Mother charged with murder of 2-year-old son was invested in Clancy trial, say prosecutors
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Editor’s note: This story contains details of a disturbing and violent nature. Reader discretion is advised.
FRANKFORT, Ill. (WBBM) — A mother has been charged with murder after her 2-year-old child was killed inside a home in Frankfort, Illinois.
Police said Corie Walsh, 38, was charged with three counts of first-degree murder.
Police said Walsh is in custody and was in the hospital for medical treatment. Friday afternoon she was transferred to the Will County Adult Detention Facility ahead of her detention hearing.
Court documents have revealed unsettling and disturbing details about the toddler’s death.
Frankfort police said officers were called to the home in the 22700 block of Brook Stone Court around 4 p.m. Tuesday after a 17-year-old neighbor called 911 for help.
When they arrived, officers found a 2-year-old being given CPR by the teenager. The toddler was taken to a local hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.
According to court records, the neighbor found the boy “hanging in the basement on a device from a rafter” and it was determined he “died from asphyxia.”
The court records also said “one other child, an infant, was present in the home at the time and unharmed.” Walsh, the documents say, was found in an upstairs bathtub in a pool of blood with “cuts to her wrists and thighs.”
Two other kids came home from school around the time police arrived. Their father was out of state at the time.
According to the court documents, Walsh told officers “she did this to her baby because he was a ‘devil’ and the ‘anti-Christ'” and even gave details of how she killed her son. Prosecutors say Walsh had “become very invested in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial.”
The Clancy trial ended Friday when the judge declared a mistrial after jurors remained deadlocked on a verdict. Prosecutors said Walsh was in a group text talking about the Lindsay Clancy murder case just hours before killing her son, while the jury was still deliberating. CBS Legal Analyst Irv Miller said those messages are key.
“That will be exhibit A by the prosecutors, it will be first thing said in opening statement, the first piece of evidence they introduce and last thing they say in closing argument that’s how important that is,” he said.
Prosecutors say Walsh planned out this murder, but Walsh’s attorney said in part in a statement, “It is also a tragedy that Corie herself was experiencing a psychotic episode at the time this happened. 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.”
“You don’t want jurors who are so familiar with the Clancy case that will use that either for or against the defendant in Will County,” Miller said.
Walsh remains in custody at Will County Jail. Her first court appearance is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 8.
The Illinois Department of Child and Family Services told CBS News Chicago they have not had prior contact with the family until Tuesday. The agency said they are now involved in the investigation.