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WARNING: Details may be disturbing for some readers.
An Illinois woman who had become fascinated with the Lindsay Clancy case was accused of murdering her two-year-old child and trying to take her own life.
Corie A. Walsh, 40, is facing three counts of first-degree murder following the horrific slaying of the toddler inside a Frankfort, Ill., home, WMAQ reported.
On Sept. 1, police were called to the home in the affluent village about 60 kilometres south of Chicago, responding to reports of an “injured two-year-old child,” according to court documents obtained by the outlet.
Neighbour’s grisly discovery
Officers arrived at the scene where a neighbour was performing CPR on Barrett Walsh, also known as Bear.
She told authorities she found the boy hanging from a rafter in the basement. He had a ligature around his neck and his feet were off the ground, prosecutors said.
“Barrett was cold and had no pulse,” according to the documents.
He was pronounced dead that same day and autopsy results determined he had died of “asphyxia due to ligature compression of the neck,” the Will County Coroner’s Office said in a news release .
Walsh was discovered in the bathroom of the upstairs master bedroom, lying in a tub fully dressed and “surrounded by bloody water.”
She had cuts to her thighs and wrists, the petition said, but was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, according to police.
Walsh told officers “she did this to her baby because he was the ‘devil’ and the ‘anti-Christ,’” the filing read.
An infant was also inside the home at the time of the incident and two older children had returned home from school around the time the toddler was discovered.
Walsh’s husband was out of town at the time of the alleged murder.
Clancy obsession?
The mom of four had “recently become very invested in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial,” prosecutors said in their petition to deny her pretrial release.
Clancy, who killed her three children in January 2023, had been on trial since July.
Clancy’s defence attorney said she was suffering from postpartum psychosis while prosecutors acknowledged the severe mental illness , but argued that she was able to understand and control her actions.
Walsh had been “actively discussing the case” in group text messages with her friends up until 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, mere hours before the heartbreaking scene at her home played out, the filing said.
At the time, the Clancy jury was in deliberations. A judge officially declared a mistrial after jurors couldn’t come to a unanimous decision.
- What to know about the Lindsay Clancy trial as closing arguments near
- Lindsay Clancy's pink defenders omit her three murdered children
- Lindsay Clancy jurors deadlocked, judge sends them back to try again
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the family, their loved ones, and everyone affected by this heartbreaking tragedy,” Frankfort Police Chief Leanne Chelepis said in a statement.
“We ask our community to keep them in their thoughts and prayers and to respect their privacy as they navigate this profoundly difficult time.”
Walsh remains in custody and is “being held for medical treatment.”