Prosecutor says while three children lived alone in squalor in Pontiac, their mom, Kelli Bryant, was pocketing their government benefits.

Kelli Bryant, 34, is now charged with three counts of welfare fraud, Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald announced Tuesday. Bryant was charged last month with three counts of first-degree child abuse. If convicted, she faces up to life in prison.

Kelli Bryant, the mom charged abandoning her three kids in Pontiac, is charged with welfare fraud as the prosecutor says she received almost $30,000 from the state, which was meant for the kids she's accused of leaving to live alone in filth.

Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald has charged 34-year-old Kelli Bryant with three counts of first-degree child abuse in the Pontiac abandonment case.

Kelli Bryant is accused of collecting payments from January 2022 through February 2025 while her kids lived alone in a Pontiac townhouse.