Mom Obsessed With Lindsay Clancy Trial Kills Son, Calls Him ‘The Anti-Christ’

An Illinois mother who became obsessed with Lindsay Clancy’s high-profile murder trial told police she killed her 2-year-old son because she believed he was the “devil” and the “anti-Christ,” according to court documents.

Corie A. Walsh has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the death of her toddler, Barrett Walsh. She remains in custody but is being held for medical treatment after police said she attempted to harm herself following the killing that shocked a relatively safe and quiet suburb south of Chicago.

Officers were called shortly after 4 p.m. Tuesday to a home in Frankfort, Illinois, for a report of an unresponsive child. A neighbor was performing CPR when police arrived, and the boy was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, The Daily Wire previously reported. 

New court documents reveal dark new details on the reported killing that carries loud echoes to the Lindsey Clancy case. Walsh told law enforcement she hung her son in the basement because she believed the toddler was the “devil” and the “anti-Christ,” local media reported. 

Walsh also told police that “Bear” – a family nickname for the boy – was in the basement, according to court documents cited by WGN9. Preliminary results from an autopsy suggest the boy died from asphyxia caused by “ligature compression of the neck,” local media reported. 

The accused killer was home alone at the time of the homicide while her husband was out of town. He flew back later that evening, according to local media. Three other children inside the home were unharmed. An infant was inside the home, while two school-aged children returned home around the time of the horrific killing, FOX32 reported. 

As police hunt for a motive, witnesses in the neighborhood reportedly told authorities that Walsh had “recently become very invested in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial,” NBC Chicago reported. 

Her fascination with the case went beyond simply watching it on television, as Walsh “had been actively discussing the case via group text message with her friends” just hours before her toddler was killed, the outlet reported.

Inside the upscale, two-story home, officers were “directed to an upstairs bathroom located in the master bedroom,” where Walsh was found “fully dressed, surrounded by bloody water,” according to court documents. Police found Walsh with non-life-threatening and self-inflicted cuts to her thighs and wrists.

With details still rolling in, the reported murder has striking similarities to Lindsey Clancy’s triple strangulation death of her three children: 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson, and 8-month-old Callan.

“This is just absolutely devastating that this could be another Lindsay Clancy situation in our neighborhood, in our community. You never think it’s going to hit so close to home,” neighbor Carolyn Pappas said to NBC. “Just more people I think are struggling than we realize, and so we just need to be there for one another.”

On Friday, Judge William Sullivan declared a mistrial after the nine-woman, three-man jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict following 38 hours of deliberations. Like the rest of the nation, a divided and frustrated jury returned a somber note to the judge, which read: “It is with a heavy heart that we report we are unable to come to a unanimous decision and will not be able to.”

It was an inevitable but dramatic end to the six-week trial that captivated and divided the country – igniting a fierce debate over the role mental illness — particularly postpartum psychosis — should play in determining criminal responsibility.

Clancy killed the couple’s three young children by strangling them with exercise bands inside the family’s Duxbury, Massachusetts, home on January 24, 2023, after sending her husband, Patrick, to pick up takeout food and medication. She then attempted suicide by jumping from a second-story window after cutting both of her wrists. All three children died, and Clancy was left paralyzed from the waist down.

She is expected to remain at Tewksbury State Hospital, a psychiatric hospital, for now. Prosecutors must decide whether to retry her before a new jury, pursue a plea agreement, or decline to prosecute the case again.