Testimony continues in the case of Lindsay Clancy, who is charged with the brutal murders of her three young children in 2023. The defense argues this is not a crime of passion or of rage, but a horrifying consequence of postpartum psychosis.

Content Warning: This article discusses an exceptionally disturbing case involving multiple children’s murders. The details may be upsetting or triggering for some readers. Reader discretion is advised, and those who may be sensitive to these topics are encouraged to proceed with caution or discontinue reading.

Reading Someone Else’s Diary

Prosecutors say that Lindsay Clancy strangled her children with exercise bands deliberately, and read from her diary in court on Monday to further their case. Massachusetts State Police investigator Cory Melo was called to the stand to testify, and simultaneously the Plymouth County Assistant District Attorney Shanan Buckingham read the diary entries aloud.

Clancy wrote she was “completely overwhelmed” when it came to caring for and mothering her three children – Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and 8-month-old Callan. “I feel like I’m drowning every day,” she wrote.

While Clancy does not deny killing her children, her defense says it was due to her false sense of reality and mental health issues. Defense attorney Kevin Reddington also used the diary entries and noted where she mentioned she had “brain fog” and that she felt “completely disconnected with my baby.”

Child Murders

On January 24, 2023, Lindsay Clancy sent her husband, Patrick Clancy, to pick up food and stop by the pharmacy on the way home. When Patrick arrived back at their home in Duxbury, Massachusetts, he found it quiet and still. He searched the home and found his wife in a bloody mess in the main bedroom.

Lindsay had cut her wrists in an attempt to kill herself after–what is still unknown to her husband at this time–strangling her children in the basement with exercise bands. She threw herself out the second-story window and left herself paralyzed from the waist down. 

Patrick rushed to be by her side, where she confessed where the children were, but failed to mention that they were no longer breathing.

Mental Health Questioned

Prosecutors questioned Clancy’s treating physicians for her attempted suicide earlier in the day on Monday, calling into question the legitimacy of her attempt. Emergency room doctor Kelly McDonough said the injuries to the wrists appeared to be “superficial lacerations.”

However, Reddington anticipated this might be one of the prosecution’s arguments, and told jurors in his opening statements, “This is no fake suicide.”

Two days after the murders and attempted suicide, a forensic psychologist asked how Clancy felt, and she replied with: “Horrified.” She was only able to communicate through a whiteboard as she was intubated, and “She then asked, can she have visitors, and where her family is,” Dr. Jhilam Biswas of Brigham and Women’s Hospital said.

Treatment For Mental Health

In the months before the murders, Clancy sought mental health treatment in various ways, including medications and at one point committing herself for treatment. Doctors prescribed her all kinds of antidepressants, sleep aids, an antipsychotic, and other medications, but she reported that she had an increase in anxiety, insomnia, despair, and confusion.

In December 2022, doctors believed the medication was the culprit of all of her symptoms, so they told her to wean off the antipsychotic drug, and she was discharged the day after. However, Clancy still felt something was not right, so she checked herself into a psychiatric hospital on New Year’s Eve 2022. 

She spent several days in the facility and resumed sessions with her psychiatrist. Unfortunately, 19 days after she was released, she spoke with her doctor one final time for 17 minutes and then committed the atrocious murders.

If you or someone you know is experiencing emotional distress, a mental health crisis, concerns related to substance use, or simply needs someone to talk to, help is available. Call or text 988, or visit 988lifeline.org to chat with a trained crisis counselor 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.