In the summer of 2022, a tragic sequence of events unfolded in Harper Woods, Michigan, culminating in the death of 22-year-old Zlayiah Frazer. A young mother, Frazer became the victim of a brutal act of violence that also claimed the lives of two others. Her boyfriend, 23-year-old Jonathan Welch, was identified as the perpetrator of this horrific crime.
The situation began to escalate on July 10, 2022, at a home on Kenosha Street.
It was there that Welch allegedly first attacked his own 42-year-old mother, Flossie Bray, stabbing her multiple times with a butcher knife. He then turned his violence on his 70-year-old stepfather, Robert Bray Jr., and Zlayiah Frazer, both of whom died from blunt force trauma. In the midst of this rampage, the one-year-old son of Frazer and Welch was found by police in the backyard of the home and was taken to a hospital for care.
Following the attacks, Welch barricaded himself inside the residence, firing shots at responding police officers and setting a fire within the house. After a standoff, he was apprehended by law enforcement. Tragically, his mother, Flossie Bray, succumbed to her injuries a few days later on July 16, 2022.
The investigation revealed a disturbing history of domestic violence. Just weeks prior, in June 2022, Welch had been arrested for a violent assault on Frazer. In that incident, he was accused of strangling her, pouring gasoline on her, and burning her with a hot spatula. Despite the severity of these allegations, which included charges of torture and criminal sexual conduct, Welch was released from jail on a $10,000 bond just two days before the fatal attacks. This decision sparked outrage from Frazer's family and criticism from law enforcement, who stated that Welch 'took his freedom as an opportunity to finish the job and kill victim Frazer.'
In the aftermath, Jonathan Welch faced a multitude of charges for the events of July 10th, including three counts of first-degree murder, assault with intent to murder, and arson. He was also charged in connection with the death of another woman, 24-year-old Natalya Morse, whose body was found in June 2022. In July 2023, Welch pleaded guilty to the murders of his mother, stepfather, and Zlayiah Frazer. He was subsequently sentenced in November 2023 to 45 to 70 years in prison for these killings, a sentence to be served concurrently with a previous sentence of up to 30 years for the earlier torture and home invasion case involving Frazer.
