A mum has been charged with murder after her 2-year-old son was found dead in her home.
Corie Walsh, 40, was found in a bathtub after attempting to take her own life in Frankfort, Illinois, on Tuesday.
Her young son, Barrett, was found hanging in the basement, and Corie was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Prosecutors said that Walsh had recently become ‘very invested’ in the trial of Lindsay Clancy, who killed her three children.
Neighbours discovered little Barrett and called the police after 4pm last Tuesday. The neighbour attempted CPR, but the toddler was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Court filings showed that Walsh told officers she allegedly killed her son because he was the ‘devil and anti-Christ’.
She had two other children, who returned home around the same time Barrett was found.
Walsh’s husband was out of state at the time of the alleged killing.
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Her attorney said in a statement: ‘This is a tragedy for the Walsh family, all of whom are mourning the loss of this child.
‘It is also a tragedy in that Corey herself was experiencing a psychotic episode at the time this happened. We hope that through a thorough presentation and investigation of the facts, all of us will come to see this heartbreak for what it is.’
Days ago, the judge in the trial of Lindsay Clancy declared a mistrial after the jury was unable to reach a joint decision.
The Massachusetts mother, 36, was on trial for the murders of her three children: Cora, five, Dawson, three, and Callan, eight, in January 2023.
Clancy did not deny killing her children by strangling them with an exercise band in the basement of their home, but her defence claimed she was in a state of postpartum psychosis when the crimes took place, and therefore was not criminally responsible for her actions.
The prosecution said that, while there was no doubt Clancy was suffering from depression, she still made a calculated decision to kill her children.
In order to convict a defendant in the United States, juries must reach a unanimous decision.
A new jury will be selected, and the trial will commence again later this year. No new dates have been set.
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