When I first started looking into the death of two-year-old Barrett Walsh, one detail immediately stood out to me: his mother, Corie Walsh, had reportedly been closely following the Lindsay Clancy trial and discussing it with friends just hours before Barrett was found.

The similarities between the two cases are difficult to ignore. Both involve mothers accused of killing young children inside their family homes, suicide attempts, ligatures, and defenses centered around severe mental illness or psychosis. But similarities aren’t evidence, and they certainly don’t prove that one case inspired another.

In this episode of Pushing Up Lilies, I want to slow the story down and look beyond that headline.

Barrett, whose nickname was Bear, was found in the basement of his Illinois home with a ligature around his neck. A neighbor lowered him, began CPR, and called 911. Corie was found elsewhere in the home with injuries believed to be self-inflicted. Prosecutors have since charged her with three counts of first-degree murder, while her attorneys say she was experiencing a psychotic episode.

From a death investigator’s perspective, though, those facts are only the beginning.

I’m taking you through how I would approach a scene like this: documenting Barrett’s original position before lifesaving efforts changed the scene, examining the ligature and suspension point, preserving digital evidence, reconstructing the timeline, documenting medications and other evidence inside the home, and separating what witnesses actually observed from what they interpreted.

We’ll also talk about Corie’s reported statements, the role mental illness may ultimately play in her defense, and why investigators have to be extremely careful about confirmation bias. If you walk into a case already believing it’s a Lindsay Clancy copycat, every message, search, and piece of evidence risks being interpreted through that assumption.

There is still a great deal we don’t know. As of the recording of this episode, the final autopsy and toxicology findings had not been publicly released, the digital investigation was still incomplete, and Corie Walsh had not gone to trial. She remains presumed innocent unless and until the charges against her are proven in court.

And through all of this, I don’t want Barrett to become a footnote in a story about his mother or the Lindsay Clancy comparison. He was two years old. His nickname was Bear. He deserved protection in life, and in death, he deserves an investigation built on facts, accuracy, and dignity.

Content Note: This episode discusses the death of a child, ligature asphyxia, self-harm, alleged homicide, suicide, and severe mental illness.

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:

00:06

Welcome to Pushing Up Lilies. I’m your host, Julie Mattson.

 00:10

Pushing Up Lilies is a weekly true crime podcast with spine-tingling, unusual, and terrifyingly true stories from my perspective as a forensic death investigator and a sexual assault nurse examiner.

 00:24

Do I have some stories for you? Are you ready? Hey, guys, I’m coming to you from my closet again tonight. I wanna tell you a little bit about a case that I’ve been investigating.

 00:39

It does allege violence against a child, self-harm, severe mental illness. So again, I like to say this at the very beginning, decide right now whether listening to this is right for you or not.

 00:54

This is a case about Corie Walsh. Now, I don’t know if y’all have heard of Corie. It has a lot of clear parallels to Lindsay Clancy.

 01:03

There’s also a lot of differences, so we’re gonna kinda talk about that.

 01:06

Both of the cases, of course, involve mothers accused of killing a young child or children inside a family home, followed by a suicide attempt.

 01:17

Now, mental illness also sits on the center of both of these defenses. Clancy’s attorney said that she was suffering from postpartum psychosis and that she was not criminally responsible.

 01:29

Now, Walsh’s attorney, who’s Andrea Lyon is her name, she says that Walsh experienced just a psychotic episode. Now, the biggest difference is what authorities say about the mental states.

 01:42

In Walsh’s case, prosecutors said that she told investigators that she believed that two-year-old Barrett was the devil and the Antichrist, and her attorney says that this supports the fact that she was psychotic at the time.

 01:57

Now, Clancy’s case is a little bit different.

 01:59

As we all know, the dispute at trial focused heavily on whether or not she understood the nature of her actions despite the fact that she had psychiatric illness.

 02:11

We know that she had a psychiatric illness, but did she understand what she did? Did she know that it was wrong? Now, there’s another real unusual connection between these two cases.

 02:23

Walsh had been, strangely enough, very invested in the Clancy trial, and so she had been texting friends about the Clancy trial hours before Barrett was found.

 02:34

Now, that makes the comparison really interesting.

 02:37

But still, it has not been established that Clancy’s case caused or inspired Barrett’s killing, and so Walsh’s defense strongly rejects the idea that this was a copycat crime.

 02:53

Now, I know I talked about this last week. I’m always fearful when I watch a movie that somebody’s gonna be like, “Hey, that looks like a good idea. Let’s do that. Let’s try that.

 03:02

I’ve always wanted to do it.” Most of the time, criminals have probably already got in their mind what they wanna do, but the stories always kinda scare me that somebody’s gonna jump out and be like, “I wanna try that.” Now, the outcomes of these two cases are also at very different stages.

 03:18

As we all know, Clancy admitted to killing the three children. Her trial that recently ended in a mistrial because the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict.

 03:28

Now, Walsh has only recently been charged, so the allegations against her have not been tested. She’s not gone to trial. We don’t know what’s happening with this one.

 03:37

Now, the really compelling question, was she copying Lindsay Clancy? There’s no evidence that establishes that.

 03:45

But the stronger question is, what does it mean when a woman who was intensely following a nationally televised case centered on maternal psychosis is accused only days later of killing her own child while expressing psychotic beliefs?

 04:01

Now, this is about the afternoon of September 1st, 2026. Police responded to her home in Frankfort, Illinois, after a report of an injured child.

 04:13

Now, inside the house, there was a neighbor performing CPR on two-year-old Barrett Walsh. Now, Barrett had been found in the basement with a ligature around his neck, very much like the Clancy case.

 04:23

His mother, Corie, was found elsewhere in the home. She also had injuries that were believed to have been self-inflicted.

 04:32

Now, within days, prosecutors charged Corie with three counts of first-degree murder.

 04:38

They also said that witnesses said that she was deeply interested in the Lindsay Clancy trial, and she was discussing it in a group text with her friends only hours before Barrett was found.

 04:52

Now, that’s disturbing. But the facts are a little bit incomplete.

 04:57

So, the public sees a charge, a few sentences from a court hearing, and a headline that actually just connects one mother to another. But a death investigator has to slow this down a little bit.

 05:09

So, what was the position of the child before CPR started, before lifesaving efforts started? What was attached to the ligature? What, if anything, had been moved from this scene?

 05:22

What medications were there, if any? There may not have been any. What did the phone records show? What did witnesses observe before the emergency? What does the autopsy show?

 05:34

And what remains an allegation versus a fact? So, at a death scene, small details do more than fill our reports.

 05:45

They actually shape the autopsy, the toxicology, and the reconstruction of events and every decision that’s made afterwards. So, we’re gonna talk about Barrett Walsh.

 05:56

This is also a look at how death scene investigation affects the search for a truthful answer that is also defensible in court, and that’s very important. We need to do both of those things.

 06:10

As you know, I’m a registered nurse, experienced forensic nurse, death investigator. After years of working in the field that I love, I decided to retire.

 06:20

But before we begin, I wanna clear my role in this episode. I did not investigate this death. I never went into the Walsh’s’ home.

 06:28

I never saw the photographs, and I never read the investigative file.

 06:33

But my discussion comes really from just publicly available court reporting and law enforcement information, local news organizations, and just the established practice that I worked over years.

 06:46

So, Corrie Walsh, again, we have to remember, as much as we hate it, she’s presumed innocent unless and until the court actually proves her guilty.

 06:57

So, her attorneys have said she was experiencing a psychotic episode. Prosecutors have filed murder charges and presented allegations that they believe support detention and prosecution.

 07:09

Now, a diagnosis, criminal charge, and a final legal conclusion are three completely different things. So, this episode deserves special care because a two-year-old child died.

 07:20

Barrett should not disappear behind mom’s name, and we would– do wanna make sure that that is the case.

 07:27

We don’t want him to disappear behind the Clancy comparison, and we want mom to take criminal responsibility. It also deserves precision.

 07:35

So, the early investigation appears to involve a body that was moved during lifesaving efforts. There were a lot of people inside or near this home.

 07:46

There was a possible ligature event, very similar to Lindsay Clancy. There was digital evidence and statements and, again, disputed mental state.

 07:56

So, each category actually requires documentation, not just deserves it, but requires it. Each one affects what investigators and attorneys can establish later.

 08:07

So, before we start the case, I wanna talk a little bit about Barrett. So, Barrett Walsh was two years old. Remember when my granddaughter was two, precious age.

 08:19

All of this reporting, again, is based on court documents. His nickname was Bear. Public information about his short life is limited.

 08:28

I’m not gonna fill those empty spaces with details that I made up or imagined, but I will not tell you what he liked, what made him laugh, or what his final days looked like because those things have not been shared publicly yet by the family.

 08:44

So, we’re not gonna make it up. Now, what we do know is enough to keep him at the center of the story. He was a child. He lived in a home with his parents and three siblings.

 08:55

Now, on September first, he needed the adults around him to keep him safe, and that’s what kids rely on. By the time help arrived, efforts to save him did not succeed.

 09:06

Now, in death investigation, identity is more than a name on a form. We have to verify who the deceased person is. We also remember whose death we’re investigating.

 09:19

A careful investigation serves the child and the family and the court and the public record. If you don’t do it carefully, it’s a disservice.

 09:29

So, the hours before the police arrived, according to prosecutors, Corrie’s husband was out of state, much like Lindsay Clancy, although he wasn’t out of state.

 09:40

But he, on September first, was not home. An infant was inside the home and was later found unharmed. Two school-aged children returned home around the time Barrett and Corrie were found.

 09:53

Now, reports differ slightly on how they describe the first moments of discovery, but it’s pretty consistent that there was a neighbor that entered the home, found Barrett in the basement, lowered him, began CPR, and actually called nine one one.

 10:06

We don’t know that much about the neighbor yet. I think I read somewhere he was a nineteen-year-old.

 10:11

Prosecutors also said witnesses told investigators that Corrie was very invested in this Lindsay Clancy murder trial. The trial was still deliberating at the time this happened.

 10:22

So according to local reporting on the court hearing, Corrie participated in a group chat with other moms, and she discussed the Clancy case that afternoon at about twelve thirty.

 10:34

That’s roughly about three and a half hours before police got called about Barrett.

 10:40

Now, one report said she first expressed a belief involving Clancy’s husband and later changed her view about what she thought about the Clancy case.

 10:50

Those messages have not been released in full through the sources that are used for this episode, so we do not know. We do not know her stance on that.

 11:00

We should definitely resist turning a summary of a group chat into a psychological timeline because we don’t know. But from a death investigator’s perspective, the timing still matters.

 11:13

Digital activity is gonna kinda help establish when a person was awake, when were they communicating, searching, traveling, or interacting with other people.

 11:23

It also is gonna identify the witnesses who might describe their behavior over time. Now, if I were working a similar case, I would ask for a timeline built from more than just memory.

 11:37

Dispatch records, you can’t just ask people because you can’t remember when you’re in a stressful situation.

 11:43

Doorbell or video of outside of the house, data on the vehicle, phone location, timestamps, calls, internet searches, photographs, any home security data.

 11:55

I would compare those records with school schedules and travel records and receipts and witness accounts and the known movement of everyone who had access to the house.

 12:05

None of those items prove intent by themselves, but a search for a news story is not a confession. An unusual message is not a medical diagnosis.

 12:16

A timestamp really doesn’t explain why an act occurred, but together, independent records can actually help investigators test whether a timeline holds up, and that’s important.

 12:28

Now, investigators also need to separate observation from interpretation. What did you see versus what did you think you saw? What did it look like?

 12:38

Now, a witness might say somebody sounded confused or scared or not upset or unusually focused. Those are just their observations.

 12:48

Saying that the person was psychotic is a clinical conclusion, and you actually have to do a qualified assessment before you can say that. So, opinions really don’t matter.

 12:59

Now, the emergency response and the first scene decisions are very, very important.

 13:05

Frankfort police were called to the twenty-two thousand seven hundred block of Brookstone Court, and it was about four:０４ PM. There was a report of an injured or unresponsive child.

 13:17

Now, according to news reports, a neighbor actually found Barrett in the basement.

 13:23

Now, the neighbor said there was a ligature around his neck, and the device was attached to a rafter, and his feet were off the ground, so he was suspended.

 13:34

The neighbor removed the ligature, lowered him down, started CPR, called nine one one. Perfect. That’s what you’re supposed to do. She told investigators he was cold, he had no pulse.

 13:44

She kept trying, and he was not resuscitated. He was eventually transported to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. Now, at any scene involving a child, the very first priority is life.

 13:57

We wanna save the life. I mean, and I’m not saying– I didn’t mean to say that that way, but not just a child. But it’s important. Try to save a life if you can. That’s a big deal.

 14:08

I know a lot of people think the medical examiner is like, “Just walk away.” We’re not like that, but you do have to let us know if you move things around.

 14:16

You should not delay CPR to try to preserve evidence. Good investigation is very important. If you move something, let the police know.

 14:25

Now, if I were responding as a death investigator, one of my first questions would be, what did this look like before he was moved?

 14:33

We wanna make sure that we talk to everybody who saw Barrett in his original position. I would document who lowered him if he was suspended, which it said his feet weren’t touching the ground.

 14:47

Who removed or altered the ligature? Where was each portion of the ligature placed? Who started CPR? What devices were used, and was there any clothing cut or removed?

 14:59

But also, scene safety and authority is important. Is there any ongoing threat? Are any other children or adults at risk, especially me as a death investigator?

 15:10

Been in that situation before, not a fun one. Has law enforcement secured the area? Who’s controlling who comes back into this area if I’m in there? What agency has authority over the body?

 15:22

In our county, it was me, medical examiner’s office. The body was ours. The scene belonged to the police.

 15:29

A death investigator does not walk into an unsecured environment and just start examining evidence with the threat of anything remaining. We rely on the police to protect us.

 15:42

Most of us don’t carry weapons. Now, a scene log is important. Investigators actually take names and roles and arrival times and departure times of everybody who entered the scene.

 15:54

If it’s a family member, a cop, a firefighter, medics, medical personnel, a medical examiner, funeral home, they had to all have a legitimate reason to be there, but their movements had to be documented.

 16:08

My job at a scene like this would be to document what exists before anybody moves anything else. Anybody moves anything else. So, I would begin with overall photographs.

 16:20

I would move toward mid-range and then get closer pictures. So, so important.

 16:27

I would document the basement layout, the access points to the basement, the rafter that he was hanging on, the device described in the filing, the ligature, nearby objects, the floor surface, and the path used to bring Barrett upstairs or outside if he was moved.

 16:46

I don’t know yet if he was moved, but I would never rely on one photograph or one witness to reconstruct a scene. The person performing CPR is focused on saving that person’s life.

 17:00

They’re not gonna remember measurements. You just don’t remember. It’s stressful. Photographs, body camera, everything kinda helps restore this sequence. So, there’s things that can back that up.

 17:12

This is one reason that early documentation affects the outcome. If the original body position is lost and nobody records who changes it, then the pathologist doesn’t really get reliable context.

 17:25

If each change is documented, though, the autopsy findings actually have a stronger scene history behind them. Hopefully, that makes sense.

 17:32

But when we’re examining a ligature-related death, the preliminary finding reported in court was asphyxia due to a ligature compression of the neck.

 17:45

As of September fifteenth, the sources reviewed for this episode don’t report a completed final autopsy. There’s no final toxicology results.

 17:54

There’s no final public determination from the coroner or the medical examiner on cause and manner of death. Now, the word asphyxia describes interference with oxygen.

 18:05

We talked about this last week. Ligature compression means there’s something around the neck that’s pressure is applied.

 18:14

Those words describe a mechanism and a cause, but they don’t tell us everything that happened before death.

 18:20

So, When a child is found with a ligature, investigators are going to preserve the relationship among the body, the knot, the suspension point, and everything around them.

 18:33

If emergency action requires cutting that ligature, the location of the cut matters. Don’t cut the knot. Whenever feasible, we try to train responders not to do that.

 18:44

If you can save a life and you cut the knot on accident, by all means, save a life, cut the knot. But it might hold evidentiary value, so just remember that.

 18:56

Once the item has already been cut in an emergency, we have to document the condition and who cut it. Not to be tattletales. We’re not in kindergarten here.

 19:06

We’re not tattling on who did it, but the doctor’s gonna wanna know. He’s gonna know it’s cut when he sees it.

 19:12

He’s gonna wanna know who did it, and if life-saving procedures are the reason why, he will not fault you for that. In a case like this, I would want exact measurements.

 19:24

How high was the attachment point? What was the distance between the floor and Barrett’s feet? How high up was he? What is the length of the material, the ligature, and where was the knot?

 19:36

Was there more than one? Sometimes there’s more than one knot. Was there anything in the home that matched the material that the ligature was made out of?

 19:45

Any nearby objects in the way to represent maybe staging? Any signs of disturbance? Those questions don’t announce a conclusion, but they do help us test possible explanations, so that’s important.

 20:00

External examination is done, and they document the entire body from head to toe.

 20:05

Any mark or injury gets a precise description, location, size, shape, color, and relationship to other anatomical landmarks.

 20:16

They look closely at the face, the neck, the scalp, the arms, the torso, lower extremities, and they document clothing and diapers if it’s a baby, jewelry, medical devices.

 20:26

Of course, we remove jewelry on scenes, but not everyone does. In a case where CPR is done, I would actually distinguish observed injuries from known medical intervention.

 20:38

Resuscitation can cause marks or even internal injuries.

 20:43

Investigators need the EMS record, and they need to know what procedures were done so the forensic pathologist knows what findings are related to treatment versus what was related to the death.

 20:56

Now, lividity and rigor are very important, but neither one is a stopwatch. So, lividity actually refers again to the settling of that blood after the circulation stops in the lower extremities.

 21:09

If it’s fixed, we know it’s been there longer. If it’s blanchable, we know that they’ve not been there quite as long. Stiffening is the rigor.

 21:18

Temperature, body size, age, illness, all that influences these changes. Now, the witness said that Barrett was cold. Now, cold skin doesn’t tell us how long he’s been dead. We don’t know.

 21:32

Now, investigators would document, in a case like this, room temperature. Was there any clothing on body temperature and the timing of each? And the pathologist is gonna evaluate all of that.

 21:47

All this is so important. And it’s something to remember, the absence of a finding doesn’t automatically disprove the possibility. The presence of one doesn’t automatically prove the narrative.

 22:01

So, a ligature mark might make it look like there’s been neck compression, but the pattern is gonna actually require evaluation alongside the scene.

 22:12

So, the autopsy is gonna examine the next structures, and it’s gonna document any injuries or the lack of injuries.

 22:20

In a case like this, toxicology is gonna tell us, you know, were there any prescription medications?

 22:26

Was there Tylenol, ibuprofen, any non-prescriptive substances, alcohol, or any other kinda compounds in the body? When they do histology, that is selected based on circumstances.

 22:41

So, they might do slices of organs for testing or whatnot, so we don’t know what was done in this case. But that is done based on the circumstances.

 22:52

So, in a young child’s death, though, investigators also have to consider the possibility of natural disease, even when the scene suggests that it’s not that.

 23:03

We gotta try not to have tunnel vision, and we gotta look for facts that are consistent. We can’t look for facts that are inconsistent.

 23:12

Again, you know, I always like to remind people, just because you’re young doesn’t mean you can’t be sick. I mean, we have very young people in their twenties dying of cancer. Sucks, but it happens.

 23:23

I know I’ve taken care of people in their twenties who were in heart failure and had to have a heart transplant. It sucks, but it happens.

 23:30

So don’t assume because they’re young that they’re not sick. This case is very different. According to prosecution in this case, Corie was found upstairs. She was fully dressed.

 23:43

She was in a bathtub containing bloody water. Now, a neighbor was holding a towel against her left inner thigh. The neighbor said that she took a knife from Corie’s hand, threw it in the sink.

 23:56

Again, fine. You don’t want her to stab you. She’s got a knife in her hand. Put it in the sink, and don’t forget to tell the police you did it. That is a big deal.

 24:06

Police collected the knife as evidence, and reports described cuts to Corie’s thighs and wrist. Her injuries were considered non-life-threatening.

 24:17

She was taken to the hospital for medical treatment. This neighbor did exactly what they were supposed to do. This area matters for two reasons. First of all, Corie required emergency care.

 24:31

And the bathroom was another part of the scene. So, in investigations like this, again, very important to ask responders, “What did you remove while you were treating this patient?

 24:45

Where was the knife before the neighbor moved it?” And don’t ask the police what the neighbor’s brother told him. Ask the person who removed it. You want that exact explanation.

 25:01

You don’t want the story retold ten times because it changes. It just does. Whether it’s purposeful or not, it changes. Where did the knife land? Where was the phone? Were there any towels there?

 25:13

Was there any clothing, medication, containers? What else was moved? Were there bloodstains that were diluted by water? Which areas were cleaned? Which areas were altered?

 25:26

We all know that blood mixed with bathwater looks very dramatic, but it doesn’t really accurately measure how much blood was lost. Small amount of blood is gonna spread widely in water.

 25:39

They’re gonna wanna see the wound examinations, scene measurements, and other evidence just to make sure that this assessment’s done correctly.

 25:49

Now, the knife has to be packaged and labeled, and chain of custody is very important. Investigators are gonna document, like, where was it found, and also each person who handled it.

 26:01

And lab tests, decisions to do the lab tests belong to the investigative agencies, depending on the questions that need to be answered. Those were not decisions that I made as a death investigator.

 26:15

The weapons went with the police, and they tested it for whatever they felt was possible. But this part of the scene also illustrates why one house actually contains several areas of evidence.

 26:28

So, in a case like this, we’ve got the basement, we’ve got the bathroom. Where’s the surviving children? And routes throughout the home where there might be different bits and tidbits of evidence.

 26:40

Don’t just treat the most visually disturbing location, because there’s a sequence of events before that event happened. So that’s something that, you know, we don’t ever wanna forget as well.

 26:53

Prosecutors said that officers found a drink and some open bottles of prescription medication on a counter.

 27:01

Now, they did also say that Corie had spoken about poisoning her husband when he returned home from his trip.

 27:08

But there’s no public source reviewed that says that, and we don’t have any laboratory results showing that this drink contained any kind of poisons, and there are no reports that her husband consumed anything.

 27:21

So, from my perspective, that’s important.

 27:25

An object near medication is not proof of poisoning, but you have to preserve those things, the tablets, the prescription bottles, the prescriber, all the information that’s on there, and photograph those items where they’re at before they’re moved.

 27:42

They may test, labs may test the pill counts and pharmacy records. Toxicology’s gonna show what was present and whether the quantities fit. Like, are there enough, as many missing as should be?

 27:55

Did they overtake? The same thing applies to statements.

 27:59

So, prosecutors allege that Corie told officers she believed that he was the devil and the Antichrist, and they said she made statements about harming her other children, and then also her husband.

 28:12

But her defense argues that her statements were just unreliable, very disorganized, because she was psychotic.

 28:20

Attorneys said that first responders said that there was periods of incoherence while they were taking care of her, and those positions require evidence, not labels.

 28:32

So, investigators would document the exact words as accurately as possible. Who spoke to them? Who heard them? Where were they spoken? Body cameras worn, ambulance records, hospital records.

 28:47

What was the child given as far as medication on the way to the hospital or in the hospital? Her cell phone was in the bathroom.

 28:55

We do know that prosecutors said that they’re doing a forensic review on that. Phone evidence, as we know, might establish some searches or messages or photographs, stuff she deleted. What…

 29:09

Did she delete anything? It might support the state’s defense theory. So, we don’t know. Digital evidence requires a lot of chain of custody.

 29:18

They have to handle it very carefully for it to be admissible.

 29:23

Investigators have to preserve that original evidence and limit unnecessary interaction and use authorized methods to extract that from the phone.

 29:34

Now, a screenshot that a friend might supply, it’s important. It’s not a substitute for a message recording and timestamps, but you have to look at all the things. It’s all so important.

 29:49

Confirmation bias is also very dangerous.

 29:53

If investigators kind of start this investigation thinking this is a Lindsay Clancy copycat case, every search or message risks being interpreted through that frame.

 30:05

So, if they begin with the idea of psychosis, then those purposeful actions risk being discounted.

 30:13

The disciplined approach is to document behavior, preserve the records, and build the timeline on our own and let the experts, let the court, and let the jury decide all that other stuff.

 30:27

They get to decide what the evidence means. It’s not our job.

 30:32

The Lindsay Clancy connection is part of the public record because it was raised during the detention hearing, and witnesses did say that Corie was very invested in the Clancy trial, and she was discussing it prior to Barrett’s death.

 30:49

Now, Lindsay was tried in Massachusetts over the deaths of her three children, and again, she did not dispute causing their deaths, but her defense said that she had postpartum psychosis, and she wasn’t criminally responsible.

 31:04

And prosecutors said she planned the killings and understood exactly what she was doing. And then that resulted in a mistrial, as we all know.

 31:14

But while all that was going on, Barrett died three days earlier. The jurors were still deliberating. So, the timing makes the reference relevant, but it really doesn’t establish imitation at all.

 31:28

Corie’s attorney said that’s not the case. It wasn’t a copycat. They said that she was psychotic, and she needs psychiatric care.

 31:37

The state really hasn’t accepted that position as a complete answer to criminal responsibility. So again, we just don’t know. We don’t know where this stands.

 31:46

We did talk about postpartum psychosis being a rare psychiatric emergency, but there are a lot of symptoms that go along with it. Paranoia, confusion, hallucination, not sleeping.

 32:00

But there’s a lot of various symptoms and diagnoses. So only clinicians with her access to her history can diagnose her, you know, who have evaluated her.

 32:12

There’s public reports that an eight-month-old lived in this home, and that alone does not really say, yeah, she was suffering from postpartum psychosis.

 32:22

We don’t know her complete obstetric history. We don’t know anything about her psychiatric history, what meds she was on, anything about what the family observed prior to this happening.

 32:32

So as a nurse and a death investigator, I would treat evidence of mental illness as important without using it to answer every question. That was always what was hard for me.

 32:44

Someone would call in a death, and if there was a history of suicidal ideations, we tried really hard not to be like, “This is a suicide.” Now, if they were young, it almost seemed obvious, but we also have to remember, if they had been chronic drug users, they could have caused some organ damage.

 33:02

They may have had liver disease. So, you can’t jump to conclusions. Mental illness and behavior is not mutually exclusive.

 33:11

Somebody might be ill and be organized, but a person might have bizarre statements without actually being insane. So, it’s very, it’s very hard. You have to completely separate the two.

 33:24

So, the legal question is narrower than whether Corie had symptoms or received a diagnosis. It concerns her medical state at the time of Barrett’s death and how Illinois law applies to this evidence.

 33:38

We all know law is different in every state. The scene investigation affects that issue. You know, what was her behavior before and after the event? Was there a history of medication use?

 33:49

Any observations? Nothing can be exaggerated, and everything needs context. It’s so, so important. It helps to separate the mental conclusions from the criminal charges, for sure.

 34:04

So, cause of death is gonna identify the injury or the disease responsible for the death. The preliminary cause reported in Barrett’s death was asphyxia due to ligature compression of the neck.

 34:18

So that was preliminary. Matter of death classifies the circumstances into categories. So that’s gonna be like natural accident, homicide, suicide, undetermined.

 34:29

Homicide and death certification means that it resulted from the actions of another person. It doesn’t describe criminal guilt. It doesn’t decide the degree of the crime.

 34:41

It’s being investigated as a homicide.

 34:44

They also reported that the coroner planned to determine final cause and manner after not only the autopsy was done, but the investigation and the toxicology were complete.

 34:55

So, until the final determination is released, I would describe the asphyxia finding as preliminary. So, Corie Walsh faces three counts of first-degree murder involving one death.

 35:08

The three counts don’t represent three victims. Court reporting states prosecutors charged three legal theories involving intent to kill or cause great bodily harm.

 35:20

Knowledge that the act would cause death and knowledge that created the strong probability of death or bodily harm.

 35:28

So, a judge found probable cause for an arrest warrant, and on September eighth, another judge ordered that Corie be detained. Detention is not conviction. Gotta remember that.

 35:39

It just addresses whether release is appropriate before trial under the standards that govern, you know, that hearing.

 35:47

The current Will County Court schedule says that there’s a preliminary hearing listed for September twenty-fourth. So, we’ll see how that goes. There’s been no trial, no verdict in this case.

 35:58

Police reporting doesn’t identify any kind of final toxicology or complete autopsy report. The phone extraction has not been completed.

 36:08

It doesn’t give us all the interviews or all the scene photographs. And again, I’ve not seen any of that.

 36:14

So, anybody claiming to know that this story in its entirety is moving beyond that released evidence is not telling the truth. So, prosecutors are gonna wanna look at all that. It’s not just assumed.

 36:28

So, all the same documentation is needed for prosecution and defense. Reliable investigation doesn’t just belong to one side. It gives both sides a record and both sides are able to test those facts.

 36:46

What remains unknown, and again, we wanna go over this real quick, several major questions are unanswered. A lot of things aren’t in the public records yet.

 36:55

What will the final autopsy and toxicology report show? We don’t know. Will investigators actually identify additional injuries or any kind of medical findings?

 37:06

Did Barrett have any medical issues underlying? What was used as the ligature, and what did the examination of it show them?

 37:15

And what does the complete digital timeline show before and after twelve thirty PM? So many questions as far as those things, and what medications, if any, was she on? What was prescribed? How much?

 37:30

Were there any substances found in the residence? And what did family members observe? That’s so important. What happened in the days leading up to this?

 37:41

The answers to all of these questions are gonna change how parts of this case are understood. We don’t wanna rewrite the facts.

 37:49

We wanna make sure everything’s verified and everything is established.

 37:54

But we gotta remember what cases like this actually teach us about death investigation, and it’s gonna show why a death investigator can’t really focus on the body or on one suspect.

 38:08

The body provides medical evidence. The scene provides context. So, witnesses are gonna provide observation.

 38:16

Phones can help provide timing, and the autopsy is gonna try to figure out if all that stuff matches up. Does it match?

 38:26

Interviews and medical history are gonna help explain a lot of her behavior, but there’s so many pieces of the puzzle to put together, and everyone’s always like, “Why is it taking so long?” It’s work, y’all.

 38:37

There’s a lot of work involved in getting the answers, and we just don’t want to come up with a conclusion that makes the most sense. We wanna try to be exact as we can.

 38:48

The neighbor’s decision to perform CPR in this case was very appropriate, but there were also changes made to the scene because of that. And first responder records have to document those things.

 39:02

Again, we don’t know if this is a copycat case or not. We don’t want to invite assumptions by rushing through a death scene.

 39:10

We’ve got to complete it in its entirety just to give that pathologist better information. We gotta give better direction to law enforcement.

 39:20

We have to give the court a record built on observation instead of rumor. And then most importantly, it gives Barrett the best opportunity for an actual account of what happened to him.

 39:33

And that is so important, not only for public record, but for Barrett. I mean, poor boy. Now, he was known as Bear. I think I told y’all Bear was his nickname. He was two years old when he died.

 39:48

His mother stands accused of causing his death, and her lawyers say, again, that she was psychotic.

 39:57

We can’t announce a verdict as of yet, but what I did wanna do is kinda show you the evidence behind the headline ’cause all of those things matter. All of the documentation matters.

 40:07

All the information that they get from all the people, toxicology, autopsy report, all of that. We wanna give them time to put all of those pieces together so that we’re not guessing what happened.

 40:20

Now, the facts may be difficult, but that’s what we want, is we want the facts. Barrett deserved protection in life and in death.

 40:28

He deserves accuracy and dignity and an investigation that can withstand every hard question asked of it. My thoughts remain with his siblings and his family. Such a sad story.

 40:42

Even the neighbor, regardless of age, that’s traumatizing. The first responders and the investigators, it’s a lot of weight for them to carry around.

 40:51

And just also remember, if you or somebody you know is in immediate danger or has thoughts of suicide, call emergency services. You can call or text nine eight eight.

 41:01

And again, for pregnant and postpartum families, the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline is one eight hundred TLC mama, M-A-M-A, which I believe is six two six two.

 41:12

So, thank you so much for listening. Um, looking forward to the next episode. Go on Eventbrite. Buy your tickets. It’s selling out quick, y’all. I just wanna see you there. So, take care. Be nice.

 41:26

See you soon, guys. Bye. Thank you so much for joining me today on Pushing Up Lilies.

 41:33

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 41:43

Thanks again for spending your time with me and be sure to visit me at pushinguplilies.com for merchandise and past episodes.