A 40-year-old Illinois mother has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder after her 2-year-old son was found dead inside their Frankfort home Tuesday afternoon, authorities announced Friday.
Frankfort police responded to the residence just after 4 p.m. following a report of an unresponsive child. Officers arrived to find a neighbor performing CPR on the toddler, identified as Barrett Walsh, who had been discovered hanging in the basement already cold with no pulse.
The child was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead. The Will County Coroner’s Office ruled his death a homicide, with preliminary autopsy results indicating he died from asphyxia caused by ligature compression of the neck.
Officers also found the boy’s mother, Corie A. Walsh, lying fully clothed in a bathtub filled with bloody water in the upstairs master bedroom. She had sustained cuts to her wrists and thighs and was transported to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Walsh allegedly told officers she killed her son because he was the “devil” and the “anti-Christ.” A neighbor who discovered her actively harming herself with a knife removed the weapon and threw it into the sink before it was collected as evidence.
Prosecutors revealed that Walsh had become deeply fixated on the high-profile Lindsay Clancy murder trial in the days leading up to the killing. Clancy was accused of murdering her three children in Massachusetts in January 2023 and her trial ended in a mistrial on Friday.
Court documents show Walsh had been actively messaging friends about the Clancy case as recently as 12:30 p.m. Tuesday just three and a half hours before the deadly scene was discovered at her home.
Walsh’s husband was out of town at the time of the incident. An infant inside the home was found physically unharmed. Two school-aged children returned home around the time Barrett was discovered and were also unharmed.
Prosecutors noted that Walsh made statements about intending to harm her other children and her husband upon his return. She also described to investigators the specific manner in which she killed Barrett which was consistent with the physical evidence found at the scene.
Walsh remained in custody Friday evening receiving medical treatment. She will be transferred to the Will County Adult Detention Facility upon her release from the hospital. It was not immediately known whether she has legal representation.
If you or someone you know is in crisis call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline available 24 hours a day seven days a week.
