Corie Walsh, the Illinois mother accused of killing her 2-year-old son, has the backing of her family, her attorney said. Lawyer Andrea Lyon attributed the “unimaginable tragedy” to a psychotic episode similar to the condition discussed in the high-profile case involving Lindsay Clancy.
Lyon, who previously represented Casey Anthony, said Walsh was experiencing psychosis when her son, Barret, was found hanging from a rafter in the basement of the family’s Illinois home last month.
“We are continuing to investigate and thoroughly represent our client by learning everything that we can about her and about her psychosis,” Lyon told WMAQ outside the Frankfort courthouse, where Walsh attended a pretrial hearing Monday.
“Psychosis is not a choice, and the death of Little Bear — that was [Barrett’s] nickname — is an unimaginable tragedy,” she said.
“We are getting prepared to defend her, and that requires us to know everything. The only way to do that is to get all the discovery.”
Lyon also said Walsh’s relatives were “fully supporting her” as the case moves forward.
Walsh, 40, faces a first-degree murder charge after prosecutors said her two older children came home from school and discovered their mother fully clothed in a bathtub filled with bloody water. Authorities said she had harmed herself.
The children went to a neighbor for help. The neighbor later found Barret in the basement with a rope around his neck and his feet off the floor at the family’s home in Frankfort, a suburb roughly 30 miles southwest of Chicago.
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The neighbor called 911 and attempted CPR, but the child had no pulse and was cold to the touch. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
An 8-month-old child was also found inside the home and was not injured.
Prosecutors said Walsh had “recently become very invested” in the murder case involving Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts mother who killed her three children. Clancy’s attorneys argued that postpartum psychosis played a role in the deaths.
Clancy also attempted suicide by jumping from a second-story window, an act that left her permanently paralyzed from the waist down.
The widely followed Clancy trial ended in a mistrial after one juror refused to support a not-guilty verdict based on insanity.
Walsh was hospitalized after the incident. According to prosecutors, she allegedly told investigators that she killed her son because he was the “anti-Christ” and the “devil.”
She also allegedly told investigators that she had planned to poison her husband.
Walsh has pleaded not guilty and is due back in court Nov. 23.