Natural Selection: How Religious Extremism Killed Mary Anne Welch

In August 2018, a father in Michigan called 911 to report his ten-month-old daughter was dead. But before he made that call, he did something else first. He called his lawyer. And he texted someone about selling a goat. When the dispatcher asked if he thought the baby could be saved, he said, "Oh yeah, she was dead as a doornail." This is the story of Mary Anne Welch, and how ideology became more important than a baby's life.

The 911 Call That Revealed Everything

There's this 911 call from August 2018 that's going to tell you everything you need to know about this case.

A guy named Seth Welch calls from his home in Solon Township, Michigan, near Grand Rapids. He tells the dispatcher that one of his children is dead. Not "my baby isn't breathing" or "please help." He says he needs to "report this" like he's calling about a downed power line.

The dispatcher asks when he found the child. Around 10 that morning, he says. She's confused because it's now past noon. So she asks: "You found the child an hour and a half ago and you called your lawyer first?"

Seth Welch says, "Yes."

Then she asks if he thinks the baby is beyond help. He says, "Oh yeah. She was dead as a doornail."

Dead as a doornail. That's how he described his ten-month-old daughter, Mary Anne.

A Fortress of Religious Extremism

Seth Welch and his girlfriend Tatiana Fusari lived on a property they called a farm in Solon Township. The outside of their house was covered with massive hand-painted plywood signs. Bible verses, warnings about judgment, religious declarations. It looked like they were trying to keep the world out, marking their territory as sacred ground.

When law enforcement got inside, they called it a house of horrors. Mold everywhere, insects, vermin living in the walls. The conditions were terrible. Here's the thing about Seth Welch though. He didn't care about the physical world. The house could be rotting, his kids could be living in filth. None of that mattered as long as his ideology stayed pure.

Seth worked on the farm. Tatiana had a job at McDonald's. They had multiple children together, and their first encounter with Child Protective Services happened in 2014 when their oldest tested positive for THC at birth.

That CPS involvement cemented everything Seth believed about the government being his enemy. He saw himself as the head of an autonomous family unit that didn't answer to the state or doctors or anyone. He'd post videos on Facebook staring into the camera explaining his worldview. In one, he titled himself "Seth Welch, A Mind Reader Generated by Christ."

The Philosophy of Natural Selection

The centerpiece of his belief system was natural selection. Seth believed that weak people, especially weak children, should be allowed to die off. That it was nature's way, God's way, of making sure only the strong survived. He said this openly, on camera. The weak die off and that's how it's supposed to be.

And modern medicine? He called doctors "the priesthood of the medical cult." Taking your sick child to a doctor wasn't just unnecessary. It was bowing down to worship a false god.

Eight Pounds at Ten Months Old

Mary Anne Welch was born October 23, 2017, weighing about 6.75 pounds. By August 2, 2018, when she died at ten months old, she weighed eight pounds.

A typical ten-month-old baby girl weighs between 18 and 20 pounds. Mary Anne weighed eight. In ten months of life, she'd gained a pound and a quarter. She was still the size of a newborn.

This was starvation, active and prolonged.

What the Autopsy Revealed

The autopsy told a horrible story. Her thymus gland, which is part of your immune system, had completely shrunk. When someone is starving over a long period, the body starts breaking down its own organs to survive. A shrunken thymus means this had been going on for weeks or months.

Her bone marrow had stopped functioning. That's what makes your blood cells, and when you're in late-stage starvation, your body runs out of resources. The medical examiner said her bone marrow couldn't produce white or red blood cells anymore.

The doctor who examined Mary Anne said she looked like a "hundred-year-old baby." Her skin was wrinkled and dried out. When you touched it, it stayed tented up instead of bouncing back because there was no moisture in her tissues. Her eyes and cheeks had sunken deep into her head. The medical examiner testified that any adult who looked at this child would immediately know something was catastrophically wrong.

Mary Anne slowly died over months while both parents watched.

They Knew and Did Nothing

During police interviews, both Seth and Tatiana admitted they'd noticed she was skinny. They'd been aware for at least a month before her death.

But they never took her to a doctor. When investigators asked why, they gave three reasons. Fear of Child Protective Services taking their other children. No faith in medical services. And religious reasons.

Seth's "religious reasons" meant his natural selection philosophy. If Mary Anne was meant to survive, she would. If she was weak, nature needed to take its course. Taking her to a doctor would mean admitting his belief system was flawed, that maybe medicine had value, that maybe the government protecting children had merit.

His ideology mattered more than his daughter's life. After Mary Anne died, Seth told investigators her death was "natural selection" and he wasn't "losing sleep" over it. He talked about it like an interesting philosophical concept instead of the death of his child.

Nineteen Hours in a Crib

On August 1, 2018, around three in the afternoon, Seth and Tatiana put Mary Anne in her crib. That was the last time they saw her alive.

They didn't check on her for 19 hours. When they walked into her room at ten the next morning, she was dead.

Seth Welch called his lawyer. He wanted legal advice. The lawyer told him to wait until they arrived before contacting police.

Ninety Minutes of Delay

While he waited those 90 minutes, he called his parents. And then, while his daughter's body was in the next room, he texted someone about selling a goat. He was conducting livestock business.

Investigators found he also Googled something about why a rapper had been kidnapped. He was browsing celebrity news while Mary Anne's body was cooling in her crib.

An hour and a half passed before he called 911. His priority was protecting himself legally.

When officers arrived, the condition of Mary Anne's body made it obvious something terrible had been happening for a long time. Her crib was torn and soaked with urine. The house was filthy, falling apart, neglected.

Two Different Stories About the Same Crime

Both Seth and Tatiana talked to detectives. They both confirmed they'd known Mary Anne looked skinny and underweight for at least a month. They both explained their reasons: fear of CPS, distrust of doctors, religious beliefs.

Seth repeated his natural selection talking points, explaining how the weak die off. He showed absolutely no emotion. Investigators and the judge commented on how disturbingly calm he was.

Tatiana Fusari's Defense

Tatiana's role is more complicated. She was Mary Anne's mother. She was there. She saw everything. She admitted she'd noticed the baby looked skinny.

Her defense was that Seth had complete control through violence. She testified he physically and sexually abused her. He would rape her and beat her with wood when she broke his rules. She'd internalized his reality so deeply that when he said Mary Anne was naturally slim, she forced herself to believe him.

People who knew Tatiana before Seth said she completely changed. She went from outgoing to withdrawn and submissive.

Her lawyer argued she was a battered woman acting under duress.

The Prosecution's Counterargument

The prosecution pointed to one fact. Tatiana worked at McDonald's. Every shift, she was in public, away from Seth's supervision. She could have told a coworker. Called 911 from the restaurant. Driven Mary Anne to a hospital. Slipped someone a note.

She had regular opportunities to save her daughter and didn't use them. The prosecution argued that even if the abuse was true, even if she was terrified, she had a duty to protect her child. When you have windows of freedom and don't take them, you're participating.

Tatiana's story also changed. She told investigators she didn't notice Mary Anne was unhealthy, contradicting her admission that she'd known the baby was skinny for a month.

The jury didn't believe the duress defense. In October 2021, they found her guilty of felony murder and first-degree child abuse.

Seth Welch Goes to Trial

Seth Welch's trial happened first, in January 2020. His defense attorney argued Seth and Tatiana were simply inept, too consumed by religious beliefs to understand what was happening.

The prosecution played the 911 call. They showed Seth's Facebook videos explaining his natural selection philosophy. They presented autopsy photographs of an eight-pound baby who should have weighed twice that.

The prosecutor said, "He knew she was going to die, and he was waiting for it. That's why they call their attorney first."

The jury found Seth Welch guilty on every count. Life in prison without parole.

Tatiana was also convicted and received life without parole.

Ideology Over Life

This case is driven by ideology rather than impulse. Seth and Tatiana didn't kill Mary Anne in rage or violence. They killed her slowly, over months, while justifying it through a twisted belief system.

Seth Welch had constructed a reality where he was essentially God of his household. He decided what was true, what was right, who lived and who died. He wrapped it in religious language, but underneath was extreme narcissism and obsession with control. Being right mattered more than his daughter's life.

Those signs on the house, the Facebook videos, the refusal to engage with the outside world… it was all about maintaining this fortress of ideology. And Mary Anne died trapped inside, invisible to everyone who might have helped.

The Evidence They Couldn't Explain

Investigators found empty baby food jars in the house. The defense tried using that as proof they were feeding her. But it means there was food in the house. They were eating. And their baby was starving right in front of them.

The medical evidence doesn't leave room for doubt. That shrunken thymus, the bone marrow that stopped working, the dehydrated skin… those conditions take months to develop. This was watching your child waste away bit by bit and deciding your beliefs were more important than picking up a phone.

Mary Anne Welch lived for ten months. She spent nearly her entire life starving to death. Her parents will spend the rest of their lives in prison. Seth Welch told investigators he wasn't losing any sleep over what happened.

The rest of us probably won't be so lucky.