A woman who attended Catholic school with Corie Walsh says she is stunned by the devastating allegations now facing the Illinois mother.
Walsh, 40, has been accused of killing her 2-year-old son, Barrett “Bear” Walsh, after prosecutors said the toddler was discovered hanging from a basement rafter at the family’s suburban Chicago home on September 1.
Yet someone who knew Walsh during her teenage years described a person far removed from the woman now at the center of the deeply troubling case.
The former classmate told TMZ that Walsh was remembered at their small Catholic high school as “beautiful, kind, intelligent, talented and giving.”
She said Walsh moved comfortably among different circles of classmates and was actively involved in campus life, taking part in the poms team, Helping Hands club, senior Powderpuff games and liturgy during Mass.
Although the pair have not been in contact since their school days, the woman said every interaction she remembers having with Walsh was positive.
That has made the allegations surrounding the death of her young son even harder for her to comprehend.
‘Never in a million years could I have imagined something so tragic,’ she told TMZ.
Corie Walsh’s former Catholic school friend said the mother pictured with her young family is difficult to reconcile with the teen she remembers as ‘beautiful, kind, intelligent, talented and giving.’
Walsh was discovered upstairs lying in a bathtub ‘fully dressed, surrounded by bloody water,’ after she had attempted to harm herself with a knife, according to court documents
Walsh faces three counts of first-degree murder over the toddler’s death and has not yet entered a plea.
The former friend was particularly stunned by prosecutors’ allegation that Walsh later told investigators she killed Bear because she believed the toddler was the ‘devil’ and the ‘Antichrist.’
Asked whether she had ever witnessed signs of that kind of extreme religious thinking when they were teenagers, she answered emphatically: ‘Not at all.’
Walsh and her classmates did regularly attend Mass the woman explained, but largely because they were pupils at a Catholic school.
‘None of us were church freaks,’ she said.
While Walsh participated in religious activities at school, her former classmate said she never regarded her as someone who was consumed by religion or lived in fear of God.
The friend stressed that she had not spoken to Walsh since high school and would not speculate about how she may have changed in the years since.
Instead, she said her heart breaks for everyone caught up in the tragedy, ‘most especially for the loss of an innocent little boy.’
Walsh’s old school friend remembered her as sociable and involved in numerous activities, saying she appeared to get along with people from different groups.
A memorial has been erected outside the Walsh home. Neighbors discovered Barrett hanging from a rafter in the basement
Her recollections emerged just days after Walsh appeared in court for the first time as her family was laying Bear to rest.
Prosecutors allege a neighbor discovered Bear hanging from a rafter in the basement and lowered him to the floor before desperately attempting CPR.
Court documents state the two-year-old was cold and had no pulse. He was later pronounced dead, with his cause of death listed as ‘asphyxia due to ligature compression of the neck.’
The same neighbor allegedly discovered Walsh upstairs, lying fully clothed in a bathtub surrounded by bloody water after she had harmed herself with a knife.
Walsh was taken to hospital and allegedly admitted killing her son, according to authorities.
Her husband, Michael Walsh, was out of state at the time.
An infant was found unharmed at the home, while two school-aged children returned to the property as the emergency unfolded, according to court filings.
The horrifying case has attracted further attention because of Walsh’s alleged fascination with the murder trial of Massachusetts mother Lindsay Clancy.
Prosecutors say Walsh was ‘actively discussing’ the Clancy case in a group text with friends just hours before Bear’s death.
Clancy admitted killing her three young children in January 2023 but pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, with her defense arguing she suffered from postpartum psychosis and was overmedicated.
Her trial ended in a mistrial last week after jurors failed to reach a verdict.
Authorities have not established that the Clancy case caused or directly influenced Bear’s death.
Walsh’s defense has fiercely rejected suggestions that she was a Clancy ‘copycat.’
Walsh’s defense has fiercely rejected suggestions that she was a Clancy ‘copycat.’ Lindsay Clancy’s case, pictured, which has captured the world, was ruled a mistrial on Friday
Her attorney Andrea Lyon said Walsh was suffering from a ‘psychotic episode’ when her son died.
‘This is a tragedy for the Walsh family, all of whom are mourning the loss of this child,’ Lyon said.
‘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.’
Lyon later described speculation that Walsh copied Clancy as ‘sickening.’
‘That speculation that this has anything to do with that, that it’s a copycat or anything like that, is baseless and cruel,’ she said outside court Tuesday.
Prosecutors, however, revealed another alarming allegation during Walsh’s detention hearing, claiming she had also contemplated poisoning her husband.
‘She was going to poison him with a drink,’ a prosecutor told the court. ‘She had a drink and a number of prescription bottles on the table.’
The defense disputed the prosecution’s characterization of Walsh’s discussions about Clancy, saying the group chat had circulated unfounded conspiracy theories about Clancy’s husband, Patrick.
On the day Bear died, Walsh allegedly appeared to have changed her view of that case, sending her friends an anguished message: ‘It’s manslaughter. Please help. I’m really freaking out.’
Walsh’s family nevertheless continues to stand behind her.
Her husband and mother missed Tuesday’s detention hearing because they were attending Bear’s funeral, defense attorney Robert Kerr told the court.
Kerr said they were ‘heartbroken’ they could not attend and wanted the judge to know they had ‘unwavering support for her.’
The defense sought to have Walsh released into her mother’s care so she could undergo psychiatric treatment, but Judge Amy Bertani ordered her held in jail.
‘I can’t make this decision out of compassion or empathy,’ Bertani said.
The judge found there was ‘clear and convincing evidence’ connecting Walsh to a first-degree murder offense and ruled that she posed a ‘clear and present threat to her husband and other children.’
Walsh’s next court appearance is scheduled for September 24.
