An Illinois mother charged with taking her 2-year-old son’s life told police she believed the toddler was the “devil” and the “anti-Christ,” according to court documents — and witnesses say she’d become obsessed with the Lindsay Clancy case just hours before the incident.
Corie A. Walsh faces three counts of first-degree charges in the loss of her toddler, Barrett Walsh.
She remains in custody receiving medical treatment after police say she attempted to harm herself following the incident that shocked the quiet suburb of Frankfort, Illinois, south of Chicago.
Officers responded shortly after 4 p.m. Tuesday to a report of an unresponsive child. A neighbor was performing CPR when police arrived. The boy was transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced deceased.
Walsh told law enforcement she believed the toddler was the “devil” and the “anti-Christ,” according to court documents.
New court filings reveal Walsh told police she hung her son — known by the family nickname “Bear” — in the basement. Preliminary autopsy results suggest the boy’s cause of loss was asphyxia caused by “ligature compression of the neck,” local media reported.
The accused was home alone while her husband was out of town. He flew back later that evening. Three other children in the home were unharmed — an infant was present, while two school-aged children returned around the time of the incident.
As investigators search for motive, neighbors reportedly told authorities Walsh had “recently become very invested in the Lindsay Clancy case,” NBC Chicago reported.
Her interest went beyond watching the trial on television.
Walsh “had been actively discussing the case via group text message with her friends” just hours before her toddler’s life was taken, the outlet reported.
Inside the upscale two-story home, officers found Walsh in an upstairs bathroom in the master bedroom, “fully dressed, surrounded by bloody water,” according to court documents. Police discovered non-life-threatening self-inflicted cuts to her thighs and wrists.
The reported case carries striking similarities to Lindsay Clancy’s actions against her three children: 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson, and 8-month-old Callan.
“This is just absolutely devastating that this could be another Lindsay Clancy situation in our neighborhood, in our community. You never think it’s going to hit so close to home.”
Neighbor Carolyn Pappas told NBC the case highlights hidden struggles in the community.
“Just more people I think are struggling than we realize, and so we just need to be there for one another,” Pappas said.
On Friday, Judge William Sullivan declared a mistrial in the Clancy case after the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict following 38 hours of deliberations.
The divided jury returned a note reading: “It is with a heavy heart that we report we are unable to come to a unanimous decision and will not be able to.”
The six-week trial ignited fierce national debate over the role mental illness — particularly postpartum psychosis — should play in determining criminal responsibility.
Lindsay Clancy took the lives of the couple’s three young children by strangling them with exercise bands inside the family’s Duxbury, Massachusetts, home on January 24, 2023. She sent her husband, Patrick, to pick up takeout food and medication before the actions. She then attempted to take her own life by jumping from a second-story window after cutting both wrists.
All three children were lost, and Clancy was left paralyzed from the waist down.
She is expected to remain at Tewksbury State Hospital, a psychiatric facility, for now. Prosecutors must decide whether to retry her before a new jury, pursue a plea agreement, or decline to prosecute the case again.
The charges remain allegations. The case has not been proven in court.
