PLYMOUTH, Mass. (Court TV) — A Massachusetts woman on trial has admitted that she killed her three young children, but claims that she was insane at the time.
Lindsay Clancy appears in court during jury selection on July 22, 2026. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger)
Lindsay Clancy, 35, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder in the deaths of Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 7 months. The children were all strangled to death with exercise bands. After killing her children, investigators say, Lindsay Clancy then cut her wrists and neck before jumping from a second-story window at the family’s Duxbury home.
Prosecutors say that on Jan. 24, 2023, the defendant sent her husband, Patrick Clancy, to pick up takeout from a restaurant and asked him to grab some medication for one of the children at CVS before carrying out the killings. When Patrick Clancy arrived home, he first saw his wife on the ground and called 911.
The 911 call continued as Patrick Clancy went inside the house and found each of his children, yelling, “She killed the kids!”
The injuries Lindsay Clancy suffered after jumping from her home’s window, including a broken spine, have left her paralyzed and using a wheelchair. At her arraignment, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague suggested she had not truly intended to take her own life, saying, “She lowered herself out of the window and dropped down. I don’t think she took into account the fact that the ground was frozen.”
Kevin Reddington, Lindsay Clancy’s attorney, says that she was suffering from postpartum psychosis when she killed her children and tried to take her own life. He said that the defendant had a documented history of seeking help for disturbing thoughts in the weeks leading up to the tragedy and that she was not criminally responsible for her actions.
Lindsay Clancy has filed a malpractice lawsuit against two medical providers and their employers, alleging their failure to provide adequate medical care led to her children’s deaths. The lawsuit claims that Lindsay Clancy reached out repeatedly for help beginning 12 weeks after delivering her third child; she said that she was prescribed multiple medications with little or no oversight and was released from inpatient treatment before her symptoms had been fully addressed.
Jury selection began on June 20 as attorneys worked to seat a panel of 18 to hear the trial, which is expected to last six to eight weeks. The trial is expected to include a jury viewing of the home, though the house where the children were killed now has a new owner who has opposed the visit.
Opening statements are scheduled for Monday morning.
