Trial begins for Massachusetts mom who says postpartum issues led her to kill 3 children
Jury selection begins Monday Trial of a Massachusetts mother She strangled her three children to death while she was receiving treatment for psychiatric problems that developed after giving birth.
Lindsay Clancy denies murder charges deaths of their children Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, who was 8 months old when the siblings were killed on January 24, 2023.
Clancy, now 36, threw himself out of a window after killing the children and became paralyzed in the fall. He is being kept in a state hospital.
The trial is expected to investigate the complex and rare phenomenon of postpartum psychosis, which affects a very small percentage of women who develop delusions and sometimes hallucinations after giving birth. Clancy’s lawyers and her husband say she is not responsible for her actions.
Prosecutors say the killings were deliberate and well-planned and not the work of someone who lost control.
On the day of the incident, Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital, asked her husband, Patrick Clancy, to go out to get food and pick up something from the pharmacy. He then strangled his children with exercise bands at the family’s home in Duxbury, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Boston.
Eighteen jurors, including six alternates, are expected to be selected within days. The trial is expected to last several weeks.
Clancy’s attorney, Kevin Reddington, does not dispute that he killed the children but plans to pursue an insanity defense.
“This whole case is a tragedy of extremes,” he said.
Clancy and her husband filed lawsuits earlier this year accusing health officials of failing to properly diagnose, treat and monitor her for a “severe postpartum psychiatric condition.”
Lindsay Clancy’s lawsuit describes how she was depressed, had trouble sleeping and repeatedly heard voices urging her to harm her children and herself. He had spent several days in a psychiatric hospital just a few weeks before the murders.
“Lindsay Clancy did everything a mother in her situation could do. She realized something was wrong with her. She sought medical treatment. She went to emergency rooms. She called crisis hotlines. She admitted herself to hospitals. She took the medications prescribed to her. She communicated her worsening symptoms to the paramedics. She told them the medications were making her worse,” the lawsuit said.
On the day of the murders, Clancy said he heard voices saying, “This is your last chance. Kill the children so you can kill yourself.”
Clancy’s husband is on both sides’ witness lists. He said in interviews that he forgave his wife.
In a post on GoFundMe a few days after the murders, Patrick Clancy wrote that the “shock and pain were unbearable and unrelenting” but urged the public to see Lindsay Clancy as she was before the murders.
“The real Lindsay generously showed love and compassion to everyone – me, our children, our family, our friends, and her patients. The innermost fibers of her soul are filled with love. My only wish for her now is that she somehow finds peace,” he said.
