Crime

Trial of Mass. Mother Accused of Murdering Her Children Begins

Is Lindsay Clancy a victim of a broken mental health system or a calculating killer who knew exactly what she was doing?

Published JUL 28

Trial of Mass. Mother Accused of Murdering Her Children Begins

Story

Above: A makeshift memorial in front of the home of Lindsay Clancy in Duxbury, Massachusetts, on Jan. 31, 2023. Image credit: Matt Stone/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald/Getty Images

The Facts

The murder trial of Lindsay Clancy, a 35-year-old former labor and delivery nurse, began on Monday in Plymouth County Superior Court. She has pleaded not guilty to three counts of first-degree murder in the strangulation deaths of her children — Cora, 5; Dawson, 3; and 8-month-old Callan — in January 2023.
ABC News
The Washington Times
Prosecutors argued Clancy planned the killings by timing her then-husband Patrick's absence from their Duxbury home to run an errand. Assistant District Attorney Shanan Buckingham told jurors Clancy "acted intentionally, rationally and swiftly" to kill her children before attempting to take her own life.
PBS NewsHour
The Washington Times
Defense attorney Kevin Reddington told jurors Clancy was suffering from postpartum psychosis at the time of the killings and had sought medical help nearly 20 times between September 2022 and January 2023. He said she had been prescribed more than a dozen medications that failed to resolve her condition.
The New York Times
The Washington Times
Patrick Clancy, Clancy's ex-husband and the trial's first witness, testified that her mental health began a "big spiral" in December 2022 after she switched medications. He said she lost weight, became severely depressed and first disclosed suicidal thoughts and intrusive thoughts about harming the children around that time.
BBC News
CBS News
Patrick Clancy testified that Lindsay had been discharged from McLean Hospital on Jan. 5, 2023, and that her mood appeared to have improved in the weeks that followed. He said Jan. 24, 2023 — the day the children were killed — had been "one of her best days."
CBS News
CBS News
Clancy jumped from a second-story window after the killings and was left paralyzed. She faces a mandatory life sentence without parole if convicted of first-degree murder; if found not criminally responsible, she would be committed to a state mental health facility. The trial is expected to last six to eight weeks.
AP News
NPR
FOX News

Sources Split

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The Spin

Narrative A

Lindsay Clancy did exactly what a struggling mother is supposed to do — she sought help, saw psychiatrists and voluntarily admitted herself to inpatient care, yet still fell through the cracks of a broken mental health system. Postpartum psychosis is a real yet misunderstood condition, and to convict Clancy would exacerbate this tragedy. Putting her on trial punishes her for a system's failure.

MS Now

Narrative B

Lindsay Clancy's own journals and phone notes show clear, articulate thinking with no signs of disordered thought, hallucinations or delusions in the days before her children died. She researched ways to kill, tracked her medications meticulously and sent her husband on errands before acting — clear signs of premeditation. The evidence points to someone who knew exactly what was happening.