DUXBURY, Mass. (Court TV) − The Massachusetts mother who allegedly strangled her three young children earlier this year before attempting to take her own life has been transferred to another hospital and had today’s court date postponed.
According to court records, Lindsay Clancy was transferred to Tewksbury State Hospital because doctors felt she needed further mental health care.
Lindsay Clancy appears from her hospital bed Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023, for her arraignment. Clancy is facing murder and assault charges in the deaths of her three children. (Court TV)
Prosecutors say that on January 24, Clancy strangled her daughter Cora, 5, son Dawson, 3, and son Callan, 7 months, before leaping out of a second-floor window of her Duxbury home.
Clancy, 32, had sent her husband, Patrick Clancy, to pick up takeout from a restaurant in nearby Plymouth, and to pick up a laxative medication for one of the kids at CVS when she allegedly strangled the children with exercise bands. According to prosecutors, Clancy used Apple Maps to calculate how long he would be gone so she could carry out the attacks.
Upon returning to an uncharacteristically quiet house, Patrick found an injured Lindsay in the yard. She had cut her wrists and neck before jumping. He then found the kids in the basement with the bands still around their necks. Cora and Dawson were pronounced dead at the scene, while Callan was rushed to Boston Children’s Hospital where he was kept on life support and succumbed to his injuries three days later.
At her February 7 arraignment, Lindsay appeared before the judge remotely from her hospital bed at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. She pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder.
WATCH: Lindsay Clancy Arraignment: Breaking Down the State and Defense’s Arguments
Her lawyer, Kevin Reddington, argued on her behalf that it would be “inhumane” to imprison her, given the extent of her injuries. He explained that jumping out the window had rendered Lindsay a paraplegic and that she was suffering multiple severe spinal fractures.
Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague told the court during that February arraignment that Lindsay told Patrick over the phone that she killed the kids because she “moment of psychosis” after hearing “a man’s voice, telling her to kill the kids and kill herself because it was her last chance.”
WATCH: Lawyer for Mom Accused of Strangling 3 Kids Speaks
Reddington argued that Lindsay’s mental health was so poor that she required a 24/7 guardian in her hospital room. He explained that Lindsay, who worked as a labor and delivery nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital, suffered from postpartum depression or psychosis. Lindsay, he explained, was overmedicated on a dozen prescription drugs that made her “a zombie.”
Charges against Lindsay include two counts of murder, three counts of strangulation or suffocation and three counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. Reddington has not yet indicated whether Lindsay plans an insanity defense. Her scheduled May 2 probable cause hearing has been rescheduled for July 25.
