Natural Selection: How Religious Extremism Killed Mary Anne Welch

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In August 2018, a father in Michigan dialed 911 to report his 10-month-old daughter was dead.

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But before he made that call, he did something else first.

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He called his lawyer, and then he texted someone about selling a goat.

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When the dispatcher asked if he thought the baby could be saved, he said, quote, "Oh yeah,

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she was dead as a doer now."

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This is the story of Mary Ann Welsh, and how ideology became more important than a baby's

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life.

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Here's this 911 call from August 2018 that's going to tell you everything you need to know

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about this case.

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A guy named Seth Welch calls from his home in Salentownship, Michigan near Grand Rapids.

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He tells the dispatcher that one of his children is dead.

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"Not, my baby isn't breathing or please help me."

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He says he needs to report this, like he's calling about a downed power line.

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The dispatcher asks when he found the child.

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Around 10 that morning, he said, "She's confused because it's now past noon."

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So she asks, "You found the child an hour and a half ago and you called your lawyer first?"

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"Yes," Seth Welch says.

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Then she asks if he thinks the baby is beyond help.

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He says, "Oh yeah, she was dead as a doer now."

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Dead as a doer now.

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That's how he described his 10-month-old daughter, Mary Ann.

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Seth Welch and his girlfriend, Tantiana Fusari, lived on a property they called a farm in Salentownship.

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The outside of their house was covered with massive hand-painted plywood signs.

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Bible verses, warnings about judgment, religious declarations.

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It looked like they were trying to keep the world out, marking their territory as sacred ground.

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When law enforcement got inside, they called it a house of horrors, mold everywhere, insects,

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vermin living in the walls.

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The conditions of the home were terrible.

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Here's the thing about Seth Welch, though.

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He didn't care about the physical world.

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The house could be rotting.

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His kids could be living in filth.

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None of that mattered as long as his ideology stayed pure.

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Seth worked on the farm.

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Tantiana had a job at McDonald's.

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They had multiple children together and their first encounter with child-productive services

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happened in 2014 when their oldest child tested positive for THC at birth.

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That CPS involvement cemented everything Seth believed about the government being his

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enemy.

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He saw himself as the head of an autonomous family unit that didn't answer to the state or doctors

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or anyone.

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He'd post videos on Facebook staring into the camera explaining his worldview.

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From one, he titled himself Seth Welch, a mine reader generated by Christ.

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The centerpiece of his belief system was natural selection.

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Seth believed that weak people, especially weak children, should be allowed to die off.

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That it was nature's way, God's way, of making sure only the strong survive.

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He said this all openly on camera.

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The weak die off.

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That's how it's supposed to be.

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Modern medicine, he called doctors the priesthood of the medical cult.

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Taking your sick child to a doctor wasn't just unnecessary.

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It was bowing down to worship of false God.

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Mary Ann Welch was born October 23rd, 2017, weighing about 6 pounds 7 ounces.

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By August 2nd, 2018, when she died at 10 months, she weighed 8 pounds.

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A typical 10 month old baby girl weighs between 18 and 20 pounds.

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Mary Ann weighed 8.

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In 10 months of life, she'd gained a pound and a quarter.

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She was still the size of a newborn.

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This was starvation, active and prolonged.

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The autopsy told a horrible story.

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Her thymus gland, which is part of your immune system, had completely shrunk.

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When someone is starving for over a long period of time, the body starts breaking down

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its own organs in order to survive.

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A shrunken thymus means that this had been going on for weeks or even months.

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Her bone marrow had stopped functioning.

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That's what makes your blood cells, and when you're in late-stage starvation, your body

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runs out of resources.

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The medical examiner said her bone marrow couldn't produce white or red blood cells anymore.

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The doctor who examined the baby said that she looked like a hundred year old baby.

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Her skin was wrinkled and dried out.

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When you touched it, it stayed tinted up instead of bouncing back, because there was no moisture

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in her tissues.

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Her eyes and cheeks had sunken deep into her head.

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The medical examiner testified that any adult who looked at this child would immediately

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know something was catastrophically wrong.

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Mary Ann died slowly over months while both parents watched.

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During police interviews, both Seth and Tatiana admitted they'd noticed she was skinny.

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They'd been aware for at least a month before her death, but they never took her to a doctor.

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When investigators asked them why, they gave three reasons.

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First, fear of child protective services taking their other children.

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Second, no faith in medical services.

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And third, religious reasons.

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Seth's air quotes "religious reasons" meant his natural selection philosophy.

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If Mary Ann was meant to survive, she would.

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If she was weak, nature needed to take its course.

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Taking her to a doctor would mean admitting his belief system was flawed, that maybe medicine

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had value, that maybe the government protecting children had merit.

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His ideology mattered more than his own daughter's life.

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After Mary Ann died, Seth told investigators her death was "natural selection," and that

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he wasn't losing sleep over it.

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He talked about it like it was an interesting philosophical concept instead of the death

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of his own child.

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On August 1st, 2018, around three in the afternoon, Seth and Tatiana put Mary Ann in her crib.

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That was the last time they saw her alive.

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They didn't check on her for 19 hours.

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When they walked into her room at 10 a.m. the next morning, she was dead.

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Seth Welch then called his lawyer.

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He wanted legal advice.

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The jackass lawyer told him to wait until they arrived before contacting the police.

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While he waited those 90 minutes, he called his parents.

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And then, while his daughter's body was in the next room, he texted someone about selling

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a goat.

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He was conducting livestock business.

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Investigators also found that he googled something about why a rapper had been kidnapped.

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He was browsing celebrity news while Mary Ann's body was going cold in the crib.

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An hour and a half passed before he called 911.

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His priority was protecting himself legally.

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When officers arrived, the condition of Mary Ann's body made it obvious something terrible

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had been happening for a long time.

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Her crib was torn and soaked with urine.

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The house was filthy, falling apart, neglected.

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Both Seth and Tatiana talked to detectives.

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They both confirmed they'd known Mary Ann looked skinny and underweight for at least a month.

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They both explained their three reasons for not contacting a doctor or getting any

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type of help.

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Seth repeated his natural selection talking points, explaining how the week die off.

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He showed absolutely no emotion.

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Investigators, and later the judge, commented on how disturbingly calm he was.

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Tatiana's role was more complicated.

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She was Mary Ann's mother.

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She was there.

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She saw everything.

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She admitted she'd noticed the baby looking skinny.

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Her defense was that Seth had complete control through violence.

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She testified that he physically and sexually abused her.

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He would rape her and beat her with wood when she broke his rules.

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She'd internalized his reality so deeply that when he said Mary Ann was naturally slim,

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she forced herself to believe him.

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People who knew Tatiana before Seth said she'd completely changed.

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She went from outgoing to withdrawn and submissive.

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

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The prosecution pointed to one fact.

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Tatiana worked at McDonald's.

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Every shift she was in public away from Seth's supervision.

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She could have told a coworker called 911 from the restaurant, driven Mary Ann to a hospital,

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slipped someone a note, even.

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She had regular opportunities to save her daughter and didn't use them.

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The prosecution argued that even if the abuse was true, even if she was terrified, she had

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a duty to protect her child.

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She on a story also changed.

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She told investigators she didn't notice Mary Ann was unhealthy, contradicting her admission

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that she'd known the baby was skinny for a month.

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The jury didn't believe the duress defense.

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In October 2021, they found her guilty of felony murder and first-degree child abuse.

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Seth Welch's trial happened first, January 2020.

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His defense attorney argued Seth and Tatiana were simply inept, too consumed by religious

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beliefs to understand what was happening.

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The prosecution played the 911 call.

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They showed Seth's Facebook videos explaining his natural selection philosophy.

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They presented all-topsie photos of an 8-pound baby who should have weighed at least twice

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that.

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The prosecutor said, quote, "He knew she was going to die and he was waiting for it.

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That's why they called their attorney first."

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

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Tatiana was also convicted and received life without parole.

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This case is driven by ideology rather than impulse.

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Seth and Tatiana didn't kill Mary Ann in rage or violence.

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They killed her slowly over months while justifying it through a twisted belief system.

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Seth Welch had constructed a reality where he was essentially God of a household.

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He decided what was true, what was right, who lived and who died.

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He wrapped it in religious language, but underneath it was extreme narcissism and obsession with

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control.

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Being right mattered more than his own daughter's life.

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Those signs on the house, the Facebook videos, the refusal to engage with the outside world,

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it was all about maintaining this fortress of ideology.

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And Mary Ann died trapped inside, invisible to everyone who might have helped.

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Investigators found empty baby food jars at the house.

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Defense tried using that as proof that they were feeding her.

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But it means there was food in the house.

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They were eating, and their baby was starving right in front of them.

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The medical evidence doesn't leave room for doubt.

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The shrunken thymus, the bone marrow that stopped working, the dehydrated skin.

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Those conditions take months to develop.

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This was watching your child waste away bit by bit and deciding your beliefs were more

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important than picking up a phone.

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Ann Welch lived for 10 months.

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She spent nearly her entire life starving to death.

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Her parents will spend the rest of their lives in prison.

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Seth Welch told investigators he wasn't losing sleep over what happened.

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

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[Music]

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Thanks for listening to 10 Minute Murder, Bingeable True Crime Stories.

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I'm Joe, I'm the host, and if you're ever wondering if I ever get pissed off while I'm doing

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this podcast, today was the day.

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It was the day that I couldn't really hide it.

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I mean, the cases do make me angry from time to time, but I'm usually able to distance myself

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from that emotion in order to tell the story.

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But this one, man, this one really gets to me.

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Alright, let me get to an email before I say something that'll get me in trouble.

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Subject, your curiosity shows.

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Joe, what stands out to me is your curiosity.

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It feels genuine, like you're trying to understand, rather than perform on a podcast.

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That makes your show feel human, and I really appreciate it.

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Also, can you cover the story of the death of a little girl that happened in my state?

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A few years ago, her name is Mary Ann Welch, and you know where this is going.

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This is Paul in Marquette Michigan, and he's the one that suggested that I cover this story.

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So I want to appreciate Paul for sending that in.

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It's a case that I did not know about.

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And I'm torn because part of me still wishes I didn't know about it, but also I'm glad

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that I covered it here.

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The story deserves to be told.

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Alright, if you're a brand new listener to the podcast, make sure you hit subscribe where

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ever you're listening right now.

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You can also go to 10minuteMurder.com, and on my website, you can email me, like Paul did,

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suggest a case like he did, also sign up for the weekly newsletter.

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You can read the murder blog, among other things there on the website, 10minuteMurder.com.

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If you're an OG listener, and I've had some questions about how will I know if I'm an

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OG listener?

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And it's pretty simple.

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Have you listened to all the episodes?

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And at this point, there's in the neighborhood of 600.

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If the answer's yes, OG.

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You've got to be with me for a while if you've managed to power through that many episodes.

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Now, I know some of you are still working on it.

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You're loyal listeners.

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You listen to every single episode that I put out, but you haven't quite made it through

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all of them.

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You can still be an OG listener.

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There are podcasts that I've listened to for years, and I would consider myself an OG

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listener of their podcast, but I haven't listened to all of their episodes.

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So I'm not saying that it's an exclusive thing that you have to do.

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But I am saying if you've listened to all of them, you're in top tier category.

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And if you do consider yourself an OG listener, I love you, and I hope you continue to listen

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and share this show with your friends and your family.

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And that's going to do it.

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That's your episode for today.

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Thank you again for listening to 10 Minute Murder.

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