Key Takeaways
- Illinois mother Corie A. Walsh faces three first-degree murder charges after prosecutors say she killed her 2-year-old son, Barrett “Bear” Walsh, and then harmed herself.
- Prosecutors say Walsh called Barrett the “devil” and “anti-Christ,” described the killing in terms that matched evidence at the scene, and had discussed harming her husband and other children.
- Authorities say Walsh had become “very invested” in Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial and discussed it hours before Barrett’s death; Clancy’s case ended in a mistrial after jurors deadlocked.
An Illinois mother who was closely following the Lindsay Clancy murder trial has been charged with killing her 2-year-old son—and prosecutors are questioning the timing.
According to NBC News, Corie A. Walsh, 40, faces three counts of first-degree murder in the death of her son, Barrett “Bear” Walsh, inside the family’s Frankfort home. Police responding to a report of an unresponsive child found a neighbor performing CPR on the toddler after discovering him hanging in the basement, according to court documents.
Barrett was transported to a hospital and pronounced dead. Preliminary autopsy findings listed his cause of death as asphyxia caused by ligature compression of the neck, mirroring the way Clancy’s children were murdered.
Officers also found Walsh fully dressed in an upstairs bathtub containing bloody water, prosecutors said. She had cuts to her wrists and thighs and was hospitalized with injuries that authorities described as non-life-threatening. Walsh remains in custody while receiving medical treatment and is expected to be transferred to the Will County Adult Detention Facility once she is released from the hospital.
Her husband was out of town when Barrett died, while the couple’s three other children were physically unharmed.
According to prosecutors, Walsh told officers that she killed Barrett because he was the “devil” and the “anti-Christ.” A neighbor told investigators that she took a knife from Walsh while Walsh was actively harming herself.
After the knife was removed, Walsh allegedly said she had been trying to kill herself before directing the neighbor to the basement, where Barrett was found. Prosecutors said Walsh later described the killing to investigators in a way that matched evidence recovered from the scene. The filing also alleges that she had made statements about harming her other children and her husband when he returned home.
The Lindsay Clancy case now sits at the center of prosecutors’ account of what preceded Barrett’s death. They say Walsh had recently become “very invested” in Clancy’s trial and was actively discussing it in a group text roughly three and a half hours before police were called to her home and said she was “inspired” by the events and the outcome of the case.
Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse, admitted killing her three children in Massachusetts in January 2023 but pleaded not guilty, arguing that postpartum psychosis left her unable to be held criminally responsible. Prosecutors disputed that diagnosis and maintained that the killings were deliberate.
That trial ended in a mistrial on Friday, September 4, after jurors remained deadlocked through seven days of deliberations. “It is with a heavy heart that we report we are unable to come to a unanimous decision,” the jury foreperson wrote.
Clancy’s defense unsuccessfully fought the mistrial after claiming one juror refused to properly apply the law on reasonable doubt. Prosecutors have not decided whether to retry her, and a status hearing is scheduled for September 29.
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