A Brazilian woman arrested earlier this month is accused of displaying stalker behavior similar to that portrayed in the Netflix show “Baby Reindeer” over a doctor who she said “saved her life.”
Kawara Welch, 23, allegedly called the doctor 500 times, and sent him 1,300 emails in one day. She also contacted his family and broke into his clinic prior to her arrest.
Welch, a student studying nutrition at a university in the Uberlandia municipality, was arrested in Ituiutaba, Brazil, on May 8 after allegedly stalking the medical professional who treated her for depression six years ago.
The charge of stalking carries a sentence of up to two years in jail, according to Brazilian news outlet Fantastico. Welch is also accused of theft, threats and extortion. She had been considered a fugitive since March 2023, the outlet reported.
The doctor, who has not been identified, told Fantastico that after he had treated Welch, she would harass him nonstop, waiting behind corners for him to finish work before following him home.
“She said that it wasn’t a coincidence, that no one saves someone else’s life so many times out of the blue, that there was something more to it,” the doctor explained. He added that she broke into his practice and “chased him several times”.
The case bears similiarities to the Netflix show “Baby Reindeer”, written by British comedian Richard Gadd, which retold the “true story” of his own experience with a stalker.
The hit show drew backlash after social media sleuths, despite being warned off by Gadd, tracked down the supposedly anonymous woman depicted in the show – “Martha” – online. Journalist Piers Morgan later conducted a lengthy interview with the “real-life Martha” on his YouTube series, Piers Morgan Uncensored.
In Brazil, the doctor said that Welch’s messages had become threatening and he had attempted to cease contact with her, even asking a colleague to treat her instead. She had an “incredible ability” to track him down, he said.
"She ended up… sending me 1,300 messages in one day. And calls, she sent me more than 500 calls in one day, a single day,” he told Fantastico.
“I changed my cell phone number three or four times, but I stopped changing because I saw it was completely useless. She had an incredible ability to find my new number.”
According to Fantastico, in the last five years, the doctor has registered 42 police reports against Welch. In one instance in 2022, she broke into his office and attacked his wife.
In 2023, Welch stole the doctor’s wife’s phone, leading to a warrant for her arrest. In March 2023, she was issued with a restraining order, but failed to comply with the terms.
Earlier this month another woman, Rebeca Garcia, was dubbed “The Venezuelan Baby Reindeer” by Latin American media outlets. Dozens of Venezuelan women said that Garcia had been harassing, stalking and threatening them over multiple years.
The case went viral on social media in Latin America, in part because of the overwhelming response to the victims’ accounts and pleas for justice in the country where officials claimed that “harassment between women doesn’t exist.”
Garcia allegedly sent hundreds of inappropriate emails to her victims, broke into their residences, and even published a book on Amazon detailing “false” encounters and fantasies with multiple women.
