GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — FOX 17 has obtained police interrogation tapes from the 2018 investigation into the death of a young girl who died after alleged neglect and malnutrition.
Seth Welch and Tatiana Fusari, the parents of nine-month-old Mary Welch, were charged with and later convicted of felony murder and first-degree child abuse in her death.
Investigators say the girl died of malnutrition and dehydration as she was only eight pounds at the time of her death.
Police found the young girl's body after Welch called 911 back on August 2, 2018.
"Hi, I guess I don’t know if this is the right place to report this to… I'm at home and one of my children is dead,” he told a dispatcher. "She was dead as a doornail.”
Dr. Sarah J. Brown, a child abuse pediatrician at Bronson Children’s Hospital testified at Welch's trial to the evidence that Welch starved his baby to death.
Investigator: "Tatiana, I'm gonna be quite honest with you right now, okay? One parent to another. And I'm gonna try and control my emotions, alright?" I've been to a child death investigator school, and I've seen photos and images of children that have been malnourished, and I'm telling you right now, this is the worst thing I've ever seen."
Fusari: "Oh no, really?"
Investigator: "Yes."
Welch only called 911 after first calling his parents, who are attorneys, and performing some unrelated Google searches.
It was roughly three and a half hours after they discovered her lifeless body that they finally called police.
Investigator: "At what point in this illness did you think, 'there's a good chance she's gonna die'?"
Fusari: "I didn't think at all that she was gonna die. I didn't..."
Investigator: "How could you not think that?"
Fusari: "Delusional."
Fusari was adamant with investigators that the child was fed every two to three hours.
"She started putting on weight recently. We really started, really, you know, pounding the solid food down in the last month or so," Welch told investigators.
In the hours immediately after police responded to the family's home, both Welch and Fusari were brought down to the Kent County Sheriff's Office for interviews with detectives.
WATCH Seth Welch's interrogation:
WATCH Tatiana Fusari's interrogation:
