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There are true-crime stories, and then there are stories so horrifying that even true crime seems at a loss for words.
Prosecutors say Corie A. Walsh had recently become “very invested” in the Lindsay Clancy case before allegedly killing her 2-year-old son and attempting to take her own life. Authorities also say Walsh had made statements about harming her other children and her husband.
She's a real peach . . . allegedly.
Walsh, 40, has now been charged with three counts of first-degree murder and remains in custody “and being held for medical treatment.”
The disturbing case unfolded in Frankfort, Illinois, an affluent suburban community about 35 miles southwest of Chicago. What should have been an ordinary Tuesday quickly turned into every parent's worst nightmare.
Police responding to the Walsh home shortly after 4 p.m. found the family's 2-year-old son, Barrett Walsh, hanging in the basement. A neighbor had discovered the child, removed him and desperately attempted CPR while calling 911.
But it was already too late.
The toddler was transported to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The Will County Coroner’s Office ruled the death an apparent homicide. Preliminary autopsy findings determined that the child died from asphyxia due to ligature compression of the neck, according to prosecutors.
Walsh was found upstairs in the master-bedroom bathroom, fully dressed and lying in a bathtub “surrounded by bloody water.” She had cuts on her wrists and thighs and was transported to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
And then came an explanation that sounds less like something from a courtroom filing and more like a particularly disturbing horror movie script.
Walsh allegedly told officers “she did this to her baby because he was the ‘devil’ and the ‘anti-Christ.’”
According to prosecutors, a neighbor found Walsh holding a knife and “actively harming herself.” The neighbor took the knife away and threw it into the sink, where police later recovered it as evidence.
Walsh reportedly asked why the neighbor had taken the knife, “as she was trying to kill herself.”
She then allegedly told the neighbor that “Bear,” the child's nickname, was “in the basement.”
Police have described the case as a domestic-related homicide.
But what makes the case even more disturbing is what prosecutors say happened in the hours leading up to the killing.
Walsh had “recently become very invested in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial,” prosecutors said in their petition seeking to deny her pretrial release.
Clancy, who killed her three children in January 2023, has become a national figure in one of the most disturbing criminal cases in recent memory. Her murder trial, which was being live-streamed, ended in a mistrial Friday. The Left seems to believe Clancy should not be punished for her crime, normal people disagree.
According to prosecutors, Walsh had been “actively discussing the case” with friends in group text messages until approximately 12:30 p.m. Tuesday.
That was just three and a half hours before police arrived at her home.
At the time Walsh was allegedly discussing the Clancy case, the jury in that trial was deliberating.
That timeline is now one of the most disturbing elements of the investigation.
Walsh's husband was out of town when the killing occurred. An infant was also inside the home but was unharmed. Two school-age children returned home around the time Barrett was discovered and were likewise physically unharmed.
Unfortunately, prosecutors say the danger may not have ended with Barrett.
Walsh allegedly made statements about harming her other children and her husband when he returned home.
Once hospitalized, Walsh also described to officers “the manner in which she killed Barrett,” prosecutors said. Investigators say her account was consistent with the physical evidence discovered at the scene.
Walsh remains in custody while receiving medical treatment. Once she is released from the hospital, she is expected to be transferred to the Will County Adult Detention Facility.
It was not immediately clear whether she had retained an attorney.
Frankfort police described the case as a “heartbreaking tragedy,” adding, “We ask our community to keep them in their thoughts and prayers.”
And that is perhaps the only appropriate response to a case this horrific. Whatever bizarre chain of events led to the killing, an innocent 2-year-old boy is dead, a family has been shattered, and an entire community is left trying to comprehend something that should never have happened.
The boy was two years old, so this was not a case of postpartum psychosis.
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