Editor’s note: This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988.
The mother of a 2-year-old Frankfort boy who died Tuesday hanged him from a rafter, killing him, before cutting her own wrists and thighs open in a bathtub, prosecutors said Friday.
Corie Walsh, 40, is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the death of her son, 2-year-old Barrett Walsh, Frankfort police and Will County prosecutors said.
A neighbor found Barrett hanging from a rafter with a ligature around his neck and his feet off the ground in the basement of the Walsh family home on the 22700 block of Brook Stone Court on Tuesday afternoon, prosecutors said.
The neighbor took Barrett down and attempted CPR while calling 911, but he was cold and had no pulse, prosecutors said. Police arrived at the home at 4:04 p.m., and Barrett was later pronounced dead at Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox, according to the Will County coroner’s office.
One other child, an infant, was home at the time, while two school-age children arrived home around the same time Barrett was discovered, prosecutors said. All three other children were unharmed.
The neighbor and responding officers found Walsh upstairs in a bathtub full of bloody water, fully dressed, with cuts to her wrists and thighs, prosecutors said. She was actively harming herself when she was found, and the neighbor grabbed a knife from her hand, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said Walsh told officers she had killed Barrett because he was the “devil” and the “anti-Christ.”
Police said Friday morning Walsh was in custody and being held for medical treatment. She was booked into the Will County Jail on Friday afternoon, according to the jail’s inmate lookup.
Prosecutors said Walsh had recently become highly invested in the high-profile Lindsay Clancy trial, in which a Massachusetts mother was charged with murder of her three children before attempting suicide in what her lawyers say was a breakdown caused by postpartum psychosis.
The case was in jury deliberations Tuesday, and a mistrial was declared Friday after the jury was unable to reach a verdict.
Walsh had discussed the Clancy case with friends via text up until 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, 3½ hours before the scene was discovered, prosecutors said.
Andrea Lyon, a lawyer representing Walsh, said her client was experiencing a psychotic episode when Barrett was killed.
“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.”
The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, which is responsible for investigating cases of child abuse and neglect, said Thursday it had had no prior contact with the family.
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“It is our hope, through a thorough presentation and investigation of the facts, that all of us will come to see this heartbreak for what it is,” Lyon said.
An autopsy was performed on Barrett Wednesday, though a final cause and manner of death has not yet been shared.
Walsh’s husband was out of the state at the time of the killing, prosecutors said, but flew home Tuesday night.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the family, their loved ones, and everyone affected by this heartbreaking tragedy,” police said in a statement. “We ask the community to keep them in their thoughts and prayers and to respect their privacy as they navigate this profoundly difficult time.”