PLYMOUTH, Mass. (Court TV) — The woman who helped care for the Clancy family’s three young children testified on Wednesday that their mother was doting and attentive in the weeks and months before she killed them.
Lindsay Clancy, 35, has pleaded not guilty to murder charges in the deaths of Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months. Clancy has admitted that she strangled the children using exercise bands in the family’s basement, but has claimed that she was suffering from postpartum psychosis at the time and was not legally responsible for her actions.
Elaine Rossi, the former nanny for the Clancy children, testified on Aug. 5, 2026. (Court TV)
On Wednesday, prosecutors called the Clancy family’s former nanny to testify about her experience with the children and the defendant. Elaine Rossi said she met the family in 2022 after answering an ad on Facebook from Clancy, who was looking for a part-time nanny. Rossi was hired with the expectation that Clancy would return to work in November 2022 and began working for the family in September that year, three days a week.
“She was a wonderful mom,” Rossi said of Clancy. “I observed a wonderful mom who loved her kids.”
While Rossi was primarily hired to help care for Callan, she quickly became close with the entire family. She described Cora as a “girly girl who loved her babies very much” and loved arts and crafts and playing with her pretend kitchen. Dawson “was full of energy, rambunctious, funny, silly,” she said. Rossi described Callan as “the happiest, sweetest, easiest baby.”
As Rossi testified, Clancy sobbed next to her attorney.
Lindsay Clancy appears in court on Aug. 5, 2026. (Court TV)
While she worked for the Clancy family, Rossi said that she and Clancy would frequently communicate through notes passed back and forth in a notebook left in the kitchen. The notebook pages shown to the jury included notes about Callan’s nap schedule and planned activities for the day.
In her opening statement to the jury, Assistant District Attorney Shanan Buckingham described the defendant as a woman who was “extremely controlling, meticulous, manipulative” and who killed her children because she saw her life becoming harder to control. “And when she saw the opportunity to escape, she made the selfish choice to take it.”
Clancy’s attorney, Kevin Reddington, emphasized his client’s struggles with mental health as he cross-examined Rossi, who said that Clancy had revealed struggles with postpartum depression. Rossi also testified that Clancy told her she had been having trouble sleeping and had been staying overnight in the basement.
The trial resumes Thursday morning.
