Natural Selection: How Religious Extremism Killed Mary Anne Welch
10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories
Joe
4.9 • 638 Ratings
🗓️ 8 January 2026
⏱️ 15 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On August 2, 2018, ten-month-old Mary Anne Welch died of starvation in Solon Township, Michigan. Her parents, Seth Welch and Tatiana Fusari, were convicted of felony murder and first-degree child abuse after investigators discovered the infant weighed only eight pounds at death. The homicide investigation revealed a disturbing pattern of deliberate medical neglect, religious extremism, and a 90-minute delay before calling 911 while Seth consulted his lawyer.
This is the story of a baby who starved to death in plain sight. Seth Welch believed in "natural selection" and called doctors the "priesthood of the medical cult." He recorded videos explaining why weak children should die off. Tatiana worked at McDonald's but claimed she was too terrified of her husband to seek help. Their farmhouse was covered in religious signs warning the world to stay away, while inside, Mary Anne's body slowly consumed itself trying to survive. When Seth finally called 911, he told the dispatcher his daughter was "dead as a doornail" and admitted he'd called his attorney first. The autopsy revealed she'd been starving for months. The question isn't whether they killed her. It's how they justified watching it happen.
#MaryAnneWelch #SethWelch #TatianaFusari #SolonTownship #TrueCrime #ChildAbuse #Filicide
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In August 2018, a father in Michigan dialed 911 to report his 10-month-old daughter was dead. |
| 0:10.5 | But before he made that call, he did something else first. |
| 0:14.1 | He called his lawyer. |
| 0:15.5 | And then he texted someone about selling a goat. |
| 0:18.8 | When the dispatcher asked if he thought the baby could be saved, |
| 0:21.7 | he said, quote, oh yeah, she was dead as a doornail. This is the story of Mary Ann Welsh, |
| 0:28.3 | and how ideology became more important than a baby's life. |
| 0:32.3 | ... There's this 911 call from August 2018 that's going to tell you everything you need to know about this case. |
| 1:01.9 | A guy named Seth Welch calls from his home in Salon Township, Michigan, near Grand Rapids. |
| 1:08.2 | He tells the dispatcher that one of his children is dead, not, my baby isn't |
| 1:13.1 | breathing or please help me. He says he needs to report this, like he's calling about a downed |
| 1:19.1 | power line. The dispatcher asks when he found the child. Around 10 that morning, he said. She's confused |
| 1:26.3 | because it's now past noon. |
| 1:28.9 | So she asks, you found the child an hour and a half ago and you called your lawyer first? |
| 1:34.7 | Yes, Seth Welch says. |
| 1:37.6 | Then she asks if he thinks the baby is beyond help. |
| 1:41.1 | He says, oh yeah, she was dead as a doorknail. |
| 1:47.7 | Dead as a doornail. That's how he described his 10-month-old daughter, Mary Ann. Seth Welch and his girlfriend, Tantiana Fusari, |
| 1:54.1 | lived on a property they called a farm in Salon Township. The outside of their house was covered |
| 2:00.4 | with massive hand-painted plywood signs. |
| 2:03.6 | Bible verses, warnings about judgment, religious declarations. |
| 2:07.9 | It looked like they were trying to keep the world out, marking their territory as sacred ground. |
... |
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