What to know as Lindsay Clancy trial ramps up
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The Clancy residence in January 2023. Photo: Matt Stone/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald via Getty Images
Jurors this week are reviewing graphic details about the killings of three Duxbury children at the hands of their mother, Lindsay Clancy, and deciding whether to convict her of murder.
The big picture: The high-profile trial is revealing common, but often unspoken, flaws in the health care sector's treatment of postpartum mothers.
- The key question: whether Clancy intentionally strangled her children on Jan. 24, 2023, or acted uncontrollably under psychosis.
Catch up quick: Authorities say Clancy sent her then-husband, Patrick, to pick up food and medicine for Cora, 5, that afternoon and strangled Cora, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months, in the basement of their home.
- Then she cut her neck and wrists and jumped from a second-story window in an attempt to die. (She survived but is paralyzed from the waist down.)
- Lindsay Clancy was charged with three counts of first-degree murder, to which she has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, claiming a voice told her to kill her children.
State of play: The trial continues Tuesday with Patrick Clancy's testimony, who first took the stand Monday after opening statements.
- Prosecutors will likely play the recording of Patrick Clancy's 911 call after he returned home, per the Boston Globe.
Flashback: Lindsay Clancy, a labor and delivery nurse at Mass General Hospital, struggled with worsening postpartum depression in the fall of 2022.
- While Patrick Clancy returned to work three months after Callan's birth, Lindsay Clancy stayed home.
- She went through a slew of mental health providers, prescriptions and treatments — some without her husband's knowledge, he said — before going to McLean Hospital on Jan. 1, 2023.
- She checked herself out five days later, without Patrick Clancy's knowledge, to make Cora's birthday and she seemed to be in good spirits.
Zoom in: Prosecutor Shanan Buckingham said Lindsay Clancy acted rationally, albeit selfishly and disturbingly, when she killed her children and attempted suicide.
- Not mentioned in her opening statements, but claimed later by the defense: Authorities believed Lindsay Clancy didn't report a voice in her head until after her attorney got involved.
The other side: Lindsay Clancy's attorney, Kevin Reddington, said she was prescribed 13 drugs over four months (but she failed to take many of them).
- Reddington, and later Patrick Clancy, said she had expressed in late 2022 suicidal thoughts and fears that she would hurt the children.
What's next: Expect to see testimony from various forensic and mental health experts, Lindsay Clancy's parents, her ex-in-laws and friends.
For help with postpartum depression, call or text the National Maternal Health Hotline (1-833-852-6262) or the Postpartum Support International Helpline (1-800-944-4773). If you or someone else you know is having suicidal thoughts, call 988.