Corie Walsh’s lawyer revealed she had texted family about a Disney World trip for her son just hours before allegedly killing him.
The Frankfort, Illinois, mother, 40, had spent months planning a vacation she hoped would thrill her youngest child, 2-year-old Barrett Walsh, whose first words were “Bluey” and “Mickey Mouse,” defense attorney Robert Kerr said during a Sept. 8 court hearing. Walsh and her mother began organizing the trip in January, booking flights, rooms, dinner reservations and park passes for a group that would include Walsh, her husband, their four children and both grandmothers.
“And of all of her children – she told her mom this, Judge, hours before the incident…[Walsh] was most excited for [Barrett], given his age and his affection for these characters, to go to Disney,” Kerr told a Will County courtroom.
Walsh “could not wait, she told her mother, to see [Barrett’s] face when he met Bluey and Mickey,” the attorney added.
The defense’s portrait of an enthusiastic mother clashed sharply with the account prosecutors have laid out. They allege Walsh, who had become “very invested” in the murder trial of Lindsay Clancy, “knowingly and intentionally” left Barrett suspended by a ligature around his neck in the basement of the family’s $850,000 home on Sept. 1. The suburban Frankfort residence sits about 35 miles south of Chicago.
Kerr countered that Walsh was in the grip of a “psychotic episode” when she hanged the toddler and then attempted to kill herself.
Barrett’s two older siblings allegedly discovered him around 4 p.m. With a rope around his neck and his feet off the ground. They ran to a neighbor’s house for help. The neighbor called 911 and tried to perform CPR, but the child had no pulse and was cold to the touch. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
An autopsy determined Barrett, nicknamed “Bear,” died of “asphyxia due to ligature compression of the neck,” according to court records.
Police found Walsh fully clothed and soaking in a bathtub full of bloodied water. She had slashed her wrists and thighs with a dull kitchen knife in a suicide attempt, authorities said. She allegedly confessed to killing Barrett, claiming he was the “anti-Christ” and “devil.” Her 8-month-old son was found unsupervised on the home’s main floor.
Walsh was arrested Sept. 4 and has remained in jail since. She entered a not guilty plea to three counts of first-degree murder during a roughly three-minute preliminary hearing Thursday.
Her husband, mother and other relatives have publicly stood by her, growing teary-eyed as they watched from the front row of the gallery while Walsh appeared in pale jail garb. Outside the courtroom, one supporter told Michael Walsh, “She will get through this, she’s strong.” The devastated husband, wiping away tears, told another supporter he had been “packing up” the family home, where stacks of boxes were visible through the front windows.
Walsh’s attorneys, Andrea Lyon and Kerr, are pushing to have her transferred from jail to a hospital for psychiatric treatment after a judge earlier rejected release. Lyon told reporters Thursday that jail records had been subpoenaed “to see whether or not she’s getting the treatment she needs.”
“They love her and this is not — she’s never been violent… she was psychotic. They all know that and want her to get better. This is not who she is,” Lyon said.
Kerr described Walsh to the court as “a very highly-involved, highly-functioning mother, a good mother, a loving and doting mother.” Other mothers in her circle “trusted Corie to care for their own children at times,” he noted.
A heartbreaking obituary released this week remembered Barrett as a joyful, funny, entertaining and rambunctious toddler who loved singing and dancing to Super Simple Songs and Miss Rachel, learning colors with Pingfong and Hogi, kicking soccer balls with friends and counting aloud to “5 Little Duckies.” He was a “cherished little brother” to Grady and Anna and a “caring big brother” to baby Cormick. A makeshift memorial of stuffed animals, flowers and handwritten notes sat outside the Walsh home this week, with blue ribbon wrapped around nearby trees in his honor.
Walsh’s next court date is scheduled for Oct. 17 in Joliet.