Grand Rapids, Michigan when she was around 20 to reconnect with her mother. The plan was to live with her mother, but her mom actually ended up kicking her out shortly after she moved in, so she was kind of left to her own devices after that.
There, she attended Grand Rapids Community College to study early childhood education and development. Tatiana said that she always had dreams of opening up her own daycare someday, which really spoke to how much she loved children. While studying there, in September of 2011, she met then 20-year-old Seth Welsh.
According to Tatiana, when she first met Seth, he was charming, engaging, and flirtatious. He made her feel good and being that she was new to the area, it was nice to have someone who was interested in her. The two only went on one date before they made the decision to move in together.
Like I said, Tatiana was already down on her luck after her mother kicked her out, so it seems like this may have contributed to her decision to move in with this man so quickly. Sometime after the two moved in together, the two purchased a farm near Cedar Springs where they lived and operated their business, Black Acre Farm Products, selling produce, raw honey, maple syrup, and other items.
Around this time is when Tatiana became pregnant with their first child, a daughter. Then, by March of 2015, Tatiana and Seth got married. Two years after the birth of their daughter, the couple went on to have another child, This time, a son. Then, as I stated, in October of 2017, they had Mary.
During that time, the couple lived their lives taking care of their farm, selling their products, and raising their kids. It seemed like a really great environment for the kids to grow up in. Tatiana made the kids homemade meals, even making their own baby food purees from their produce.
Tatiana was the main caretaker for those kids, although she did continue working while doing so, but anytime she had to leave the home, let's say to go to the farmer's market, the kids went with her. They went with her everywhere. By April of 2018, the family started experiencing financial issues, so Tatiana started working second shift at McDonald's while Seth continued working on the farm.
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Chapter 2: What beliefs did Seth and Tatiana hold about parenting?
So after experiencing these issues with their first doctor, they actually decided to take their child to a different doctor. However, according to Seth, that first doctor called CPS on them for switching doctors.
All of these issues he experienced in the healthcare system really just confirmed his belief that the medical system takes advantage of people and doesn't do any actual good to the people they're supposed to help. Due to this, the couple opted to raise their three children without any medical intervention.
At one point, CPS did try and open a case against them stating that their two older children were not receiving the medical care they needed. But the case just fell through and was never really acted on. I haven't been able to find any clear sources as to why it was never acted on, just that the case was never officially opened.
From there, Tatiana and Seth continued to raise their children on the farm. But as time went on after Mary's birth, friends and family members became concerned with her physical condition. When loved ones would visit, they started to notice that Mary looked a little bit small for her age.
She looked a bit gaunt in her face, which is concerning because babies usually look chubby and have a full face. When they picked her up, they felt her spine and she looked thin with her onesie looking pretty baggy on her. Seth would go on to say that his mother would often make comments about her appearance, asking them if they're feeding her, but they assured her they were.
She was eating plenty of good food. Her appearance was obviously concerning, but Tatyana and Seth seemed not to be worried. They felt that she was getting plenty to eat and that she was just a little bit smaller than average and there was nothing wrong with that. but that was until around 10 a.m. on the morning of August 2nd, 2018.
According to Tatiana, that morning, she went into 10-month-old Mary's room to check on her, only to find that she was unresponsive in her crib. She tried picking her up to wake her up, but she would not respond. Immediately, she tried CPR to bring her back but she just wasn't responding.
According to her, she then let Seth know what happened and he immediately decided to call his lawyer to see what action he should take and then he called his parents to ask them for advice on what to do. It was almost two hours later when they finally decided to call 911 to report what happened. And let me tell you, this 911 call was disturbing, to say the least.
The call started with Tatiana explaining that Mary was cold and unresponsive and wasn't breathing. She then handed the phone to Seth, who spoke in a very calm, matter-of-fact way. Seth said that he wasn't sure if this was the right place to call. He didn't know if he should call the police or what, but he needed to report that he believed his daughter was dead.
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