A suburban Illinois mother who had become interested in the Lindsay Clancy case has been charged with murder after she allegedly killed her 2-year-old son and then tried to harm herself, according to police and court records. A quiet street in the affluent town of Frankfort, Illinois, about 35 miles southwest of Chicago, became a scene of horror earlier this week when the 2-year-old boy was found hanging in the basement and his mother, Corie A. Walsh, was discovered in a bathtub in an apparent suicide attempt. Walsh, 40, was charged with three counts of first-degree murder on Friday, police announced. Before the killing, Walsh “had recently become heavily involved in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial,” prosecutors said in their motion to deny his pretrial release. Clancy, accused of murdering her three children in January 2023, has been in the national spotlight in recent weeks as her trial was broadcast live. It culminated in a mistrial on Friday. Walsh had been “actively discussing the case” in group text messages with his friends until 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, just three and a half hours before the gruesome scene at his home was discovered, according to the document. At the time of the trial, the jury was deliberating. Frankfort police responded to the home shortly after 4 p.m. Tuesday after receiving a report of an unresponsive child, authorities said. When officers arrived, they found a neighbor performing CPR on the boy, Barrett Walsh, whom he had found hanging in the basement, according to court documents. The neighbor took the boy down and tried to give him CPR while calling 911, but he was already cold and had no pulse, prosecutors said. The child was transported to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The Will County Coroner’s Office ruled his death an apparent homicide. Preliminary autopsy results say he died of asphyxiation due to neck compression from a ligature, according to the petition. Officers found Walsh in the upstairs master bedroom bathroom, lying in a bathtub fully clothed and “surrounded by bloody water.” Walsh was found with cuts on her wrists and thighs, according to the petition. She was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, police said. Walsh told officers that “she did this to her baby because he was the ‘devil’ and the ‘antichrist,'” according to the document. The neighbor told officers she had found Walsh with a knife in his hands, “actively hurting himself.” The neighbor took the knife and threw it in the sink, and it was later taken into evidence, according to the petition. After taking the knife from him, Walsh asked him why he did that, “since he was trying to commit suicide,” according to the petition. Walsh then told the neighbor that “Bear,” the boy’s nickname, was “in the basement,” according to the record. Police said Wednesday that the preliminary investigation indicated it was a domestic-related homicide. Walsh’s husband was out of town at the time. An infant was home and unharmed, prosecutors said. Two school-age children had returned home when Barrett was found and were also physically unharmed, according to the document. Walsh allegedly made statements about harming her other children and statements that she intended to harm her husband when he returned home, prosecutors said in the filing. Once hospitalized, she also described to officers “the way she killed Barrett,” which was consistent with evidence at the scene, according to the petition. Walsh was in custody Friday night and was being held for medical treatment. Once released, she will be transported to the Will County Adult Detention Center. It was not immediately clear if he has retained an attorney. Frankfort police called the case a “heartbreaking tragedy” and said, “We ask our community to keep them in their thoughts and prayers.” If you or someone you know is struggling or suffering emotional distress, call or text 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org 24/7 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis lifeline. For additional resources, visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources.
