Hidden True Crime - Her Final Messages Were About Lindsay Clancy—Hours Later, Her Son Was Dead | Corie Walsh Full Story

Episode Date: September 16, 2026

Lauren Matthias examines the disturbing Corie Walsh case after the Illinois mother was accused of murdering her 2-year-old son, Barrett “Bear” Walsh—just hours after reportedly sending frantic messages about the Lindsay Clancy trial. What happened inside the family’s Frankfort home, why did Corie allegedly call her toddler the “devil” and “Antichrist,” and was her fixation on Lindsay Clancy connected to Barrett’s death—or evidence that she was already experiencing a severe psychotic break? Hidden True Crime investigates the heartbreaking full story, Corie’s alleged statements about her husband and surviving children, her diagnosis of brief psychotic disorder, and the critical evidence that could determine whether this was calculated murder, a psychiatric crisis, or something far more complicated Sponsors: Primal Queen- Our listeners get a FREE MONTH of Primal Queen plus FOUR FREE GIFTS at https://PrimalQueen.com/HIDDEN Rula- Rula patients typically pay $15 per session when using insurance. Head to https://RULA.com to find a therapist the easy way. About Hidden True Crime What started as a simple conversation at their dinner table became a captivating podcast. Join the dynamic duo of Dr. John Matthias, a criminal psychologist, and Lauren Matthias, an investigative journalist, as they delve into the psychological facets of unthinkable crimes every week. Their unique perspectives and in-depth analysis offer a fresh take on true crime storytelling. Thank you for your support through sponsorships, subscribing, listening, and becoming a Patreon member at⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon.com/HiddenTrueCrime⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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A father was away on a work trip. and inside a beautiful 4,000 square foot family home in Frankfurt, Illinois, a mother was alone with her two youngest children, an infant and toddler. But when the older children got off that school bus, their mother wasn't waiting for them. It was odd. A neighbor eventually walked them home, and when the brother and sisters stepped inside,

they began calling for their mom. There was no answer. They searched the house until they found their two-year-old brother Barrett in the basement. What happened next would bring police rushing to the home, leave a little boy dead and his own mother arrested and charged. But there was something else investigators would discover. Just hours before Barrett was found, Corey Walsh had been messaging a group of friends about another mother, another mother accused of killing her children, Lindsay Clancy. And suddenly the question became impossible to ignore. this a disturbing coincidence? Or was something happening inside Corey's mind that made the

Lindsay Clancy case part of what happened to Little Barrett? When the Lindsay Clancy trial blew up online through the nation and the world, there were a lot of conversations about what her case could mean for the way we talk about mothers, mental illness, and the deaths of children. there were people, many of you, who worried that postpartum mental health would become a scapego, right? Where that future mothers accused of killing their children would point to mental illness as an excuse for something horrific they had done. Other people push back against that idea, arguing that severe mental illness isn't an excuse for anything, but it is something we have to understand if we're going to ever understand how a mother could reach the point of harming her own children. And now almost immediately, immediately after the Lindsay Clancy trial came to that very unusual ending,

we have another case involving a mother accused of killing her young child and some people online. Some of you think the cases are eerily similar. I'm one of those people. And the mother in this case is 40-year-old Corey Walsh, and she is accused of murdering her two-year-old son Barrett. But there's something about this case that makes those comparisons even more complicated because investigators say that Corey wasn't just aware of the Lindsay Clancy case. She had reportedly become extremely invested in the case and in the trial. She was discussing the trial with friends in a group text message on the very same day Barrett died while the jury deliberated.

And according to prosecutors, those conversations continued until around 1230 in the afternoon, just a few hours before police were called to the Walsh family's home. So naturally, many of us start asking whether the two cases are connected. Was Corey Walsh influenced by Lindsay Clancy? Was she trying to imitate something that she had seen? Was it a copycat crime? Or was Corey already experiencing a severe psychiatric crisis? And the Lindsay Clancy case simply became something her mind latched onto while she,

herself, was losing touch with reality. those are all very different possibilities. And right now, we don't have enough information to say which one is true or if something else entirely is true. In fact, Corey's defense attorneys, they have been adamant that the comparison to Lindsay Clancy is not only wrong but cruel, according to our defense attorneys. Andrea Lyon, one of Corey's high-profile attorneys, yeah, she previously represented Casey Anthony. Well, Andrea has rejected the idea completely that Corey is some kind of copycat of Lindsay Clancy. Lion has said the two cases are not correlated, that it's just a coincidence, and described the comparison as baseless. They are not correlated at all. It's just accidental.

And, you know, we have to be conscious of what the judge has told us we can talk about and not talk about. But that speculation that this has anything to do, that it's a copycat or anything like that is baseless and cruel. And when you actually start looking at the details, there are certainly similarities between these two cases, truly a lot of similarities. But there are also some very significant differences. So I want to go through this heartbreaking case from the beginning. I want to talk about the Walsh family before September 1st because sometimes when a case like this happens, we immediately jumped to the crime and forget that there was an entire family living a completely ordinary life before one afternoon changed everything. I want to talk about Corey, her husband

Michael, and their four children, and of course, especially their beautiful son Barrett, who was only two years old. Then we're going to get into what happened. inside that house, what we know at least, and what the neighbors found, and what Corey allegedly said to police that makes this case even more disturbing. Finding information about the Walsh family has not been particularly easy, but what we do know is that Corey and her husband, Michael, they have four beautiful children, three boys and one girl, a daughter. And from what we have been able to piece together, all four children were very young, with the youngest. the youngest, just eight months old at the time of Barrett's death, the same age as Lindsay Clancy's youngest, eight-month-old Callan.

The family lived in Frankfurt, Illinois, in Will County, a suburban community south of Chicago. Their home was in a newer neighborhood with beautiful houses, and from the outside, there was not anything about the family that would have immediately made people think something terrible was happening behind those walls. Michael had worked in marketing for years. And even though I wasn't able to find out what his current job exactly is, we do know that it required him to travel extensively. And according to a family friend, this wasn't occasional travel where someone might be gone for a couple of days and then come home. There were times when Michael would be gone for weeks at a time. Sometimes he would fly home for the weekend, spend less than 48 hours there, and then leave again for work. And that meant Corey was often handling the four children by herself, including an eight-month-old baby and a two-year-old.

Look, she wasn't necessarily completely isolated because relatives on both sides of the family reportedly lived nearby and help with the kids. But still, there's a big difference between having people who can come over and help when they can and having another parent physically in the house every night. There wasn't someone always walking through the front door after work who could take the baby while Corey dealt with dinner. There wasn't always another adult there to see how Corey was doing or there after a long day who could take over bedtime and get up with one of the children during the night. For large stretches of time, Corey was essentially parenting four young children on her own. And according to people close to the family, Barrett, also known as Bear,

was particularly challenging for her. That doesn't mean that she didn't love Bear. In fact, people who knew the family have gone out of their way to say the opposite, that Bear was. That Bear was reportedly deeply attached to his father, though. So whenever Mike left for another work trip, Bear would become extremely upset and difficult for Corey to manage. He reportedly fought meals and naps. I mean, he's two, right? Things that had been relatively simple, though, with the other children became battles with Bear. And according to one family friend, it seemed like everything with him was a fight. Again, they're called the terrible twos for a reason. But for a mother, already caring for three other children, including a baby, this constant struggle could be incredibly

exhausting for Corey. But again, the people who knew Corey do not describe her as someone who resented bear or treated him any different than the other children. In fact, her neighbors reportedly said that she treated all of her children equally. They described her as attentive and supportive, and they said that she was someone. They trusted around their own children. They said that she loved kids and even wanted more children. She was known as a kind of mom who went above and beyond for her family. Friends described Corey as kind, smart, and funny, bubbly even. And apparently, Corey had a way of making people feel comfortable almost immediately. The friend said that when you met her for the first time she treated you like you were already an old friend. And when it came to

her children, she wanted to make things as special as possible. According to that same friend, every birthday, every holiday, and every party became an opportunity for Corey to create something magical for the kids. She went over the top. She wanted everything to be perfect. And that description of Corey is difficult to reconcile with the woman police encountered on September 1st. You know what women are really good at? They're really good at functioning even when we don't necessarily feel our best. You're tired, your brain feels a little foggy. Three o'clock rolls around and you're thinking, okay, maybe one more coffee will fix this. And eventually, you start treating that as normal. I've been much more interested lately in finding natural ways

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That's primalqueen.com slash hidden to get a free month and four free gifts today. I've been loving it. And after you purchase, they will ask where you heard about them. Please support Hidden and let them know that we sent you. Barrett, also known as Bear, was born March 26, 2024. And those close to the family said that he did have. a speech delay, but one of his first words was Mickey Mouse. Corey and her mother had been planning a family trip to Disneyland since January, and Corey had been particularly excited for Little Bear to see

Mickey and Bluey. But now instead of planning their trip, the family is now planning Little Bear's funeral. Tuesday, September 1st was supposed to be another day in the Walsh household. Michael was out of town for work. The two older children were at school, and Corey was reportedly home with Barrett and the eight-month-old baby. But sometime during that afternoon, something happened that no one outside of that house could have anticipated. At approximately 4.4 p.m., Frankfurt police officers were dispatched to the family's home on Brooks Stone Court after receiving a report involving an injured or unresponsive child. But before officers even arrived, The situation had already begun unfolding in the most horrifying way imaginable.

The two older children got off that school bus that afternoon. But again, Corey wasn't at the bus stop. That was unusual enough that a neighbor walked the children home. And when they got inside, they couldn't find Corey. They called for her, but there was no response. So they started looking through the house, and that's when the children made the discovery that would change their lives forever. They found Bear, their brother, in the basement, and they ran back outside crying and screaming.

Another neighbor rushed inside and according to investigators, Barrett was hanging from a device attached to a ceiling rafter. A ligature was around his neck. His feet were off the ground. The neighbor removed the ligature and lowered Barrett to the floor. She began performing CPR while calling 911. And according to her statement, two investigators, Vera was cold and had no pulse. Thank you. The mother is starting CPR. Another ambulance out here, staff.

Right now, we've got two patients. We might have a third patient somewhere. We're searching the house right now. Okay, we are currently searching this house. Mom admitted to drowning one of the child somewhere else in the house here. So we're just giving a look here. Right now we have two patients. emergency responders.

You're going to say. You copy. Everybody. Emergency responders arrived and continued trying to revive him, but their efforts were unsuccessful. Barrett was transported to Silver Cross Hospital, and at 4.48 p.m., he was pronounced a dead. And while all of this was happening downstairs, police were directed toward the master bedroom upstairs, and that is where they found Corey Barrett's mother. She was lying in the bathtub, fully clothed, but the water around her was bloody. The neighbor was with her holding pressure against Corey's inner thigh.

The neighbor told police that she had taken a knife from Corey's hand and thrown it into the sink. Corey had cuts on her wrists and thighs. She had reportedly been trying to kill herself, but she was eventually transported to the hospital for treatment. Her physical injuries were not considered life-threatening, but according to investigators, the things Corey was saying during those first moments were deeply disturbing. She allegedly told officers that she had killed Barrett because he was, quote, the devil and referred to him as the anti-Christ. And while she was hospitalized, investigators say she made additional statements to investigators

describing how she had killed her son. those statements were consistent with the physical evidence investigators had collected, and then there was another statement that immediately sent police searching the house. According to police audio, Corey allegedly told officers that she had drowned her other children somewhere inside the home. Well, officers immediately began searching for other victims, but they didn't find one. The eight-month-old infant, the baby was alive and unharmed. Thank goodness. the two older children were also alive and unharmed.

So it's unclear why Corey said that or if this was part of some delusion she was possibly experiencing. During the detention hearing, prosecutors alleged that Corey had talked about harming her other children and they also alleged that she had made statements about killing her husband Michael when he returned home from his work trip. Yeah, according to investigators, Corey talked about poisoning him by putting something into a drink after he returned home. And they reportedly found several bodies of prescription medication on the kitchen counter. And due to all of this, prosecutors argued that Corey remained a danger to her surviving family members. The state's detention filing specifically said that the defendant posed a specific, real and present threat to her husband and her three surviving children.

An autopsy was performed on Barrett the next day, and the preliminary findings in the indicated that Barrett had died from asphyxia caused by ligature compression of the neck, which is consistent with the circumstances described the scene. Corey was ultimately charged with three counts of first-degree murder. This is confused a lot of us because there was only one victim, right? But prosecutors have charged her under three different legal theories. The first count alleges that Corey acted with the intent to kill Barrett or cause him great bodily harm. So in other words, the state is alleging that she intended the result of her actions.

The second count, though, involves a different mental state. Prosecutors alleged that she caused Barrett's death knowing that her actions would cause his death. And the third count is charged under another theory, alleging that she caused Barrett's death while knowing that her actions created a strong probability of death or great bodily harm. So these are three different ways the prosecution is alleging the required mental state for the same death. That distinction could become particularly important later because the defense, Corey's defense is already making Corey's mental state one of the central issues in this case. The original criminal complaint is only three pages long and was sworn on September 3rd and filed with the court. The complaint lays out the three first-degree

murder counts and the different mental states prosecutors are alleging. Count one is the intent theory. Count two is the knowledge theory. And count three alleges that Corey knew her conduct created a strong probability of death or great bodily harm. The charges cite the Illinois sentencing provision that can increase the sentencing consequences for certain felonies committed against a child under 12 years old. The state's detention filing says that because of Barrett's eight,

If Corey is ultimately convicted, the sentencing range would be 60 to 100 years, served at 100%. The arrest warrant was issued on September 3rd, and the judge found probable cause for the warrant to issue. It directed that she beheld and brought before the court for a hearing on pretrial detention. That hearing eventually took place on September 8th. By the time Corey appeared in court, the case had already attracted enormous attention. she entered the courtroom wearing a red jumpsuit, which prosecutors said indicated that she was receiving psychiatric care while in custody. I think one of the weird things about therapy is that sometimes the moment you probably need therapy most

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she had experienced a severe break from reality. They argued that she needed inpatient psychiatric treatment in a locked facility rather than being held in jail. Doctors at the hospital reportedly recommended immediate inpatient psychiatric treatment. The defense said that treatment would involve constant monitoring, including checks every 10 minutes, individual and group therapy, psychiatric medication and suicide precautions. They argued that the jail couldn't provide the level of psychiatric care that she needed, and they asked the judge to approach the situation with compassion and empathy. But the state had a very different argument.

Prosecutors again said that Corey remained a danger to the people who were still alive. They pointed to the allegations involving her other children and Michael, her husband, and argued that the court couldn't just release her because she was mentally ill. The judge, Amy Bertani, ultimately agreed with the state. She explained that she understood the defense's request for compassion and empathy, but her decision couldn't be based on compassion alone. She had to apply the law to the evidence presented at the hearing, so Corey remains in custody.

The defense's description of Corey's behavior on September 1st is one of the reasons this case is likely going to become so heavily focused on mental health. According to the defense, Corey was not behaving like someone who was thinking clearly. They described her eyes as fixed and dilated, the same way Andrea Yates' attorney explained Andrea's eyes as dilated. The defense said that Corey appeared to be going in and out of consciousness. They said that she was making statements that didn't make sense. And when the neighbor found her in the bathtub,

She was reportedly making giggling sounds. And then there's the fact that she told people that she had drowned her children one by one. But that was not true. Her surviving children are alive. The defense points to that as evidence that Corey was not accurately perceiving reality. After she was placed in an ambulance, investigators discussed additional strange behavior. And according to the allegations presented in court, Corey asked EMS workers, whether they had children. She allegedly asked whether any of them had ever raped little girls.

Then she reportedly told them that they were bad dads. She allegedly began yelling out the names of different fruits and at another point, she reportedly began singing, follow the yellow brick road. Yeah. So when you put all of those allegations together, the defense's argument becomes, fairly clear that she was experiencing a psychiatric crisis so severe that she was no longer operating within reality. And that's why they believe she needs psychiatric treatment. But then we have the group chat. Remember the group chat? And this is where the Lindsay Clancy case enters the story. Because investigators and witnesses say that Corey had recently become extremely invested in the Lindsay Clancy trial. At the time Barrett was killed. The jury in the Clancy case

was still deliberating. Corey had been discussing the case with a group of friends, apparently, mostly other women and mothers in her neighborhood. And she was still sending messages around 12.30 p.m. on September 1st, about three and a half hours before Barrett was found. According to the information presented in court Corey's friends, told investigators that she had started saying things that were strange and did not sound like her. She had apparently previously believed that Patrick was guilty in the Lindsay Clancy case. And then suddenly she changed her position. One of the messages reportedly said it was manslaughter. Please help. I'm really freaking out. And by the way, there is no evidence that Patrick Clancy has ever been guilty of anything.

The people in the group, though, said that they did notice that something was different about Corey as she messaged them. They described her messages as confusing and completely out of character. And this is one of the most interesting pieces of the case because it potentially gives investigators a window into Corey's state of mind in the hours immediately before Barrett's death. Her phone itself was reportedly found in the past. bathroom near Corey and investigators are conducting a forensic analysis of the phone. And of course, that could be potentially incredibly important. Investigators will want to know what else she searched,

what else she read, who she communicated with, and whether there were any messages or searches that could help explain what was happening to her. But that brings us to the question many of us have, was the Lindsay Clancy case a trigger? Some people online have immediately said that she copied Lindsay. But there are other possibilities. Maybe Corey was already experiencing a psychotic episode and the Clancy case became part of her distorted thinking. Maybe she became obsessed with the case because something about it resonated with a psychiatric crisis she was already experiencing or was trying to make sense of the case to her own increasingly disorganized thoughts. Maybe the timing is just a disturbing coincidence, as her attorney's claim.

Because if we're being honest, most of the country had become invested in the case, right? Or maybe the investigation will uncover evidence showing that the case influenced her in some direct way. We don't know. But Corey's other defense attorney, Andrea Lyon, the one that represented Casey Anthony, she has already pushed back very hard against the comparison. She has said that Corey was psychotic and has argued that this is not a first-degree murder case. When reporters asked about the similarities to Lindsay Clancy, Andrea Lyne described the comparison as baseless and cruel.

I can understand why the defense would be so aggressive about that issue because if prosecutors are able to convince a jury that Corey was studying the Clancy case, discussing it hours before Barrett was killed, and then carried out something very similar, that could become a very powerful narrative. But if the defense can show that Corey's obsession with the case was actually part of an emerging psychotic disorder, then the exact same evidence could be interpreted very differently. The same text message could potentially be used by two sides to tell two completely different stories. The prosecution could potentially say, look, at how focused she was on this case,

she was thinking about it right before she killed her own child. The defense could say, exactly, look at how bizarre and disorganized those messages became. This was a woman whose mind was already coming apart. Another thing I want to make very clear is that Corey's defense is not currently describing this as specifically postpartum psychosis. There has been a lot of conversations online about postpartum mental health because of Lindsay Clancy. And again, their youngest were the same. same age eight months. But these two cases shouldn't automatically be placed in the same medical category. Corey's attorneys have said that she was diagnosed with brief psychotic disorder.

They have argued that she was severely mentally ill, which is different from saying that she had postpartum psychosis. It's also important to understand that the psychiatric diagnosis and a legal insanity finding are not the same thing. A doctor can diagnose someone with a psychiatric disorder, but the court still has to determine whether that condition meets the legal requirements of insanity or the insanity defense if one is raised. A relative of Corey has said that if someone had asked them beforehand whether they ever thought Corey could do something like this, they would have bet their life on the answer being no. And to their knowledge, they have never known Corey to have had an history of self-harm. They describe the situation as something that seemed to come out of

nowhere. And while all of this is happening, Barrett's family was also having to bury him. During the detention hearing, Corey's husband and mother were reportedly absent because Barrett was being laid to rest. One part of this family was sitting in court listening to prosecutors describe allegations of murder and threats against the surviving family members, and at the same time, other family members, including her own mother, were saying goodbye to a beautiful two-year-old little boy. Bear was supposed to be going to Disney. He was supposed to be learning more words and he was supposed to be growing up with his brothers and sister. Instead, his family had to bury him. That is the reality of this case regardless of what happens later. No verdict is going to change the fact

that Barrett is now gone. And for now, Corey Walsh remains in custody. She has been denied pre-trial release and her defense team is continuing to investigate her mental health and the circumstances surrounding Barrett's death. A judge denied pretrial release to a locked situation in a hospital, which is what we had hoped would happen. We've given her psychological condition and the woes that she's still recovered from. We're disappointed with the ruling that we were going to continue to work really hard to investigate this case. present the defense is correct, which is that she was psychotic. And this is not a first-degree murder. We're present for the part of the hearing where the state asked us not to talk or asked

a gag order to keep us from talking. Of course, we can say in can't want to reiterate. Investigators are still examining Corey's phone and there will likely be additional forensic evidence, medical records, psychiatric evaluations, and eventually, if the case goes to trial, a jury could be asked to determine not only whether Corey caused Barrett's death, in other words, killed her own child, but what her mental state was when she did it. Her next scheduled court appearance is September 24th at the Will County Courthouse, and we're likely going to be learning a lot more between now and then. So how is this case different from Lindsay Clancy? I think this is probably

the question most people are going to have, because if you followed the Lindsay Clancy case, you look at this one and immediately see the similarities. Another mother, another very young child, another allegation of a mother attempting self-harm after doing the unthinkable. Another case where mental illness is going to potentially be central to the defense. And on top of all of that you have evidence that Corey was following the Lindsay Clancy trial right before her little boy was killed. So yes, I understand why people are talking about the two cases together. But I don't think it's fair to treat them as though they're the same case until we know more. There are still so many pieces of this story that haven't come together. The hours between the children leaving

for school and the police arriving remain a major part of the timeline. We still need to understand how long Barrett had been in the basement and what Corey was doing throughout the day and what was happening inside her mind during those hours. Investigators are also continuing to work through the digital evidence, including the complete contents of her phone, searches, messages, or other communications that could provide a lot more context and evidence for her behavior. And then there are the statements about her husband Michael and the other children, the alleged plan to poison Michael could have been something Corey had been considering for some time, or it could have been something that she said while experiencing this alleged psychosis. The statements involving

the other children could represent serious plans. They could represent delusions or something else entirely. Those are questions that psychiatric experts may eventually be asked to address, along with the larger question of Corey's mental state at the time of Barrett's death. And ultimately there's another question hanging over all of this. Will this case ever make it to trial? For now, those answers are going to take time. As investigators gather evidence and the defense and prosecution billed their cases will likely get a much clearer picture of what happened inside that home, that horrific day.

But what we can say is that on September 1st, 2026, 2-year-old Barrett-Bear Walsh, died inside his family's home in Frankfurt, Illinois. And now his family has to live without him, and hopefully, eventually, we can begin to understand why.