An Illinois mom accused of murdering her 2-year-old son had been fixated on the Lindsay Clancy case before allegedly telling police she killed the boy because she believed he was the “devil” and the “anti-Christ,” court documents said.
Corie A. Walsh is being held for medical treatment after prosecutors charged her with three counts of first-degree murder in the death of Barrett Walsh, her toddler son, at the family’s Frankfort home.
Walsh’s attorney, Andrea Lyon, told NBC 5 Chicago that Barrett died while Walsh was experiencing a “psychotic episode.”
“This is a tragedy for the Walsh family, all of whom are mourning the loss of this child,” Lyon said.
“It is also a tragedy in that Corie herself was experiencing a psychotic episode at the time this happened.”
Lyon said a fuller examination of the case would show the death as heartbreak.
“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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Frankfort police were called to the house a little after 4 p.m. Tuesday over an unresponsive child. A neighbor had begun CPR by the time officers got there, and Barrett was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
WGN9, citing court documents, reported that Walsh allegedly told law enforcement that “Bear,” the family nickname for Barrett, was downstairs in the basement.
Local media reported that preliminary autopsy results suggested Barrett died of asphyxia from “ligature compression of the neck.”
Walsh’s husband was away when Barrett was killed and returned by plane later that evening, local media reported.
FOX32 reported that three other children at the home survived unharmed. An infant was in the residence, and two school-aged children arrived back around the time of the killing.
The neighbor who had tried to revive Barrett also came across Walsh upstairs in a bathtub, prosecutors said in a petition.
She was “fully dressed, surrounded by bloody water.”
Court documents said police found non-life-threatening wounds on Walsh’s thighs and wrists and considered them self-inflicted.
After Walsh allegedly cut herself with a knife in what documents described as a suicide attempt, the neighbor held a towel to her thigh.
Police said Walsh remains under guard while she receives medical care.
People in the neighborhood told authorities that Walsh had “recently become very invested in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial,” NBC Chicago reported, as investigators looked into what may have led to Barrett’s death.
NBC Chicago reported that Walsh’s interest in the case extended beyond watching trial coverage. Just hours before Barrett was killed, she “had been actively discussing the case via group text message with her friends.”
The detail rattled Frankfort residents, including neighbor Carolyn Pappas, who told NBC the killing echoed the Clancy case in a way that felt painfully close.
“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,” Pappas said.
“Just more people I think are struggling than we realize, and so we just need to be there for one another.”
The murder trial that Walsh had allegedly been following broke down Friday, when Judge William Sullivan dismissed the Lindsay Clancy jury without a verdict.
After 38 hours behind closed doors, the nine-woman, three-man panel told Sullivan it could not agree.
“It is with a heavy heart that we report we are unable to come to a unanimous decision and will not be able to.”
Defense attorney Kevin Reddington made a last-ditch push to keep the trial alive, turning to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court after Sullivan prepared to send jurors home.
Sullivan paused long enough to give Reddington one hour to request an emergency stay.
Reddington’s filing asked that one holdout juror be taken off the panel, alleging he was “biased” against people with “debilitating mental illness.”
The emergency appeal failed, and Sullivan declared a mistrial before discharging the deadlocked jury.
The holdout fight had already thrown the courtroom into chaos Thursday, when the foreperson told Sullivan that one juror was refusing to follow the judge’s reasonable-doubt instructions.
Sullivan denied Reddington’s bid to remove that juror Friday morning. Reporters in the courthouse described Reddington as visibly angry and frustrated during a heated sidebar with the judge, defense and prosecution.
Clancy’s six-week trial focused on the deaths of 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson and 8-month-old Callan at the family’s Duxbury, Massachusetts, home on January 24, 2023.
The case ignited a national argument over mental illness, postpartum psychosis and criminal responsibility.
Clancy strangled the children with exercise bands after sending her husband, Patrick Clancy, to pick up takeout food and medication. She later cut both wrists and jumped from a second-story window.
All three children died, and Clancy was left paralyzed from the waist down.
For now, Clancy is expected to stay at Tewksbury State Hospital while prosecutors decide whether to try her again, pursue a plea deal or abandon another prosecution.
Through attorney David Meier, Patrick Clancy described the possibility of another trial as “extraordinarily painful.”
“Patrick Clancy is grateful to the Court and to the jurors for their hard work, their commitment, and their perseverance,” Meier said.
“The loss of Patrick’s children is something from which he will never recover and from which there will never be closure. The prospect of reliving this tragedy through another trial is extraordinarily painful — for Patrick, for his family, and for all of us.”
Patrick was the first witness in his ex-wife’s murder trial and the person who came home to find the children inside the Duxbury house.
“The house was really quiet,” Patrick testified after returning from errands.
“I saw Cora. She had a band around her neck.”
He removed the band from Cora, then found 8-month-old Callan nearby in the same condition. Patrick searched the basement bathroom and the area around a couch before finding 3-year-old Dawson lifeless in a home office.
“I knew he was gone,” Patrick testified.
