Michigan mom says she 'didn't think 9-month-old daughter would die' in harrowing interrogation tapes

A Michigan mother told investigators 'I didn't think she was going to die' after she was arrested on charges of murder and first-degree child neglect and malnutrition after her young daughter died in 2018, haunting new interview footage shows.

Tatiana Fusari and Seth Welch, the parents of 9-month-old Mary Welch, were both arrested and charged in the young girl's death in August 2018. She weighed just eight pounds when she died, it was reported.

The investigator in the video, which was obtained by Law&Crime, can be heard saying, "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."

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Fusari simply replies, "Oh no, really?" And the investigator says, "Yes." What ensues is a back-and-forth between the investigator and Fusari. The investigator asks, "At what point in this illness did you not think, 'There's a good chance she's going to die?'"

Fusari's response to that is chilling: "I didn't think at all that she was gonna die. I didn't..." The investigator interrupted her and said, "How could you not think that?" Fusari simply says, "Delusional."

It had been Welch who originally called the police that fateful day on Aug. 2, 2018, after the couple discovered their daughter dead. It reportedly took them three and a half hours to notice that she was dead.

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"Hi, I guess I don't know if this is the right place to report this to," Welch can be heard saying on the 911 call. "I'm at home, and one of my children is dead. She was as dead as a doornail."

Investigators quickly determined that the girl had died of malnutrition after finding that she weighed just eight pounds. Fusari, however, during the interrogation, insisted that she had been feeding the girl once every two or three hours.

Welch similarly told investigators, "She started putting on weight recently. We really started, really, you know, pounding the solid food down in the last month or so."

It was also revealed during the ensuing investigation and trial that Welch waited to call 911 until after he had called his parents, who are both attorneys, while also performing some Google searches that weren't related to his daughter or her death.

Both Welch and Fusari were brought to the Kent County Sheriff's Office for interrogations shortly after the discovery. At the trial, Dr. Sarah J. Brown, a child abuse pediatrician at Bronson Children's Hospital, testified that Welch abused his daughter based on the evidence investigators collected at the scene and the examination of the child's body.

Both parents were eventually convicted of murder and child abuse, and Welch received life in prison for the crimes. Fusari received the same.