Lindsay Clancy ‘deliberately and meticulously killed’ her 3 children, prosecutor tells jury
Lindsay Clancy case begins in Massachusetts
The trial for the Massachusetts mom accused of killing her three young children began on Monday. LiveNOW’s Mike Pache discussed the Lindsay Clancy case with criminal defense attorney Nicole DeBorde.
This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
Opening statements began Monday in the murder trial of Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts mother accused of strangling her three young children inside the family’s home while suffering from what her attorneys say was severe postpartum psychosis.
Prosecutor Shanan Buckingham told jurors that Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months, were "deliberately and meticulously killed" by their mother on Jan. 24, 2023.
"They were strangled — deliberately and meticulously killed by this defendant," Buckingham said shortly after beginning the prosecution’s opening statement in Plymouth Superior Court.
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Buckingham urged the panel of 12 women and six men to keep an open mind, use their common sense and weigh the evidence presented during the trial.
Defense attorney Kevin Reddington countered that Clancy deeply loved and cared for her children and did not kill them because she viewed them as an impediment to her life.
"These children were loved and nurtured and cared for by her," Reddington told jurors. "She didn’t want to get rid of her kids because of her selfish life. As the government indicates, she loved those children right up to the time of their death."
Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital, has pleaded not guilty to three counts each of murder and strangulation.
The defense is expected to argue Clancy lacks criminal responsibility because she suffered from postpartum psychosis and was overmedicated. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via Pool)
Patrick Clancy, Lindsay's ex-husband, was called as the first witness on Monday afternoon. Patrick said that the two met in 2013 and started dating.
He said that after each of their children was born, his wife would show anxiety when it was time for her to go back to work at the end of her maternity leave. Patrick Clancy testified that Lindsay told him she planned to begin taking Zoloft because she believed it would help with her anxiety and her return to work.
"She said, ‘I think it’s really going to help with my anxiety and with going back to work.’"
Patrick said he asked how she planned to get the prescription. He recalled her telling him, "Usually you just ask the doctor, and they’ll give it to you."
Patrick Clancy testified that his ex-wife’s condition worsened after she began taking Seroquel, describing that period as the start of a "big spiral."
"Awful," he said when asked how Lindsay Clancy was doing physically after starting the medication. "That was really where her big spiral started. She started to lose a lot of weight, and she became very depressed, and she was having a really hard time."
Patrick Clancy said his ex-wife later told him she was suicidal, though she denied having a plan to kill herself.
He also testified that she described intrusive thoughts about harming their children.
"I never saw Lindsay harm the kids," he testified.
He also said he became concerned after she was prescribed 10 medications in just over two months.
"I felt like it had to be in person because I just felt like there was a disconnect," he said of pushing for an in-person medical appointment. He added that many of her telehealth appointments appeared to be brief and lacked "a lot of attention."
Her attorneys do not dispute that she killed the children but plan to argue that she was experiencing postpartum psychosis and lacked criminal responsibility. Prosecutors allege the killings were intentional and carefully planned.
"It is usually a hard battle to win," criminal defense attorney and Fox News contributor Donna Rotunno told Fox News Digital of the defense's insanity bid. "But given the fact that she has such a documented history of treatment and going to doctors and being diagnosed and seeking out more treatment when she wasn’t doing well, I think she can lay the groundwork for it."
Rotunno said Clancy’s attorneys are likely to emphasize that her condition allegedly continued to deteriorate even as she sought medical help.
"She continued to get worse. She continued to seek treatment," Rotunno said, pointing to reports that Clancy discussed hearing voices and was prescribed several medications before the children’s deaths.
Clancy’s prior work as a nurse could cut both ways at trial. Prosecutors may argue that her medical background made her more capable of understanding her treatment and actions, but Rotunno said the defense could use the same fact to demonstrate the severity of her alleged psychosis.
"She was a nurse and still so out of it that she didn’t know she shouldn’t be taking all this stuff," Rotunno said. "That, to me, doesn’t play into the intention on this. It’s the total opposite."
Authorities said Patrick Clancy left the family’s Duxbury home on Jan. 24, 2023, to pick up takeout food and an item from a pharmacy.
While he was gone, prosecutors allege, Lindsay Clancy used exercise bands to strangle the children before jumping from a second-story window in an apparent suicide attempt.
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The fall left her paralyzed, and she now uses a wheelchair.
Cora and Dawson were pronounced dead after being taken to a Plymouth hospital. Callan was flown to Boston Children’s Hospital and died several days later. The medical examiner determined that Cora and Dawson died from asphyxia and that Callan died from complications of asphyxia.
Clancy’s mental condition in the months and weeks before the killings are expected to become the central battleground at trial.
Her attorneys say she sought help repeatedly as she struggled with depression, sleeplessness, suicidal thoughts and voices urging her to harm herself and the children.
If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
She was admitted to a psychiatric hospital weeks before the deaths and was prescribed several medications as providers attempted to treat her worsening symptoms.
According to lawsuits filed by Lindsay and Patrick Clancy against her medical providers, she heard a voice on the day of the killings telling her it was her "last chance" to kill the children and herself.
The lawsuits accuse her providers of failing to properly diagnose, treat and monitor a severe postpartum psychiatric condition.
Plymouth Superior Court Judge William Sullivan ruled Friday that the media and public may not record, display, reproduce or distribute Patrick Clancy’s initial 911 call or autopsy photographs of the children.
The ruling came after Patrick requested that the evidence be shielded by media dissemination.
Reporters may also describe what is heard or shown in court but cannot broadcast or publish the recording or images themselves, according to the two-page order.
The privacy dispute produced a heated courtroom exchange Thursday after the jury was seated.
Patrick Clancy asked Sullivan to limit the public and media’s ability to record, broadcast or distribute his initial 911 call, family and crime-scene photographs of the children, autopsy images and the clothing the children were wearing.
His attorney, David Meier, said the request was not intended to close the courtroom, prevent jurors from seeing the evidence or interfere with either side’s case. Instead, he argued that allowing the materials to circulate online would cause lasting emotional harm to Patrick Clancy.
Lindsay Clancy’s defense attorney, Kevin Reddington, supported Patrick’s request and accused prosecutors of planning to present the evidence in a manner designed to "inflame" the jury.
"Even though we’re in a court, let’s talk a little bit about humanity," Reddington said. "Let’s talk a little bit about how we should try this case."
Reddington said Patrick had suffered "one of the worst tragedies that anyone could ever suffer" and was attempting to rebuild his life.
"How that guy is still not an emotional basket case is beyond me. But nevertheless, he is trying hard to move on with his life. He has, as the court is aware, divorced. He’s remarried. He has a family. He has his extended family," he said.
Reddington accused the prosecution of trying "to put a circus in front of this jury" and later called its approach "reprehensible."
"The district attorney wants to put that guy on the witness stand and show little onesies with bodily fluid of his child?" he said.
Sullivan interrupted and reminded Reddington that the issue before the court was whether the media could record or distribute the evidence, rather than whether prosecutors could introduce it at trial.
Sprague began responding that the defense wanted to "rush past what happened to these children" and "whitewash away what happened," but Sullivan cut off the exchange.
Reddington argued that calling one first responder after another would produce cumulative testimony intended primarily to stir jurors’ emotions.
"The Commonwealth did not choose the number of victims. The defendant did," Sprague responded. "The Commonwealth did not choose the ages of the victims. The defendant did."