FRANKFORT, Ill. (TCN) — A 40-year-old woman has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder in connection with the death of her 2-year-old son.
Officers with the Frankfort Police Department responded to a home on Sept. 1 after receiving a report that a child was unresponsive.
According to court documents obtained by NBC Chicago, a neighbor called the police after finding Barrett “Bear” Walsh hanging from a rafter in the basement. His feet were reportedly off the ground and there was a ligature around his neck. The neighbor removed the ligature and attempted to perform CPR as she called 911. She reported that the toddler was cold and she could not find a pulse.
The child’s mother, Corie A. Walsh, was also found at the scene suffering from non-life-threatening injuries, according to police. NBC Chicago reports she was allegedly in bathtub full of bloody water and had cuts on her thighs and wrists.
Three other children in the home were unharmed. The victim’s father also lives in the home but was out of town at the time of the alleged killing, NBC Chicago reports.
The victim was transported to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to police. An autopsy conducted the following day concluded he died from asphyxia, NBC Chicago reports. Walsh was charged with three counts of first-degree murder following an investigation.
During her interview with police, Walsh allegedly claimed she killed her son because she believed he was the devil and the Antichrist, according to NBC Chicago. Prosecutors said Walsh had “recently become very invested in the Lindsay Clancy trial.”
Forensic analysis of Walsh’s phone found she had been involved in a group text earlier that day discussing the Lindsay Clancy murder trial with others, per NBC Chicago.
Clancy, whose murder trial ended in a mistrial on Sept. 4, is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in connection with the January 2023 strangulation deaths of her three young children. She and her defense team claim she was suffering from postpartum psychosis at the time of the killings and heard a male voice that commanded her to kill her children.
Walsh has retained attorney Andrea Lyon, who worked on Casey Anthony’s defense during her murder trial, the New York Post reports. Anthony was accused of killing her toddler daughter in Florida in 2008. She was acquitted in 2011.
In a statement regarding Walsh, the Post reports Lyon said, “This is a tragedy for the Walsh family, all of whom are mourning the loss of this child. … It is also a tragedy in that Corie herself was experiencing a psychotic episode at the time this happened. It is our hope that through a thorough presentation and investigation of the facts, that all of us will come to see this heartbreak for what it is.”
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