PLYMOUTH, Mass. (Court TV) — The first week of a Massachusetts murder trial brought drama and tears to the courtroom as a mother faced murder charges for killing her three young children.
Lindsay Clancy, 35, has admitted to using exercise bands to strangle Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months, in the basement of their Duxbury home. She has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder, arguing through her attorney that she was suffering from postpartum psychosis when she killed her children.
Chilling Comments
Patrick Clancy, the father of the three children and the defendant’s husband at the time they were killed, was the first witness called to testify.
Patrick Clancy said the defendant had suffered increasing anxiety after each of their three children was born, but that her symptoms became far more severe in the weeks leading up to the children’s deaths on Jan. 24, 2023. In December 2022, he said that Lindsay Clancy described herself as suicidal but denied having any plan to take her own life.
He also said that Lindsay Clancy described having “intrusive thoughts,” and “she described thoughts of hurting the kids or them having some sort of ailment.”
“Horrible intrusive thoughts”
Lindsay Clancy’s defense attorney, Kevin Reddington, emphasized his client’s worsening mental health in the days and weeks leading up to her children’s deaths by showing the jury a notebook that the defendant had kept.
On the pages of the notebook was a handwritten log detailing the medications that Lindsay Clancy was taking as prescribed as well as notes about her mood. Each day she wrote either “horrible thoughts” or “horrible intrusive thoughts.”
911 Call
Patrick Clancy was dismissed from the courtroom before prosecutors entered into evidence the 911 call he placed on Jan. 24, 2023. After driving to pick up food from a restaurant and medication from CVS, Patrick Clancy arrived home to an unusually quiet house. After finding blood in his bedroom and the window open, he went outside to find the defendant lying on the ground behind the house.
The 911 call was still active after paramedics arrived and Patrick Clancy went inside his house and down to the basement to look for his children.
Media were prohibited from broadcasting the call, but those in the courtroom said Patrick Clancy’s screams after discovering his children dead were gut-wrenching. Lindsay Clancy gripped Reddington’s hand as the call played and cried. Jurors and spectators in the gallery were also in tears.
Exercise Bands Shown to Jury
Prosecutors showed jurors the alleged weapons used to kill the three young victims. Pajamas each child wore were held up for the jurors alongside the colored exercise bands that Lindsay Clancy allegedly tied around each of their necks. Patrick Clancy said he untied each one as he found his sons and daughter.
First Responders Recall Crime Scene
On Thursday, prosecutors had the first responders who were at the Clancy home on Jan. 24, 2023, testify about what they saw. Police officers and paramedics became emotional as they described hearing Patrick Clancy’s screams before running into the house and finding the children dead.
“My first instinct was to kind of grab [Dawson’s] head and tilt it to the side, see if I can get a pulse,” Officer Brian Josephine testified. “But, I mean, based on my training and experience from previous incidents, I knew this wasn’t going to be good … Based on my observations, I knew there wasn’t really much I could do.”
Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial resumes Monday and is expected to continue for several more weeks.
