Massachusetts trial of woman accused of murdering her three children enters second week

THE TRIAL OF a US woman who killed her three children while allegedly suffering from postpartum psychosis has entered its second week.

Lindsay Clancy (35) is on trial for the murder of her 8-month-old baby Callan, her three-year-old son Dawson, and her five-year-old daughter Cora in January 2023. 

On 24 January 2023, Clancy fatally strangled her three children in the basement of her home in Duxbury, Massachusetts, while her husband was out running an errand. She then attempted to take her own life through various means.

She ultimately jumped from a window of her home and is now paralysed from the waist down.

Clancy has admitted to killing the children, but her defence has argued she cannot be found guilty of murder by the jury due to her mental state, which her legal team is seeking to prove in court. 

Postpartum psychosis

Clancy, a former labour and delivery nurse, had suffered with her mental health previously. She was taking medication for insomnia, depression and anxiety, her lawyer told the court.

After the birth of her son Callan, she suffered from further mental health issues. She was prescribed a number of different medications. 

In December 2022, she began to take a new antipsychotic medication, her former husband and father of the three children Patrick Clancy testified. 

Patrick Clancy said this is when his then-wife’s “big spiral” began, and she confided in him that she felt suicidal and had intrusive thoughts about harming their children. Mr Clancy said he was not concerned that his wife would act on any of these thoughts.

He testified that Lindsay Clancy adored their children.

Her doctor upped her dosage of her antipsychotic medication, Mr Clancy said, and Lindsay’s mental health worsened. She visited two medical centres in the following weeks. 

In early January, she checked into an inpatient facility. Upon leaving this facility, she seemed to have improved, her former husband said, and she didn’t mention having any suicidal thoughts or thoughts of harming their children.

Nineteen days later, she carried out the killings.

Mr Clancy said he forgives his former wife and believes that the killings were motivated purely by her mental health. The prosecution has argued that the killings were carried out deliberately by Clancy and has queried whether she was suffering from psychosis.

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Postpartum psychosis is very rare and affects one to two of 1,000 women after delivery. 

Lindsay Clancy’s lawyers told the court that she heard a “man’s voice” telling her to kill her children. Patrick Clancy testified that Lindsay had called him from hospital around a week after the incident and told him the same.

In a search of the Clancy’s family home, Lindsay’s diaries where she documented her deteriorating mental state were recovered. The court heard she wrote “I want help. I want to be well” in one of these journals.

The trial

In the first week of the trial, Patrick Clancy’s testimony took up two days. 

Aside from his wife’s mental health, he also spoke in detail about their three children and his discovery of his injured wife and their deceased children. 

On the day of the killings, he said Lindsay appeared to be having one of her better days. She built a snowman in the garden with the children.

That afternoon, he was in a pharmacy when he rang Lindsay to discuss the medication briefly, before driving to a local restaurant to collect a takeaway order she had placed.

Prosecutors have put this forward as a ploy used by the accused to get her husband out of the house so that she could carry out the killings.

Upon arriving home, the house was “quiet”.

He found the door to his and Lindsay’s bedroom locked. Upon opening it, the room was covered in blood and the window was open. 

Clancy was lying on the ground in the backyard, having jumped from the window. She told her then-husband she had tried to kill herself. He asked where the children were, and she told him they were in the basement. She did not say they were dead, he testified.

He waited with his wife for the emergency services to arrive. Once they did, he ran to the basement, where he discovered the three children with exercise resistance bands around their necks.

Duxbury police officer Brian Josephine, who responded to the scene, testified that he heard Patrick scream, “she killed the fucking kids!”.

Cora and Dawson were pronounced dead that night, while 8-month-old Callan was pronounced dead three days later.

Testimony from the first week of the trial focused on Patrick Clancy, first responders, and medical personnel. The trial is expected to continue with testimony from medical experts on postpartum psychosis from both the prosecution and defence.

If convicted of murder, Lindsay Clancy faces life in prison. 

If you have been affected by any of the issues mentioned in this article, you can reach out for support through the following helplines. These organisations also put people in touch with long-term supports:

• Samaritans 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org
• Text About It – text HELLO to 50808 (mental health issues)
• Aware 1800 80 48 48 (depression, anxiety)
• Pieta House 1800 247 247 or text HELP to 51444 – (suicide, self-harm)
• Teen-Line Ireland 1800 833 634 (for ages 13 to 19)
• Childline 1800 66 66 66 (for under 18s)