Illinois mother charged with murder after 2-year-old son found hanged in basement

Corie Walsh, 40, of Frankfort, Illinois, faces three counts of first-degree murder after her toddler son was found dead. She was discovered injured in a bathtub in an apparent suicide attempt.

Frankfort mother charged with murder after toddler son found dead in basement

Google News MT — Crime (en) reports that a suburban Illinois mother has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder after her 2-year-old son was found hanging in the basement of the family home in Frankfort, a village roughly 35 miles southwest of Chicago.

Corie A. Walsh, 40, was formally charged on Friday, Frankfort police announced. Officers had responded to the home just after 4 p.m. Tuesday following a report of an unresponsive child.

A neighbour was already performing CPR on the toddler, identified as Barrett Walsh, when officers arrived. The neighbour had found the child hanging in the basement and brought him down before calling 911. Barrett was already cold with no pulse. He was transported to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The Will County Coroner's Office ruled his death an apparent homicide. Preliminary autopsy findings indicate he died from asphyxia due to ligature compression of the neck, according to court documents.

Walsh was found in the upstairs master bathroom, lying in a bathtub fully clothed and surrounded by bloody water, with cuts to her wrists and thighs. She was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

The same neighbour told officers she had found Walsh with a knife in her hands, "actively harming herself." The neighbour removed the knife and threw it into the sink, where it was later recovered as evidence. After the knife was taken away, Walsh asked the neighbour why she had done that, "as she was trying to kill herself," according to the petition to deny pretrial release.

Walsh told officers "she did this to her baby because he was the 'devil' and the 'anti-Christ,'" the filing stated. She also indicated to the neighbour that "Bear" — the child's nickname — was in the basement.

Prosecutors noted in the petition that Walsh had "recently become very invested in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial." Clancy, who killed her three children in January 2023, has been the subject of a nationally livestreamed trial that ended in a mistrial on Friday. Walsh had been "actively discussing the case" in group text messages with friends as recently as 12:30 p.m. Tuesday — approximately three and a half hours before the scene at her home was discovered, at which point the Clancy jury was in deliberations.

Walsh's husband was out of town at the time. An infant was present in the home and was unharmed. Two school-age children had also returned home around the time Barrett was found and were likewise physically unharmed, prosecutors said.

Walsh allegedly made statements about harming her other children and about harming her husband upon his return home, according to the filing.

Once hospitalised, she described to officers "the manner in which she killed Barrett," which prosecutors said was consistent with the physical evidence at the scene.

Walsh remained in custody Friday night, receiving medical treatment. Upon her release from hospital, she is 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," asking the community to keep the family in their thoughts and prayers.

Source: Google News MT — Crime (en)