FRANKFORT, IL — A suburban Chicago mother has been charged with murder after police say her 2-year-old son was found dead in the basement of their Frankfort home and she was discovered upstairs with self-inflicted injuries. Corie A. Walsh, 40, faces three counts of first-degree murder, according to police announced Friday.
Authorities said the case unfolded Tuesday at a house on a quiet street in the affluent village about 35 miles southwest of Chicago. Court filings say Walsh’s son, Barrett Walsh, was found hanging in the basement, while Walsh was found in a bathtub in the upstairs primary bathroom during what investigators described as an apparent suicide attempt.
Neighbor’s CPR efforts came before officers arrived
Frankfort police said they were called just after 4 p.m. Tuesday on a report of an unresponsive child. When officers got to the home, a neighbor was already performing CPR after finding the toddler hanging in the basement, according to court documents.
The neighbor had taken the child down and kept trying to revive him while calling 911. Prosecutors said the boy was already cold and had no pulse by then. He was taken to a local hospital and later pronounced dead. The Will County Coroner’s Office ruled the death an apparent homicide.
Preliminary autopsy findings cited in the court filing say Barrett died from asphyxia caused by ligature compression of the neck. Police said the investigation remains domestic-related.
Court filing says Walsh spoke about the case before the killing
Prosecutors said Walsh had recently become deeply focused on the Lindsay Clancy murder trial, which had drawn national attention as it was livestreamed. Clancy had been accused of killing her three children in 2023, and the Massachusetts trial ended in a mistrial Friday.
According to the petition to deny Walsh pretrial release, she had been actively discussing the case in group text messages with friends until 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, only hours before her son was found. At that point, jurors in the Clancy trial were still deliberating.
The filing says prosecutors are using those messages and her interest in the case as part of their argument that she should not be released before trial. No immediate information was provided about whether she has retained a lawyer.
Officers found Walsh in a bathtub with cuts to her wrists and thighs
Inside the home, police found Walsh in the upstairs primary bathroom lying fully dressed in a bathtub surrounded by bloody water, the filing says. Officers said she had cuts to her wrists and thighs and was taken to a hospital with injuries that were not considered life-threatening.
A neighbor told police she had found Walsh holding a knife and actively hurting herself. The neighbor took the knife away, threw it into a sink and later turned it over as evidence. Prosecutors said Walsh then asked why the knife had been taken because she was trying to kill herself.
Walsh allegedly told officers she had done this to her baby because he was the “devil” and the “anti-Christ.” The neighbor also said Walsh told her that “Bear,” the child’s nickname, was in the basement.
Investigators say other children were in the home but were not hurt
Police said Walsh’s husband was out of town when the incident happened. An infant was in the house and was not harmed, prosecutors said. Two school-aged children also came home around the time Barrett was discovered and were physically unharmed, according to the filing.
Prosecutors said Walsh made statements about harming her other children and also said she intended to hurt her husband when he returned home. Once she was hospitalized, she reportedly described the manner in which she killed Barrett, and investigators said that account matched what they found at the scene.
Those details are part of the petition filed as authorities sought to keep Walsh in custody while the case moves forward. Police have not released any additional information about what happened in the home before the discovery of the child.
Walsh remains in custody as Frankfort police call the case heartbreaking
Walsh was in custody Friday night and being held for medical treatment, officials said. After she is released from medical care, she is expected to be transferred to the Will County Adult Detention Facility.
Frankfort police called the case a “heartbreaking tragedy” and asked the community to keep the family in their thoughts and prayers. The court filing and police statements make clear that investigators are treating the death as a domestic-related homicide.
The charges now place Walsh at the center of a case that has shaken this suburban community and drawn attention because of the young age of the victim, the attempted self-harm, and the disturbing statements investigators say she made before and after the killing.
