Why did Corie Walsh allegedly kill her 2-year-old son? Illinois mother was ‘very invested’ in Lindsay Clancy case

An Illinois mother is facing a murder charge after prosecutors accused her of killing her 2-year-old son.

he case has drawn attention because she had been closely following the Lindsay Clancy murder trial.

Who is Corie Walsh?

Corie Walsh is a 40-year-old resident of Frankfort, Illinois. As per the New York Post, she is a mother of four. Walsh has now been charged with first-degree murder after prosecutors allege she fatally strangled her 2-year-old son, Barrett Walsh, according to a complaint filed on Friday.

An Illinois mother had become "very invested" in the high-profile Lindsay Clancy murder trial before prosecutors say she killed her son on Tuesday, according to witnesses cited in court documents, as per CNN.

What happened to Corie Walsh's son?

Around 4pm, the Frankfort Police Department responded to a report of an unresponsive toddler. The boy was later pronounced dead at a hospital, according to a Friday police news release.

A neighbour tried to give Barrett first aid and said he "was cold and had no pulse", according to court filings cited by CNN.

The neighbour said she found the toddler hanging from a rafter in the basement. A ligature was around his neck, and his feet were off the ground. She removed the ligature, lowered him to the ground and started CPR while calling 911.

The Frankfort Fire District said an ambulance "arrived to find a two-year-old patient in cardiac arrest." The responders "immediately initiated advanced resuscitative efforts and transported the patient to the ambulance," the fire district said in a Thursday news release, according to CNN.

The toddler was pronounced dead around 5pm Tuesday at a New Lenox hospital.

What happened to Walsh and why did she kill her child?

The same neighbour also discovered Walsh upstairs in a bloody bathtub "actively harming herself" with a knife, with slashes to her wrists and thighs.

The neighbour took the knife out of Walsh's hands and threw it into the sink, then pressed a towel over Walsh's thigh wound. Walsh asked the neighbour why she took the knife away as she was trying to kill herself.

Walsh, who was "reportedly...attempting to harm herself," told officers she did this to her son because he was the "devil" and the "anti-Christ," prosecutors said.

Walsh was hospitalised with non-life-threatening injuries, and her three other children were unharmed, as per police.

"This is a tragedy, for the Walsh family all of whom are mourning the loss of this child," Walsh's attorney, Andrea Lyon, told ABC 7 Chicago.

"It is also a tragedy in 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."

Was Walsh following the Lindsay Clancy trial?

An Illinois mother had become "very invested" in the high-profile Lindsay Clancy murder trial before prosecutors say she killed her son on Tuesday, according to witnesses cited in court documents.

At the time, over 1,000 miles away, the jury had been deliberating in the murder trial of Lindsay Clancy. Walsh had been discussing the case on a group text message with her friends up until 12:30pm Tuesday, prosecutors said witnesses told them.

Clancy's trial ended in a mistrial on Friday after a jury could not reach a verdict on whether to convict her of murdering her three children with plastic bands, or whether she should be found not guilty by reason of insanity. Clancy's defence team claimed she was suffering from postpartum psychosis.