Grave of Brian Welker in the foreground.

Brian Welker only lived two years of his life. It was a life of misery. He first came to the attention of the police when his mother clinched his little hand in her teeth and shook him furiously like a dog shaking a rabbit. Brian was crying and screaming in pain. They were in full view in a parking lot outside a grocery store. A passerby called the police.

The county Child Protective Service agency removed Brian from his mother’s custody and placed him in the home of his biological father, Gary, age 27, and his wife, 33 year-old Lillian.

The CPS placement proved to be fatal to Brian. His short life was filled with abuse, physical and mental. Unloved, unwanted he endured continued abuse from his mother. The rejection continued, unabated in his father’s care. Lillian resented Brian’s presence. He was constantly scolded and punished for his crying and whimpering.

A young girl, a cousin of Brian, came to visit one weekend. She described witnessing the treatment of Brian by Gary and Lillian. Lillian dumped a bowl of cold spaghetti over Brian’s head at the dinner table when he refused to eat it and would not stop crying. Gary punched him in his stomach. He was picked up by his ears, tossed up into the ceiling banging his head then falling six feet to the floor. Spanked and then made to stand for hours in a corner of a room for hours lasting into the late night. Brian, defenseless, stood there, alone, whimpering facing the corner of the room. The young girl never saw Brian again; she told her parents who, in turn, notified police.

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