When it comes to reviewing your finances, a good place to start is by reviewing your mortgage. It's something few people ever do, but if you never review your mortgage, you'll never know if there might be a better option. That's where the Ulster Bank mortgage team could help. Wherever you bank. Be sure to talk to us and see if switching can make a difference. Just search Ulster Bank, switch Ulster Bank, help. From what matters, overrating is only Ulster Bank Guard and that is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland.

Zordon Scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised.

Her cheeks looked sunken like they weren't when we put her to bed. I knew she was dead.

Well, hello there, welcome to Season seven, Episode one sixty five I've and scale a show that reveals the worst monsters, a real.

So this pandemic scare we had a couple of months ago got some of us around the world thinking what would happen if we had to sustain ourselves and our family for a while? What if society broke down and there was no food available? What that how the hell would we provide for our families? Well, it seems like certain people have given this a lot more thought than others. Pandemic or no pandemic. In fact, there's a whole reality show about it called Doomsday Preppers.

But we'll get into all of that in just a sec.

Stay tuned. If there's one thing I know about my listeners, it's that you love your cats just as much as I love my cats, you wouldn't want anything bad to happen to him. Well, cats are notorious for hiding their illness. They're not going to tell you when there's something wrong.

Sure, they'll spend hours talking about the intricacies of boredom, but if they're not feeling well, they'll just keep it to themselves. Well, now, because it's pretty litter, you don't have to worry anymore. Pretty litter is the world's smartest kitty litter. The proprietary formula changes colors to help detect early signs of potential illness, including urinary tract infections and kidney issues. Unlike conventional litters that contain ingredients and additives that could be damaging your cat's health, pretty litter is created from naturally occurring minerals and is safe for your cat.

And pretty little is designed with a specialized dusting process, making it virtually dust free. There's no better cat litter on the market and best of all, pretty litter arrives safely at your door and small lightweight bags that last up to a month. I get everything auto shipped, including my cat litter and it's so convenient with pretty litter. I sleep well at night knowing that both of our cats here, Ned Stark and Pikachu, are doing just great, running after imaginary objects and leaving their cat toys all over the house.

Now it's time for you to take care of your cat by getting the world's smartest kitty litter without leaving your home by visiting pretty litter dotcom and using the promo code sword for 20 percent off your first order. That's pretty litter dotcom promo code sword for twenty percent off today. Pretty litter dotcom promo code sword.

Second Corinthians, chapter four, verse 18, as we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen, for the things that are seen are temporary, but the things that are unseen are eternal. Sounds deep, right. A man named Seth Welch posted this to his Facebook page titled Seth Welch, A Mind Reader Generated by Christ. Now, verses from the Bible are taken out of context all the time.

They're often used to fit a narrative. They are in a lot of ways intentionally vague and allow for anyone to interpret or reinterpret not just the Bible, but words in all religious books can be twisted and turned to support a myriad of different arguments, some better than others. This particular verse, however, is ironic. It's ironic for Seth to have picked it out of thousands of other verses to display proudly on his Facebook timeline for others to see. You see, Seth and his wife, Tatiana Fusari, both nearing 30 years old, were living out of rural Kent County, Michigan.

Back in twenty eighteen.

Their home was at the end of a long driveway with a fence, overgrown grass and shrubbery shrouding the small box like home. The couple seemed based on Seth's post to social media, like they were good parents to their three children.

They were bringing them up in a home with strong morals and guidelines, away from the hustle and bustle of Grand Rapids, Michigan, surrounded by love and nature and a couple of geese. You can always tell the religious ones they almost always have geese. The truth, which would soon be revealed to the neighbors living along the same road as the Welsh family as well as the rest of the world, is that this seemingly loving home filled with the spirit of God and goodness was anything but.

Well, good morning. I'm just going to dive right into it. As always, this is not a video you need to watch. It's just something to listen to so you can follow along like the radio or podcast or something like that. This is Seth on a recorded live stream from his YouTube channel last night.

As I'm reading the scripture and as I dealt with the situation, you know, between me and my wife, as we continue building our relationship, I wouldn't say I have God has a prophetic message for all of us. It's not some dream or vision or anything like that. You know, there's much emphasis placed on that kind of stuff in the false religious culture. This is straight out of the book.

You can hear the confidence in his voice. He believes that his religion is the one true religion. The truth to end all truths, all of the others are simply false, misleading and evil. Seth goes on to read Bible verses, speaking out about opening your mind and body up to hear the word of God by allowing you to believe the messages spoken by prophets and preachers in this new generation.

That is coming up. Don't ignore the messages that he is he is sending to you through the prophets and through the preachers of this day is not something to play around with. You don't get to pursue holiness after you die. You don't get to profess belief after you die and live your best life. Now, it doesn't work that way. This is the life you get. This is the life you get to seek. God, you don't you don't get time after you die.

This is it, you don't get time after you die, you get a chance to plead for forgiveness of your sins. After your death and hope, there's still space for you in heaven. Seth believes that your time on earth should be spent living a holy life, a life that proves you're a good person, a life that will reserve you a spot in heaven. Better make those reservations early if you want to get a good table.

So if you hear his voice, do not harden yourself against it. You know, the religions have purged the conscience, the importance of the conscience. Salgado, speak to you. Is that little voice in the back of your head. And just because it might say wicked things now, it doesn't mean it can't be realigned with what he has written in his word and create in you a new heart and a new spirit, a.

We've said this before, and we'll say it again, there's a fine line between thinking you're hearing God's voice through your conscience and having a legitimate mental illness. The way Seth is speaking, though, is somewhat uplifting.

If you're spiritual or religious in any way, it sounds positive and good intentioned. At least it sounds like he wants his listeners to have a better, holier life, the same path that he hoped his children would someday walk. Let me give you a distinct picture of the life the Welsh family lived.

Good evening. This is Seth Welch, formerly of Black Acre Farm Products, now of stewards of Creation Farm. Well, OK, just to dive right into it. Why am I making this video? Well, here's the thing. Five years ago, my wife and I started a farm produce business. We had no idea where it was going to go or where is going to take off. Well, there I go. I didn't even start at the beginning of the story.

Six years ago. My wife and I, we moved here. I didn't move here to start a produce business. I moved here to honestly to seek truth and to learn about life from the ground up.

The family bought a chunk of land and started an organic family farm formally titled Black Acre Farm Products. In this video from the spring of twenty eighteen. Seth is describing why the business is undergoing a name change. The family farm would now be called Stewards of Creation Farm. How memorable. The farm cultivated produce like tomatoes and berries, as well as raw honey from the bees they kept on the property. Seth and his wife Tatiana worked on the farm and enlisted the help of their children.

But they didn't have any employees or other workers tilling the fields or tending to the crops. This idea of farming produce for profit, however, was not the original reason the couple decided to purchase this piece of land.

I also was in a place as a young man where I was I was very politically afraid. And so, yes, I also got this farm as sort of a self sufficiency type property, a preparator kind of arrangement. And I lived that way for a year or two. And then time went on and we really had to start focusing on making money.

What exactly does he mean there by proper arrangement? I'm sure you're starting to put two and two together by now. This guy is radically religious, scared of the government, scared of other people.

And whatever he considers being worldly things, he's a doomsday prepare a doomsday preppers with a YouTube channel who's trying to grow his own food, his own livestock, and live on the outskirts of society, a society that he fears nowadays. There seem to be more and more people like this around.

Seth and Tatiana had three children together in total. Mary was the youngest at 10 months old, with two other siblings aged two and four photos on the Black Acre Farm's Facebook page.

So at least one of the children helping around the farm doing chores. Seth worked on the farm all day and cared for his children while his wife worked at McDonald's. Let's think about this for a second. Those of you who have children have probably already come to the conclusion that caring for a decent sized private farm by yourself and also taking care of three children all under the age of five is a job for more than just one person. How is he keeping track of all those kids while getting anything done?

The family farm eventually evolved into a moneymaking operation rather than just a personal backyard garden. With this expansion, you can imagine that the work increased for Seth. He was farming larger fields, more crops and taking care of bees, among other things. All the while, he was the only parent in the home. Much of the time. Seems like only a miracle would allow for this sort of arrangement. The farming, though, seemed pretty successful. The Walsh family made a name for themselves at the local farmers markets selling their home grown produce.

And that is where most people most from is from our sales of what we want it to be high quality produce to feed our community. We had a lot of loyal customers, we had a lot of supporters. And last year we were really pushing it, really getting big, really taking the big steps. And things kind of came crashing down around our ears, to be quite frank with you, while sales started very well through the month of June, by July, things dropped off and kept dropping off, quite frankly, right off of a cliff.

One of our sales points, one of our one of our point of sales went down ninety seven percent last year, with many at. I'll just give you some straight numbers off often go to the Fulton Street Farmer's Market two years ago. And on a Tuesday, we could expect to make anywhere between four hundred to seven hundred dollars.

Last year, Tatiana was happy if she came home with 50. That's how bad sales got. We had lots of empty promises and we expanded based on lots of hype and lots of talk with the hopes that it would be backed up. But it wasn't. And so we got left holding the bag. These are people that are clearly not well versed in business administration. Let's do some basic math, even on a good week. A really good week. Tatiana was bringing home seven hundred dollars.

If she went to the farmer's market every single week at that rate, she'd bring home twenty eight hundred bucks a month. Let's assume she also worked at McDonald's full time, making minimum wage in total. Best case scenario, the family was bringing in four thousand two hundred and eighty dollars per month. OK, not bad. During the sales plummet they experienced when Tatiana was bringing home fifty dollars a week, at most, the family was lucky to bring in a thousand six hundred and eighty dollars a month.

That's about 20 grand a year for a family of five. It's safe to say they were struggling. Now here's where it begins to get spirits. My wife and I are followers of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ said you cannot serve two masters. You cannot serve God in money, or you shall love one and cling to the other. So as the farm business grew, I had to begin to take stock as I was pursuing my my newfound faith in Christ because I had actually been born again during this process of building the produce business.

So I had to begin to refine my refine the way I was doing things, I had to look at my life and see what was the point of what was I doing and what was I doing and for why.

This is obviously all stream of consciousness. Absolutely no planning went into Seth's video. There's not a lot of production value here. We don't know what Seth was like before his transformation into the born again Christian we hear on these clips.

But it's clear that he went all the way in his journey to extreme religiosity and he wanted to share his knowledge and experiences with everyone he knew and even those he did it. I'm sure we've all stumbled across YouTube videos like this of some whack job living out in a farm, talking about raising his own goats, not trusting the government or vaccines and spouting his love of God. Seth was one of these people and he felt like he was such a beacon of knowledge to the world that he planned to hold classes at his family farm.

Oh, I'd also like to say that the farm is also going to be used. My plan is to use it as one both a center for fellowship for the people of God and also as a learning center wherein we'll provide courses for people so that they can take. Here's a big thing, OK? When I was doing this for money, when I when I was serving Mammon with my farm, I began to realize that there were there were like two ways I could go.

You see, I could share all my knowledge that I was gaining to the detriment probably of my profit, because if I share my secrets, to my knowledge, then you can take it and you can go do your own thing with it.

I mean, with such great knowledge being shared, who wouldn't want to take Seth's secrets and run off to start another unsuccessful farm and produce business? Totally makes sense. Guard that business plan with your life, Seth.

And I don't profit from that in any way. But in my heart, I say, God, I give it away for free, man, I can't hold on to this. Like, that's not the best good for man, that's not loving your neighbor. That's profiting off of their ignorance. And that's something I refuse to.

Well, unfortunately, that's how most businesses become and remain successful, giving people things they don't have and sharing with people information they don't possess for a fee. The most important point to make about this whole story is that there is absolutely nothing wrong with adhering to and framing your lifestyle around a particular religion or set of spiritual beliefs.

Knock yourself out if it makes you feel better, if it makes you a better person, by all means, we have freedoms here in this country and practicing your chosen religion is one of them. In fact, some might argue that it's the whole reason this country started to begin with. Problems arise, however, when those beliefs begin to put other people in danger, particularly children. This doesn't just apply to religion either. Things like forcing your baby or toddler to adhere to a raw vegan diet, for example, is just fucking stupid and dangerous.

We know proponents of certain diets can act in a very cultlike extreme way, even exercise regimens. Sorry to clear my throat.

Their children don't get to choose the families they're born into, though. It's a random draw. One baby pops out with Kim Kardashian as its mother, while another may be born into a tent on Skid Row. To a mother who is an addict, that is a world of difference. The Welsh children were born to a couple that had recently discovered what bordered on fundamentalist Christianity, modern fundamentalist, perhaps they had no choice in the matter. They were living in a home in the middle of nowhere with only their father around to take care of them.

Much of the time, it seems Seth was the ringleader, the indoctrinated.

The inside of the Welsh home was a mystery to outsiders for a long time, but the outside gave clues as to what kind of life they were living. What could be seen from the road was an unkempt, overgrown yard with bales of hay strewn about and an old gray wooden fence bordering the edge of the property. The fence often had things painted on it.

Words repent, believe, obey. My kingdom is not of this world. His kingdom comes. His will be done. Another sign, a hand painted square poster stuck with a stake in the grass read every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess to God. These proclamations extended into social media as well as a post from July twenty, Fourth twenty eighteen gives some insight into the parenting techniques Seth and Tatiana may have employed and teach your children crafts that are agreeable and be fitting to religion less through idleness.

They give themselves to wantonness or if they are not corrected by their parents, they will do those things that are evil like the heathen.

In other words, keep those little shits busy because if you don't, they'll revert to their natural default evil tendencies.

God is calling all sorts of people into a very radical faith in this time in this nation.

And I hope you want to show my personal pages, I think, tagged in this video. I'm not hard to find. So you like to connect with me personally? You're more than invited to do so. Where are we going to keep the Facebook page open? And I don't really know exactly where we're going to go. I don't have a clear picture of where the future is going to go. Jesus said the spirit is like the wind and it comes from here, there.

And you follow it and it blows where you go. And so I don't know exactly where this is going to, but every solid business plan includes the words.

I don't have a clear picture. Right. Unfortunately for him, all the half baked plan Seth had for his farm, the courses, the fellowship, none of it panned out. Is that a surprise to you? I hope not, because if so, you should never, ever start a business. But the reason this business and the lives of every single member of this family came to a screeching halt is not what you may expect. Nine on one, I guess, I don't know if this is the right place to report this, so I'm at home and one of my children is that how old is the child?

Like 10 months. And why do you believe a child deceased? I have no idea. We just woke up and they said, look, are you home alone? No, I'm here with my wife and my family. Could the child have any medical history? No, Anderson, I was 13 and beyond. OK. Dr. McElligott. But it's just not King County. OK, well, what exactly what happened? Sir, hold on just a second.

College with this 10 month old child who we believe is deceased. OK, so tell me exactly what happened. I mean, not going to put her down yesterday and went on the road to get her out this morning. But I mean, exactly why do you think I don't have. One factor. So why do you think it is? I don't know. I'm really into descriptions. Why do I to see that? Yeah, because he's not breathing and there's no heartbeat.

I sir, I need you to start CPR. My wife and I. You had one echo. Sir, are you right by the baby right now? She's in a room next door.

This call is all over the place. But that's why we're here to guide you through this absurdity. Let's run through what just happened. Seth Welch called nine one one in August of twenty eighteen after finding his infant daughter dead. He wasn't even sure if calling 911 one was the right thing to do. He left her in the other room while he was on the phone with dispatch. If you found your 10 month old baby dead in the crib, would you not be attempting CPR and asking the dispatcher what you could do to try to revive her while help is on the way?

Can you get that the phone is close to her as possible? Yeah. Do that right now, please. Bradford, he did say there was no prior medical history with the child. OK, oh, no. Let me know when you're right by the baby, please. I we are. He's OK. Tell me, please, why you think she's dead. It's cold. She's not breathing. I went out earlier and she was unresponsive.

There is no proof that Tatiana or Seth actually attempted CPR prior to calling 911.

One sir. Time I keep them on the line. OK, I just have a few more instructions, ma'am or sir. Or downgrade and make three calls. Hello. Yes, hello. Yes, the paramedics are on the way. I need you to leave everything as you found it. OK, ok. All right. And you have more for them. County. Yeah. OK, ma'am. Thank you. Thanks record sir. Yeah. OK, I heard this.

I believe it's the mother of the child. I don't know if she's your wife. She said she started CPR earlier. How long ago did you find this child? About an hour and a half. I was waiting. I called my lawyer first thing to ask, you know, what's the next thing I should do? And I said, wait til they're here to call the police and get that going back. They got to the point where I was waiting so long, I just kind of went ahead and did it anyway.

And they're almost here. So I was I was I was waiting on legal counsel. So you filed the child an hour and a half ago. Yeah. And called your lawyer first, correct? Yes. OK, yes.

You heard that correctly. Not only did both Tatiana and Seth wait 90 minutes before calling 911 one, he tells 911 dispatch that they called their lawyer, not their parents, which is a very interesting little detail.

Is there any other children in the home right now? Yeah, I don't know if I want to call the police or not. I have no idea what this. OK, we will send someone out. We're going to investigate. When was the last time you had contact with the child? Last night, about yesterday afternoon, about 3:00 p.m., she goes to bed and you know, that was that OK, so you put her to bed rest yesterday at 3:00 p.m..

Yeah. And then this morning at Like and something we finally went in to check on her like, OK, it's been too long. So now. We got it wrong all the time, normally so. So you're saying it is normal for your children to sleep from around 3:00 p.m. till 10:00 a.m.. You know, usually about nine, nine, 30. They sleep from three p.m. to Unmistakeably in a couple of things here, sure. What time do they usually have dinner?

Well, this is my infant. They're not all they don't all kind of run on the schedule. But she's, you know, she basically eats and, you know, she's up for a half hour after that. And then you go down then. OK, and how old are the other children of poor and. There's two other children, yeah. And at home right now, right? Yep. He said when you found her, she was already believed to be deceased, right?

Yes. And that's when you consulted with the lawyer? Yep. Do you believe she was beyond help already? Oh, yes. Was that is a dancer?

Oh, yeah. She was dead as a doornail. He says. When I first heard this, I couldn't believe what I was listening to, the tone he has is so flippant, so cold, so detached from reality. There's absolutely zero emotion in his voice, but your wife still tried CPR then? Yeah, when when she first got her out the. Before like before we call them everything, yeah, that was the first thing she did. It's just you to your wife, the two children and any other family have contacted.

Well, my lawyers are my mom and my dad, so they're on the way here, but. OK, your parents are your attorneys. Yeah. And what was your name, sir? FTTH. Westminster ELCA, well. Where were they coming from? Greenhaven. So there is a couple of deputies going come out and talk to you guys. The ambulance is still on their way, OK? So they're going to come out there and talk to you.

How are you holding up? You know, just another day, you know, it just it is what it is. It's really rather difficult not to be appalled listening to this 911 call, and I'm sure it's even worse for those of you who are parents in no way, shape or form would any normal human be acting as calmly as Seth was on this call.

I don't have kids, but if my dog were to pass away, I'd be inconsolable for quite a while.

Apparently, his child dying didn't even ruin Seth's day. Was he sad for even just a few minutes, a little too nauseous or anxious to maybe eat his sandwich for lunch? Perhaps. Maybe. We'll never know. It's likely that the 911 operator was feeling, just as we are listening to Seth speak, and that may have been what prompted him to ask Seth how he's holding up here at the end of the call and by doing so. Boy, did he catch some good stuff for the trial.

When paramedics and police finally arrived to the rural Godlee Welch home, they walked into the fly infested house and were greeted by the emaciated body of Mary Ann Welch, the 10 month old weighed only eight pounds.

She was the size of a newborn.

One of the female officers on the scene later called upon her memory, tearfully recounting that the baby's eyes were sunken in.

And she was unnaturally tiny. She was cold to the touch. By the time help arrived, just like her daddy said, she was dead as a doornail.

To even the uneducated eye, this was a clear case of neglect. Mary had been left alone for 19 hours in her crib. No one had even checked in on her that entire stretch of time.

She was laying on a thin, ripped, urine soaked mattress laden with toxic black mold, slowly starving to death.

The cause of death ruled by a medical examiner was death by malnutrition due to neglect over a period of weeks to months.

It's crucial to point out that Seth and Tatiana Seth specifically were in no way malnourished.

He was a plump young 20 something year old and I mean plump.

We've been obviously reporting on what's going on with you.

And yeah, so I've been informed. You've been making reports of some sort.

So that's why we're contacting you. Obviously, we only have with the police. Again, I would advise you to be careful what you say from here on out, OK? You will answer to the Lord for everything that is said against me.

OK, so if we're you for a story, I just go ahead and record it.

Sir, what do you want people to know about this situation? And obviously you're in jail and you could be there for the rest of your life. What do you want people to know about what happened?

And do you feel like they're being justly treated, justly treated on the inside? Yes, I am very thankful for the conditions that could be much worse. I believe I'm being unfairly charged and being made an example of for my very strong faith and the trying times that are ahead and being made.

An example of Seth and Tatiana were both arrested and charged with the first degree murder of their daughter Mary. The way the couple's faith plays into this situation is simple. Not only did they severely neglect the needs of their infant daughter, they refused to take any of their children to the doctor for any sort of medical care, for religious reasons. Of course, none of the children were vaccinated and none were taken to the doctor for checkups to make sure their development was progressing at a normal rate.

I'm sure you're aware that Christians every day follow the what is known, the normal protocol after a child is born, taking them to the pediatrician regularly. They get Wade, they get an idea if they're at risk for these kinds of things. Christians do that all the time. Why didn't you?

Well, without passing judgment on any one person or their situation, Jesus Christ himself did say that many do honor with their lips, but their hearts are far from him. So, you know, just because someone identifies as a Christian, it doesn't really mean anything. What counts is whether or not you're really actually physically manifesting the teachings of Christ. The original Greek word for sorcery is pharmaco, which is easily translated into our modern word for pharmacy, which is all the use of pharmaceutical drugs and, you know, including, you know, like things like vaccines, which even having treatments containing aborted fetuses, you know, and all sorts of toxic chemicals which are causing allergic reactions and in some cases deaths amongst the populace.

And the more they are being injected into the populace, you know, I think the results are pretty clear. People are getting more and more sick. There's more and more allergies. There's more and more, you know, physical maladies.

Seth, I'm sure you can gather by listening to him speak isn't stupid. The ideology he spouts off is certainly bizarre and from a place of education. But he's somewhat eloquent in his delivery. In this jailhouse interview, he tries vehemently to explain why his daughter may have died and why it wasn't their fault.

My wife put the you know, every day before my life goes to work. She completely drains her breast milk into our daughter. Yes.

What a weird way to convey that the baby was breast fed. I don't think he could have come up with a more uncomfortable sentence than that.

She puts her down for a nap. It's been a normal protocol for our children when they're going through growth spurts to sleep for even 16, 18 hours. So I checked on her throughout the evening. My wife gets home from work at about eleven, eleven, thirty. And sorry, it's a little tough to talk about. It's still pretty raw. And so I checked on her. Checked on her. She's still sleeping. I really if you put a baby down with a full tummy and a clean diaper, you know, generally my policy is not to wake them up.

I let them wake themselves up. I've never had a problem with a child not waking up when they were hungry or had a wet diaper or anything like that.

Babies, if you're lucky, will sometimes sleep through the night. Sure, not often, but sometimes that usually doesn't extend beyond eight hours of uninterrupted sleep. I don't think I've ever gotten more than eight hours of uninterrupted sleep and a baby would certainly not sleep through 19 hours without making a single sound.

I finally fell asleep. I don't know, maybe five thirty six o'clock and you know, I didn't get out of bed again until about well honestly, I think until my wife came back and told me that she was dead, my wife had gone right up the street real quick to go pick up some clothes from the neighbor's house. And then she said, OK, that's enough sleep. Time for me. It's time to wake up. Now, that's quite enough.

Now, it's been a long time. And so she went in there and she rushed back into the room to tell me that Mary wasn't breathing. And I shot out of bed like a rocket. And we rushed into her room and my wife began to, you know, attempt to perform CPR. But I can tell from looking at Mary, I could tell because her skin was gray, like they weren't. When we put her to bed, I knew she was dead.

Babies have small bladders, so they need diaper changes often and they need to eat every few hours.

Even we as adults find it difficult to make it a few hours without food. We start to get a little Hanji, let alone almost a full day.

When people starve to death, they get sickly. And you think maybe if she was starving to death, she would cry? Right. I think of a babies that hungry. She's crying and crying and there's. Oh, and we didn't have that problem. Like I said, she she died without a sound in her sleep.

The reality is that on this particular day, Seth did not hear his baby cry because she was physically unable to. The starvation and dehydration she endured had progressed over the course of several months. And by this point she was so frail and weak that she didn't even have the energy to cry. Little Mary was laying in her disgusting bed, unable to do anything helpless and alone. She could not lift her little arms. She could not utter a sound. Seth wants everyone to believe that his baby was eating well, that they were giving her, quote, the good stuff, the way you would describe giving your dog pedigree instead of Alpo.

No, she was a skinny girl, but everybody in my family's always been skinny. I know it's hard to believe with our current condition. My middle daughter, Elizabeth, of this marriage was a very skinny girl when she was growing up, and now she's bigger than some six year old boys. So I didn't really think anything of it in the Bible. It says that good food is our medicine. So we fed her. Well, you know, we we were feeding her chicken, potatoes, apples, cheese.

I mean, we were giving her the good stuff and then also combined with breast milk and she died. I it's a tragedy. It said, you know, the Lord, give it to Lord, take to the Bible. It says that we are not to use sorcery. So, yes, we did the best we could for Mary. According to our faith, we fed her good food and only for water. We we gave her lots of love.

She just she passed.

The judge that presided over the case had some poignant words to say after hearing the couple's defense attorney speak during the hearing. Here's the defense attorney.

In fact, there is testimony that both parents believed that their child was fine. The child was safe, but now say they were seeing their child. These two young people are not nutritionists.

They're not dietitians.

It doesn't exactly take a dietitian to know that a baby needs to feed more than once in a twenty four hour period. In addition, common sense will tell us that a 10 month old should weigh more than a measly eight pounds a gallon. Jug of orange juice weighs about the same as this baby who was nearing a year old.

And I want to reiterate the fact that this baby is not diabetes is one of the six weeks and weeks. This isn't about being very skinny. This is about being dead.

Death by starvation or dehydration is not quick and it's not painless. The process is very slow and agonizing for an infant who could not yet speak, for someone who couldn't cry out and verbalize their needs. It must have been hell. They can take as little as three weeks to die from starvation, some adults can make it up to 70 days, but that would be highly unusual for a small baby with little to no muscle and fat stores. Once the body consumes whatever muscle and fat is available, it starts to turn on itself turning towards organ tissue.

Soon those two are depleted and the starving person does not even have the energy to move. They can't do anything imprisoned in the shell of their own body. They can't even eat or drink at that point. Every movement is painful, due not only to the lack of muscle tissue and energy, but because the skin can become extremely dry and cracked from dehydration. When you think about the hunger, you feel when it's been about five hours since lunch and you're craving dinner, the feeling is not even comparable to true hunger.

I'd wager that most of you have never experienced the sensation of starving and certainly Plumpy Seth Welch had not either.

And Seth is at home with three children trying a new farm work, trying to take care of the house, trying to be a father, and he just can't do it.

You saw the pictures of the house and our house is clean. He's not working in the fields because they're all overgrown. What is he doing that he is so hard? Well, how would you feel?

You are imprisoned in yourself because you don't have the energy to move. She didn't have the energy to even put up her arms and she didn't have the energy to cry.

Don't tell me you didn't know that. Don't tell me you didn't intend that because you didn't get her out of that crib. You left her in there. You ignored her because she was an inconvenience.

Records indicate that Tatiana and Seth knew that baby Mary was grossly underweight for more than a month. They didn't want to take her to the doctor because Seth greatly mistrust physicians, probably because the last time they had seen one, the doctor reported the family to CPS. Seth didn't want that to happen again.

I mean, it is it's dangerous to take your kid to the doctor's office these days. It is. It just plain is. And, you know, if you don't do what they say, if you don't buy what they want you to buy so that they can make some money off you for the love of money is the root of all kinds of evils. You'll they'll call the government on you. I had it happens. Their doctor prescribed my daughter a head shaping Helmick because her head was like one millimeter out of round.

The head shaving helmet cost almost four thousand dollars. When we refused to purchase this helmet from him, he forged paperwork against us. OK, he gave my daughter Elizabeth a clean bill of health, OK, and sent us out the door. No problems. But then after we refused to purchase this product from him, he then added on to the paperwork after we were already gone and gave a different set of paperwork to CPS claiming that was malnourished. And like I said, we had our little girls are skinny.

OK, so but he never told us he was malnourished until we refused to purchase this product from him.

Seth uses words like forged to describe this doctor's actions. Doctors are mandatory reporters of abuse and neglect, and they don't have to let the family know that they're calling CPS.

I daily pray that our family will be restored, that in court it will be shown that this was a tragedy. This was not a crime. There was no ill will involved. There was truly no neglect involved, especially if we're going to take freedom of religion into this. We did everything according to our religion and that Congress is not to pass laws against against certain practices of religion. And especially, you know, our religion does not and does not involve killing people or lying or stealing the ultimate law by Christ is know to love your neighbor as you love yourself, to love the Lord, your God with all your heart, mind and soul.

So there's nothing criminal about what we did. It's a tragedy. It was something that was just out of our hands. And these things happen every day. Children die in a doctor's office every day. Look at go look at the statistics of how many people in this country die every year due to medical malpractice. And doctors don't go to jail.

If we're going to bring statistics into the discussion. The percentage of save lives versus ruined lives at the hands of medical professionals says it all. Far more people have been saved by modern medicine than have been killed. It's just a fact. Seth also mentions an important and complex issue. Separation of church and state as part of his argument for his innocence, he mentions that Congress cannot pass laws that would infringe upon religious beliefs or religious practice. Freedom of religion is indeed one of the cornerstones of this nation.

But the government is pretty inconsistent with the laws and rulings pertaining to freedom of religious practice. On one hand, we know that polygamy, which is part of modern fundamentalist Mormonism, is not legal to practice in the United States. The Supreme Court ruled on this one in eighteen seventy eight. Polygamy doesn't directly harm anyone. So shouldn't it be legal? On the other hand, many states still have religious exemptions from child abuse and neglect laws, according to Pew Research Center.

Forty four states currently allow religious exemption for childhood vaccination. What's utterly concerning, though, is the number of states that still retain religious exemption for basic medical care. As of twenty sixteen, the number was thirty four states offering legal shields for parents who wouldn't take their children to the doctor for religious reasons. Here's a professor of history from Boston College. His name's Alan Rogers, and he's written an entire book about how religious exemption laws harm children. He's talking about why these exemptions still exist.

This was explained to me by a lobbyist. It's easier to pass a law, he explained to me, than it is to remove one. I know one he said wanted to stake their career on taking a law off the books. First of all, his constituents have no idea what the law is and couldn't care less. And secondly, it's tough to convince fellow legislators that something of that sort should be done. In other words, it was enacted. And so what the heck, that's good to stay right.

So even when there are hearings which demonstrate the danger of such a law, demonstrate the death that such a law brings, nothing happens. There are countless cases like this one, unfortunately for Seth and Tatiana. Michigan is not one of the states where religious exemption is absolute. In January of this year, Seth was found guilty of felony murder and first degree child abuse. His sentence is mandatory life in prison with no possibility of parole. Do yourself a favor and go watch the video of his arraignment.

When I went into the courtroom, I was I was expecting something along the lines of a homicide charge. So I expected due to the circumstances, you know, a child died accidentally for unknown reasons in our care. OK, I figured, you know, negligent. I would understand why I wouldn't get charged with negligent homicide or involuntary manslaughter, but could be charged with essentially first degree murder and look at life without the possibility of parole. I was very shocked and I went to my cell and I cried and I cried and I laid down flat on my face and I just cried out in prayer.

And I do believe that God spoke to me and said that you will see me through this. He spoke to me both through his word. And I also received a sign wherein I was praying. And then I looked up and the sunlight was coming through my window, casting a shadow of the cross on my wall.

Tatiana Fusari pleaded no contest to her charges and is currently awaiting sentencing. She is expected to get at least twenty five years in prison. Tatiana gave birth to yet another child during her time in prison. And that infant is not to have contact with the other two children taken from the Welsh farm.

Seth Welch can claim that his parenting techniques or lack thereof, were drawn straight from the Bible.

He can continue to say this until his dying day behind those iron bars. The kicker of this story is this.

Seth himself got sick in prison and he demanded that he receive medical treatment.

Uh.

Let's hope Seth's tum tum is doing OK. Don't you love this world? If you had a chance to say something, one more thing to your daughter that passed away, what would you say to her? Boy, you're looking for a sound bite, aren't you? I am sorry.

I can't give you a hug. I love you. I mean, I don't I don't know what to tell you, sir. I wish I had my whole life with her.

That does it for yet another episode of Sword and Scale. Thank you so much for joining us. This is the last episode before our summer break.

So we will be back on July 12th with episode one sixty six on plus. And that episode will drop on the regular feed on the 19th. So until then, we hope you have a wonderful Fourth of July, a wonderful summer. In fact, flip some burgers, grill some dogs, but most importantly, stay safe. They might enjoy I'm a California man, got to tell you, you know, my whole family is to you, all my partners listen to you.

We love your buddies.

And if subject matter the case, you come to spoil the chances of using a child, trying to do everything perfect. And I'm glad and I'm glad you're back and good on you for sticking it to the man. Screw those guys you got to support out here in, buddy. All right, men, they say they might. Damien, I'm actually from San Diego, a truck driver, and I cannot get enough of your shoes. I have been walking for fitness.

Listen rather to forty eight episodes and I am still listening. I know you're probably at one hundred and fifty plus and. But keep up the good work man. Hi. I just wanted to thank you for the show and you are clearly a smart, sarcastic, handsome motherfucker. But I love you. I have wanted to tell you I appreciate it. I'm a mail man from Illinois driving from New York to Illinois at the moment. And I just appreciate the shows and the distraction and the delivery.

And you do have a fantastic voice. I'm sure you're sick of hearing it, but you're throwing your intonation, your complete delivery. You are a national treasure. And I appreciate you. You have a good day.