An Illinois mother is facing three counts of first-degree murder after authorities say she hanged her 2-year-old son in the basement of the family's Frankfort home on Tuesday afternoon and then attempted to take her own life. Corie Walsh, who was booked into the Will County jail after medical treatment, allegedly told officers she killed the toddler because he was the 'devil' and the 'anti-Christ,' according to prosecutors. The Will County State's Attorney's office is asking a judge to deny pretrial release, warning that Walsh poses 'a specific, real and present threat to her husband and her living three children.'
Frankfort police were called to the 22700 block of Brook Stone Court shortly after 4 p.m. Tuesday after a neighbor discovered 2-year-old Barrett Walsh hanging from a device attached to a basement rafter, a ligature around his neck and his feet off the ground. The neighbor performed CPR before first responders arrived. A preliminary autopsy finding listed the cause of death as asphyxia from ligature compression of the neck. Upstairs, the same neighbor found Corie Walsh in a bathtub, fully clothed, surrounded by bloody water, with cuts to her wrists and thigh, court papers state. Another infant at the home was found unharmed; two school-age children returned to the residence around the time the body was discovered. Walsh's husband was out of state on a business trip and flew back home that night.
The case has drawn national attention because prosecutors say Walsh had become 'very invested' in the ongoing Lindsay Clancy murder trial in Massachusetts and was actively discussing the case in a group text with friends until approximately 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, roughly three and a half hours before Barrett was found. The jury in the Clancy case was already deliberating in Plymouth at the time Walsh was sending those messages. Clancy is accused of killing her three children in their home, and a movement of supporters wearing pink has gathered outside the courthouse in her defense, prompting criticism from commentators including Joe Rogan and Bill Maher about the cultural response to mothers who kill their children.
Walsh's defense attorney, Andrea Lyon, said in a statement that 'Corey herself was experiencing a psychotic episode at the time this happened,' a framing that mirrors the defense's argument in the Clancy trial. Prosecutors in the Massachusetts case acknowledged Clancy's severe mental illness but argued she still understood her actions, noting that she cleared her husband from the house, completed three killings using an effective method, and chose a different method for herself that failed. Walsh is being held on three counts of first-degree murder on different theories of intent, and her first court date has been scheduled for Tuesday, September 8.
