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

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.

The prosecutor claims that between January 2022 and February 2025, Kelli Bryant collected $29,397 in welfare while her children lived in squalor.

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.

The Oakland County mother accused of abandoning her three children, leaving them to live alone for years inside a filthy home, was given three additional charges.

After three of Kelli Bryant's children were found living alone in squalor in a Pontiac rental home, a judge initially set her bond at $250 million.

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.