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Published 10:13 24 Jul 2026 GMT
Chilling note left behind by 'loving' mom accused of ‘killing 3 kids and jumping 20ft from window’
Warning: This article may contain some distressing information.
The disturbing note allegedly written by a mother accused of strangling her three young children before attempting to take her own life by jumping 20 feet from a second-story window has been revealed as her murder trial gets underway.
Lindsay Clancy, 36, has been charged over the deaths of her children, five-year-old Cora, three-year-old Dawson, and eight-month-old Callan.
The young victims were found strangled inside the family's home in Duxbury, around 30 miles south of Boston, on January 24, 2023.
Clancy's trial, which is expected to last several weeks, will focus on whether she can be held criminally responsible for the killings or whether postpartum psychosis left her incapable of controlling her actions.
According to prosecutors, Clancy told her husband, Patrick, she had been tired after caring for the kids all day and asked him to pick up the children's medication and takeout because she was too tired to cook dinner.
When Patrick returned home, he found his wife seriously injured outside after she had allegedly slashed her wrists and throat before jumping from the home's second-floor window.
She reportedly told him she had tried to take her own life and that their children were downstairs.
When first responders entered the home, they found all three children had been strangled with exercise resistance bands.
Cora and Dawson were pronounced dead that evening, while Callan died several days later in hospital.
The item used to commit the killings was reportedly so disturbing that responding officers later required counseling.
Trial to focus on postpartum psychosis
Five jurors were selected on Monday as attorneys began assembling an 18-person panel, including six alternates, for the trial in Plymouth.
Clancy's legal team, supported by her husband, does not dispute that she killed the children but argues she was suffering from postpartum psychosis and should be found not guilty by reason of insanity.
"This whole case is an extreme tragedy," defense attorney Kevin Reddington said.
However, prosecutors have argued that the killings were deliberate and carefully planned rather than the actions of someone who had lost touch with reality.
They allege Clancy searched online for the phrase "ways to kill" before the deaths and, four days earlier, had also Googled "can you treat a sociopath".
Prosecutors point to handwritten note
Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague has also highlighted a handwritten note Clancy allegedly wrote five months before Callan was born.
In the note, Clancy wrote: "I think I sort of resent my other children because they prevent me from treating Cal like my first baby... I want to feel love and connection with all of my kids."
Sprague has described the defendant as "selfish," citing the note during an earlier court hearing.
Clancy remains paralyzed after her fall from the home's second-floor window and is being held at a state hospital while awaiting trial.
Patrick is expected to testify for both the prosecution and the defense.
Lawsuit claims doctors failed to treat her condition
Earlier this year, Lindsay and Patrick filed a lawsuit against her healthcare providers, alleging they failed to properly diagnose, treat and monitor what they described as a "severe postpartum psychiatric condition."
Per the complaint, Clancy had received inpatient psychiatric treatment in the weeks leading up to the killings after struggling with depression, insomnia and hearing voices telling her to harm both herself and her children.
"Lindsay Clancy did everything a mother in her situation could do," the lawsuit states. "She recognized something was wrong with her."
"She sought medical treatment. She went to emergency rooms. She called crisis hotlines. She admitted herself to a hospital. She took the medication prescribed to her. She communicated her worsening symptoms to her providers. She told them the medications were making her worse."
The filing also alleges that, on the day of the killings, Clancy heard voices telling her: "This is your last chance. Kill the children so you can kill yourself."
According to medical records cited in the lawsuit filed by Patrick, another voice told her "that her children would suffer if she was gone".
Patrick publicly forgave his wife after the horrific murders and has urged people to remember her as she was before the tragedy.
In a GoFundMe post shared days after the killings, he wrote that the family's "shock and pain is excruciating and relentless."
He added: "The real Lindsay was generously loving and caring toward everyone - me, our kids, family, friends, and her patients. The very fibers of her soul are loving. All I wish for her now is that she can somehow find peace."














