An Illinois mother faces three counts of first-degree murder after prosecutors say she hanged her 2-year-old son in the family basement, hours after texting friends about the Lindsay Clancy child-killing trial.

Corie A. Walsh, 38, of Frankfort, Illinois, was charged after her son Barrett was found dead in the basement of the family's home on the 22700 block of Brook Stone Court, Fox 32 Chicago reported. A neighbor discovered the boy hanging from a device attached to a rafter with a ligature around his neck and his feet off the ground. The neighbor removed the ligature, lowered him to the floor, and began CPR while calling 911.

By the time Frankfort police arrived at approximately 4:04 p.m. Tuesday, the neighbor was still performing CPR. She told officers the child was cold and had no pulse. Barrett Walsh was pronounced dead that day.

A preliminary autopsy conducted the following day determined the boy died from asphyxia caused by ligature compression of the neck. Prosecutors filed three counts of first-degree murder against his mother, each built on a different legal theory: that Walsh intended to kill her son by strangling him, that she knew her actions would cause death, and that she knew there was a strong probability her actions would cause death.

Walsh allegedly told officers the boy was the 'devil'

Walsh was not found near her son. Officers located her upstairs in the master bedroom bathtub, lying fully dressed in bloody water with cuts on her wrists and thighs. A neighbor was holding a towel against Walsh's left inner thigh and told investigators she had taken a knife from Walsh's hand and thrown it into a sink. Police recovered the knife and placed it into evidence.

Walsh's injuries were classified as non-life-threatening. She was transported to Silver Cross Hospital, where she remained as of Thursday.

Prosecutors told the court that Walsh allegedly said at the scene she killed her son because he was the "devil" and the "anti-Christ." While hospitalized, she allegedly made additional statements to investigators describing how she carried out the killing. Prosecutors said those statements were consistent with the physical evidence.

A neighbor told investigators that Walsh, while lying in the bathtub, referred to the child as "Bear", a known nickname for the boy.

Three other children were in the home or returned shortly after the discovery. An infant was present and unharmed. Two school-aged children came home around the time Barrett was found. None of the three was physically injured. Walsh's husband, who lives at the residence, was out of state at the time and flew home Tuesday evening.

Prosecutors say Walsh texted about Clancy trial hours before the killing

The court proffer included a detail that has drawn national attention: witnesses told investigators Walsh had recently become very interested in the murder trial of Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts mother accused of killing her three children. The Clancy defense has argued postpartum psychosis as a factor in that case.

Walsh had reportedly discussed the Clancy case with friends in a group text message as recently as approximately 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, roughly three and a half hours before Barrett was discovered dead. At the time of the boy's death, the jury in the Clancy trial was deliberating.

The timeline is stark. At 12:30 p.m., Walsh was texting about a mother on trial for killing her children. By 4:04 p.m., her own 2-year-old was dead in the basement. The New York Post reported that Walsh had been texting about the Clancy case approximately three hours before her son was found, a detail consistent with the prosecutors' court filing.

The Lindsay Clancy case has drawn widespread attention since it first surfaced. Clancy texted her husband about takeout roughly an hour before strangling their three children, a detail that shocked the public when it emerged. Walsh's apparent fixation on that trial now sits at the center of the prosecution's case against her.

Neighbor Carolyn Pappas: 'You never think it's going to hit so close to home'

Frankfort is a suburb of roughly 20,000 people about 35 miles southwest of Chicago, the kind of place where a crime like this registers as almost unthinkable. Fox News reported that the case has shocked the community, with neighbor Carolyn Pappas capturing the local reaction:

"This is just absolutely devastating, that this could be another Lindsay Clancy situation in our neighborhood, in our community. You never think it's going to hit so close to home."

The Frankfort Police Department issued a statement asking for privacy for the family:

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the family, their loved ones, and everyone affected by this heartbreaking tragedy. We ask our community to keep them in their thoughts and prayers and to respect their privacy as they navigate this profoundly difficult time."

The investigation was conducted jointly by the Frankfort Police Department and the Will-Grundy Major Crimes Task Force, a regional unit that handles serious violent crimes across Will and Grundy counties in northeastern Illinois.

Walsh remains hospitalized; prosecutors want her held without bail

Prosecutors sought an arrest warrant on Thursday while Walsh was still receiving treatment at Silver Cross Hospital. They also asked the court to deny her pretrial release. Upon her discharge from the hospital, Walsh is expected to be transferred to the Will County Adult Detention Facility for a detention hearing.

Walsh's cellphone was recovered from the bathroom near where she was found. Forensic analysis of the device is ongoing, and investigators have not disclosed what, if anything, it has revealed beyond the group text about the Clancy trial.

No mental health evaluation has been publicly reported as ordered or requested at this stage, though the nature of Walsh's alleged statements, calling a 2-year-old the "devil" and the "anti-Christ", will almost certainly make her mental state a central question as the case moves forward. Tragic cases involving parents and children continue to surface across the country, from an Illinois mother who drowned saving her son in a swollen river to violent attacks that leave families shattered.

Several key questions remain unanswered. The specific device used to hang the child from the rafter has not been publicly identified. It is unclear whether the multiple references to "a neighbor" in the court proffer describe one person or several. And the full content of Walsh's hospital statements to investigators, beyond what prosecutors have characterized, has not been released.

What is known is damning enough. A 2-year-old boy nicknamed Bear is dead. His mother allegedly told police she killed him because she believed he was a vessel of evil. And just hours earlier, she was texting friends about another mother's trial for doing nearly the same thing.

The criminal justice system now has to deal with Corie Walsh. But nothing it does will answer the question that hangs over cases like these: how a child ends up dead in his own home, in a quiet suburb, while the adults who should have seen something were somewhere else entirely.