An Illinois mother charged with murdering her 2-year-old son had been discussing the Lindsay Clancy trial in a group text with friends roughly three and a half hours before the boy was found dead inside her home, according to court documents filed by Will County prosecutors.
Frankfort police were called to a house in the 22700 block of Brook Stone Court just before 4:05 p.m. Tuesday for a report of an injured toddler. A 17-year-old neighbor had already called 911. According to the filing, the teenager found the boy, identified as Barrett Walsh, hanging from a rafter in the basement, lowered him down and began CPR. Officers took over when they arrived, and paramedics rushed the child to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The Will County Coroner’s Office ruled the death a homicide caused by asphyxia from ligature compression of the neck.
The same neighbor found the boy’s mother, 38-year-old Corie A. Walsh, fully clothed in a bathtub filled with bloody water. She had cuts on her wrists and thighs, and officers arrived to find the teenager pressing a towel against her leg. Walsh was taken to Silver Cross Hospital and charged with three counts of first-degree murder. She was moved Friday afternoon to the Will County Adult Detention Facility ahead of a detention hearing.
Court documents state that Walsh told officers she killed her son because he was a “devil” and the “anti-Christ,” and that she described to them how she did it. Prosecutors also wrote that she had talked about harming her three other children and her husband. Another child was inside the house at the time and was not hurt.
The detail that pushed this case into national coverage came from the prosecution’s petition to deny pretrial release, the filing that asks a judge to keep a defendant in jail until trial rather than releasing them. In it, prosecutors wrote that Walsh had recently become “very invested” in the Lindsay Clancy trial and had been actively discussing the case in a group text with friends until 12:30 p.m. Tuesday. Her phone was recovered from the bathroom and is being examined by forensic investigators.
Lindsay Clancy is a 36-year-old former labor and delivery nurse from Duxbury, Massachusetts. She was accused of strangling her three children, 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson and 8-month-old Callan, with exercise bands in January 2023, then jumping from a second-story window in an attempt to end her own life. Her attorney argued she was suffering from postpartum psychosis, a rare and severe condition that can cause a new mother to lose touch with reality and experience hallucinations or delusions. Prosecutors did not dispute that Clancy was severely mentally ill. They argued she still understood what she was doing and was able to control her actions.
That trial was livestreamed and followed closely for more than a month, splitting public opinion and pulling maternal mental health into national conversation. Jurors in Massachusetts were still deliberating on Tuesday, at the same time Walsh was texting about the case. On Friday, Plymouth County Superior Court Judge William Sullivan declared a mistrial after the jury could not reach a unanimous decision on whether Clancy was criminally responsible, the Massachusetts standard for finding that a defendant’s mental illness left them unable to appreciate that their conduct was wrong. Defense attorney Kevin Reddington said the jury was one holdout away from acquittal. The district attorney’s office has not said whether it will retry her.
Walsh’s attorney has said she experienced a psychotic episode. Frankfort Police Chief Leanne Chelepis said in a statement that the department’s thoughts are with the family and everyone affected. The investigation is ongoing, and everything prosecutors have laid out remains an allegation that has not been tested in court.
If you or someone you know is in emotional distress, the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is available by call or text.
