PLYMOUTH, Mass. (Court TV) — A man testified at his ex-wife’s murder trial on Wednesday, describing the moment he returned home to find his three kids killed in their basement.
Patrick Clancy testifies on July 29, 2026. (Court TV)
Lindsay Clancy, 35, has pleaded not guilty to three charges of murder for the deaths of her children, but does not deny killing them. Through her attorney, Clancy has maintained that she was suffering from postpartum psychosis at the time she killed Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months.
Patrick Clancy showed little emotion as he returned to the witness stand on Wednesday morning for a second day of testimony. He described the errands he was out running on Jan. 24, 2023, telling the jury that he had gone to CVS to pick up a medication for Cora before heading to pick up dinner from a restaurant.
While he was at CVS, Patrick Clancy called home to double-check the medication he was buying. At that point, prosecutors say, Lindsay Clancy had already killed all three children and had taken a knife upstairs to the couple’s bedroom. Lindsay Clancy initially missed her then-husband’s call, then called him back minutes later. “She was pretty quiet,” he testified. “It sounded like she was busy. I remember hanging up, thinking she’s probably in the middle of giving baths or something.”
Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague holds up for the jury the black band used to kill Cora Clancy. (Court TV)
Patrick Clancy then went to the restaurant to pick up food and returned home with the packages, only to notice the house was far quieter than usual. He called down to the basement and got no answer before going upstairs to look for his family. Then, he reached the master bedroom door. “The door was locked, and that’s when I knew something was wrong,” Patrick Clancy testified. After using a key to unlock the door, he walked inside.
“I just saw blood everywhere, and the window was open,” Patrick Clancy said. “It was everywhere. It was, it looked like it was sprayed almost with a hose, and there was a huge puddle in the middle of the room and it was sprayed all over pretty much every surface.”
Noticing the open window and the bed pulled askew from the wall, Patrick Clancy said he ran down the stairs and outside, where he found the defendant “face up in the backyard.” “I said, ‘What happened?'” he testified. “She said, ‘I tried to kill myself.'” When he asked where the children were, she said, “in the basement.”
Patrick Clancy stayed by Lindsay Clancy’s side until paramedics arrived, at which point he ran inside the house to look for his children. “I saw Cora,” he said. “She had a band around her neck.” Cora and Callan were both lying face down on the basement floor with exercise bands looped around their necks. Patrick Clancy said he then searched for Dawson, whom he found on the other side of the basement, in his office. “I knew he was gone,” he said.
Lindsay Clancy cries as her ex-husband’s 911 call is played in court. (Court TV)
Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague held up the clothes the children were wearing for the jury, showing them Cora and Callan’s pajamas alongside Dawson’s pants and dinosaur underwear. She also displayed the exercise bands used to kill each child.
As Patrick Clancy found the children, he was still on the phone with 911 dispatchers, who recorded his screams as he discovered their bodies. Judge William Sullivan previously ordered, at Patrick Clancy’s request, that the call not be made public. While it was played in court, the media was not allowed to record it. The call left Lindsay Clancy sobbing in court; jurors and people seated in the gallery were similarly affected, causing the judge to call a recess.
