A suburban Chicago mother was taken into custody after Frankfort, Illinois, police responded to her home around 4 p.m. Tuesday following a frantic 911 call from a teenage neighbor.
Corie A. Walsh, 38, is accused of killing her 2-year-old son. Prosecutors say she had become deeply invested in the nationally watched Lindsay Clancy murder case, and was discussing the trial with friends just hours before her own child’s death.
The neighbor told police she found Walsh’s son, Barrett, hanging in the basement and immediately began performing CPR on him. The boy was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
An autopsy found that the child died from asphyxia caused by ligature compression of the neck, according to court documents.
But the scene investigators encountered inside the home was even more disturbing.
Police found Walsh in a bathtub, fully clothed, with what authorities described as self-inflicted knife wounds. The injuries were not ultimately life-threatening.
The neighbor told investigators she had found Walsh holding a knife and actively harming herself. She took the knife away and put it in a sink.
According to prosecutors, Walsh then questioned why the neighbor had intervened and told her that her son was in the basement.
Investigators say Walsh later told police that she killed Barrett because she believed he was the “devil” and the “anti-Christ.”
Prosecutors also allege that Walsh confessed to killing her son and made threats against other children and her husband, who was out of state at the time.
Three other children were in or returned to the home around the time of the incident. An infant was inside the house, while two school-aged children came home from school. None of them were physically harmed, authorities said.
Walsh has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder.
Her attorney, Andrea Lyon, says Walsh was experiencing a psychotic episode.
“This is a tragedy for the Walsh family, all of whom are mourning the loss of this child,” Lyon told ABC 7 Chicago.
Investigators are now examining Walsh’s apparent fixation on the Lindsay Clancy case.
Witnesses told police that Walsh had become “very invested” in the Massachusetts murder trial, which centered on Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse accused of killing her three young children in January 2023.
According to prosecutors in Walsh’s case, she was actively discussing Clancy’s trial with friends in a group text just hours before Barrett was killed.
The timing has drawn particular attention because Clancy’s own trial had just reached a dramatic conclusion.
On Friday, a Massachusetts judge declared a mistrial after jurors failed to reach a unanimous verdict on whether Clancy was criminally responsible for killing her three children. Clancy’s defense argued that she was suffering from severe postpartum psychosis and was not legally responsible for her actions. Prosecutors argued that she was criminally responsible.
The jury deliberated for roughly 40 hours over seven days before reaching an impasse.
The case is now unresolved, with prosecutors expected to decide whether to seek a retrial. A hearing has been scheduled for September 29.
In Walsh’s case, investigators are continuing to examine the circumstances surrounding her son’s death, including her communications about the Clancy trial.
Walsh remains in custody while receiving medical treatment. Once she is medically cleared, she is expected to remain at the Will County Adult Detention Facility while the case moves forward. Her first court appearance is scheduled for September 8.
