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A prosecutor at Lindsay Clancy's trial has been caught in a jaw-dropping hot mic moment.
The controversial moment - during the highly-publicized trial of the Massachusetts mom accused of killing her three children in January 2023 - was picked up by Clancy's lawyer, Kevin Reddington.
The incident, picked up by Reddington and brought to the attention of the trial's judge, William Sullivan, hinged on a very intense moment, where Clancy was shown autopsy photos of her baby in the courtroom.
It was such a pivotal moment, in fact, that the judge ruled that he'd have to take the issue to a sidebar - a private conversation between the judge and the lawyers for the prosecution and defence - even though the jury wasn't even back in the room yet.
The hot mic moment occurred when Clancy was forced to sit through the autopsy photos of her eight-month old baby, Callan.
Reddington raised the issue directly to the judge, about something a prosecutor was allegedly caught saying, that was picked up on one of the courtroom's mics.
"They got picked up on a hot mic saying ‘Shut her up,’ during the playing of the autopsy," Reddington said of the alleged incident, although it wasn't clear who the "she" they were referring to was.
Clancy was audibly crying and wailing whilst looking at Callan's autopsy.
Allegedly, Reddington said that the prosecutor made the comment whilst the medical examiner, Dr Kimberly Springer, was on the stand.
After being brought to his attention, Judge Sullivan said; "I just want to find out what the issue is. There are a lot of privileged issues [in this case]."
The lawyers were then all called to a sidebar.
Lindsay Clancy is accused of killing her three children Cora, five years old; Dawson, three years old and Callan, eight months old.
Clancy's former husband, Patrick Clancy, arrived back home on the night of the murders after collecting medications and takeout to find the door to their bedroom locked.
After breaking in, he saw the room was covered in blood and the window open, his wife lying on the ground below after attempting to take her own life. The bodies of their three children were found in the house's basement, with exercise resistance bands around their necks.
Clancy, who is now paralysed after her suicide attempt, had sought help for a postpartum depression diagnosis in December 2022. She later checked herself into a psychiatric hospital where she told the doctor she heard "a man's voice" that told her to "kill the children so you can kill yourself."
Nineteen days later, after she was discharged, Clancy allegedly carried out the killings.
If convicted, Lindsay Clancy faces life in prison without parole. The prosecution's case rests on Clancy intentionally killing her children. Her defence argue she was a loving mother suffering with postpartum psychosis, had undiagnosed bipolar disorder, and was given problematic medications which affected her mental state.
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Disturbing autopsy photos of three young children were hidden from television viewers as Lindsay Clancy's murder trial got underway.
The 36-year-old has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder over the deaths of her children, five-year-old Cora, three-year-old Dawson, and eight-month-old Callan, who were found strangled inside the family's Duxbury home on January 24, 2023.
As prosecutors delivered their opening statements, several broadcasters were forced to blur their courtroom feeds after graphic images were shown to jurors.
Cameras were also ordered to stop filming entirely whenever the autopsy photographs were displayed.
Before testimony began, Judge William Sullivan granted a request from Lindsay's ex-husband, Patrick Clancy, to keep the family's 911 call and autopsy photographs out of the public domain.
"The media shall not, record, display, reproduce, distribute or otherwise disseminate" the 911 call or the autopsy photos of the children, Judge Sullivan wrote in his ruling, per The Mirror.
Whenever that evidence is presented to jurors, courtroom cameras will be switched off.
Patrick previously made clear he supports his former wife's mental illness defense.
"I wasn’t married to a monster - I was married to someone who got sick," he said in a 2024 interview.
The trial, which is expected to last several weeks, will focus heavily on whether Clancy can be held criminally responsible for the killings or whether postpartum psychosis and severe mental illness left her incapable of controlling her actions.
Her legal team does not dispute that she killed the children, arguing instead that she was suffering from postpartum psychosis at the time.
Meanwhile, prosecutors have contended that the crimes were deliberate and premeditated.
According to prosecutors, Clancy asked Patrick to collect a prescription and takeout food because she was too tired to cook dinner after caring for the children all day.
Investigators allege she searched online to find out how long he would be gone before carrying out the killings.
"She looked up on her phone, or on her computer search, how long he was going to be gone for when he goes on that trip the day that she killed her children," Boston criminal defence attorney Elyse Hershon said.
"They’re going to focus on that and how that’s an example of premeditation, and she was planning to kill her children while he was gone."
Prosecutors have also alleged Clancy searched online for the phrase "ways to kill" before the deaths and, four days earlier, Googled "can you treat a sociopath".
Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague has additionally highlighted a handwritten note Clancy allegedly wrote five months before Callan was born.
In it, she 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 previously described Clancy as "selfish," referencing the note during an earlier court hearing.
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Patrick's testimony began with details of the months leading up to the tragedy.
He told jurors that after Callan's birth in 2022, his then-wife began showing signs of anxiety as the end of her maternity leave approached.
He explained that she had experienced similar anxiety after previous maternity leaves and found caring for all three children alone "really stressful", though he said there was nothing at the time that made him believe she needed emergency medical intervention.
Patrick testified that Lindsay wanted to begin taking Zoloft to treat her anxiety.
"Usually, you just ask the doctor, and they’ll give it to you," he recalled her saying when he asked how she planned to obtain the medication.
He later found out that she had already secured the prescription before mentioning it to him.
"I don’t think she had started taking it yet, but she already had it," he told the court.
By late October, Patrick noticed little improvement: "She wasn’t really improving (at that time). She just kind of seemed to be gradually becoming more in like a depressed state."
He said she eventually stopped taking the medication because it affected her sleep.
The couple even slept in separate rooms for several weeks in an effort to help her rest, although she continued struggling with insomnia.
When asked by prosecutors whether Lindsay later told him she had been instructed to "double the dose," Patrick replied that she had.
Earlier this year, Lindsay and Patrick filed a lawsuit against her healthcare providers, alleging they failed to properly diagnose, monitor, and treat what they describe as a "severe postpartum psychiatric condition."
According to the complaint, Clancy tried to get medical help before the killings, including inpatient psychiatric treatment, after suffering 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."
The filing further 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, another voice warned her "that her children would suffer if she was gone."
After Patrick returned home that evening, prosecutors say he found his wife outside the house after she allegedly slashed her wrists and throat before jumping from a second-storey window.
She reportedly told him she had tried to take her own life and that their children were downstairs.
First responders found all three children strangled with exercise resistance bands. Cora and Dawson died that evening, while baby Callan died several days later in hospital.
Clancy remains paralyzed following the fall and is being held at a state hospital as the trial continues.
If convicted, she faces a life sentence.
The husband of a Massachusetts mom who is facing trial for the murder of their three children has revealed the chilling words the voice in her head said before their tragic deaths.
Lindsay Clancy is accused of killing her three young children, five-year-old Cora, three-year-old Dawson, and eight-month-old Callan, on January 24, 2023.
Her husband, Patrick Clancy, is expected to testify as part of the defense's case, as her trial begins this week.
According to investigators, Lindsay had allegedly asked Patrick to go and pick up takeout on the evening of the murders, and he returned to a tragic scene.
When he arrived back at the home around 25 minutes later, he found that Lindsay had jumped from the second-story bedroom window and immediately called 911.
While on the phone to the emergency services, Patrick entered the home and discovered their three children inside, with exercise bands around their necks. Cora and Dawson were pronounced dead after arriving at hospital, and Callan died from his injuries several days later.
Lindsay survived the fall but has been left paralyzed and needing a wheelchair as a result of her injuries.
Despite the heartbreak of losing his three children in such horrific circumstances, Patrick has publicly stated that he forgives his wife and asked for others to do the same.
Prosecutors have also dropped three lesser strangulation charges by filing a notice of nolle prosequi, allowing those counts to be merged into the three murder charges Lindsay already faces.
The trial is expected to last around six to eight weeks, with Lindsay's legal team announcing earlier in the year that they plan to pursue an insanity defense, arguing that she was experiencing postpartum psychosis at the time of the alleged killings.
Earlier this year, Patrick also filed a wrongful death lawsuit against several of Lindsay's healthcare providers, on behalf of the estates of their three children, after Lindsay was allegedly prescribed at least nine medications in the months before the tragedy.
Eight of the prescriptions were reportedly issued within just three weeks between November 16 and December 5, 2022, with medications including Valium, Prozac, Ambien, Remeron, Klonopin, Seroquel, and Lamictal.
In the suit, Patrick alleged that Lindsay had "started hearing a compelling and unrecognizable singular male voice that told her 'this is your last chance' and that she had to 'take them' with [her]."
It added that the voice "indicated to [Lindsay] that she should die... and that her children would suffer if she was gone."
Though Lindsay does not deny killing her children, she has pleaded not guilty and claimed she is not responsible for her actions because she was suffering postpartum psychosis.
Prosecutors are planning to argue that the killings were intentional and premeditated, after Lindsay ensured her husband would be out of the house when they were committed.
The trial began on July 20 and is ongoing.
A friend of Lindsay Clancy has told jurors about a concerning text message she received from the Massachusetts mother just days before prosecutors say her three young children were killed.
Clancy's murder trial is now in its second week. The 35-year-old is charged over the deaths of her children, five-year-old Cora, three-year-old Dawson and eight-month-old Callan, who died in January 2023 before Clancy allegedly attempted to take her own life.
Now using a wheelchair as a result of her injuries, Clancy does not dispute that she killed her children. However, her defence team argues she was suffering from severe mental illness at the time and should not be held criminally responsible for strangling them.
After allegedly killing her children, Clancy had jumped from the window of their home, a fall she survived with life-changing injuries.
As proceedings continue, jurors have been shown extracts from Clancy's personal journals, while several friends have taken to the stand to describe her mental state in the months leading up to the tragedy.
According to PEOPLE, one of those witnesses was Amy Bevins, who has known Clancy since childhood.
Bevins recalled meeting Clancy for breakfast with a group of friends around three months before the children's deaths, and said nothing about her behavior struck her as unusual.
However, she told the court that in January 2023, shortly before the killings, Clancy sent her a text explaining that one of her medications had caused "dark thoughts." Bevins said Clancy also told her she was in the process of switching to a different medication.
She further testified that she visited Clancy while she was in custody after the deaths, although the pair did not discuss either the children or what had happened.
The court has also heard from Clancy's personal diary, with several entries detailing her deteriorating mental health.
One journal entry read: "I want help. I want to be well."
Another described her battle with "crazy brain fog," while a further passage revealed how overwhelmed she felt caring for her youngest child.
"I live moment to moment waiting for the next nap time. I'm terrified of Cal getting overtired now because I feel can't help him," the diary stated.
Other entries referenced suicidal thoughts and documented the various medications prescribed by doctors as they attempted to treat her symptoms.
The trial is ongoing.
Warning: This article contains content some readers may find distressing.
Lindsay Clancy has spoken out for the first time in her murder trial, after being accused of strangling her three young children.
The Boston native faced a number of questions from Judge Williams Sullivan before the jury was brought in on Tuesday (August 4).
Clancy's murder trial began over a week ago, following the deaths of Cora, five, Dawson, three, and eight-month-old Callan on January 24, 2023.
The former labor and delivery nurse slit her wrists and neck after allegedly strangling her kids, and threw herself out of a second-story window of her home in an attempt to take her own life.
As a result, she ruptured her spine and has been left partially paralyzed.
She was charged with two counts of murder, three counts of strangulation, and three counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.
Clancy admitted to killing her children, but she has pleaded not guilty to the charges made against her.
The defendant agreed not to contest certain pieces of evidence to speed up the trial.
Clancy's lawyer, Kevin Reddington, said she "stipulated" with prosecutors about facts linked with DNA, blood, the exercise bands she used to kill the kids and the chain of custody of that evidence.
Judge Sullivan asked: “You agree that the Commonwealth doesn’t have to prove the facts that are in the stipulation?”
“Yes, your honor,” she replied, nodding.
“You are basically relieving the Commonwealth of its burden to prove certain facts. Is that what you want to do?” Sullivan asked, to which Clancy again replied: “Yes, your honor.”
She also answered several other questions from the judge, while sporting a pink short-sleeve blouse and a headband.
Clancy could be seen speaking to Reddington throughout the case, but her answers to the judge were the first time she spoke on the record since the start of the trial.
Patrick Clancy, the defendant's husband, previously recalled asking her what she had done after finding the horrific scene, to which she reportedly said: “I tried to kill myself.”
He then asked where their children were, and she said: “In the basement."
The dad then called emergency services and then went into the basement, where he found his kids with exercise bands still around their necks, and attempted to resuscitate them.
Reddington stated that “we have not contested the government’s case” to avoid “having to bring in dozens of witnesses to prove chain of custody of bloods, fluids and all of that.”
He previously claimed that Clancy wouldn't contest at trial after killing her children, instead asking the jury to find her not guilty by reason of insanity on the grounds she was suffering from severe postpartum psychosis.
As per Cleveland Clinic, this is a condition that affects a person’s sense of reality, causing hallucinations, delusions, paranoia, or other behavior changes.
But prosecutors hit back, revealing that an evaluation of Clancy didn't show any symptoms of the condition, instead being diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder in the weeks leading up to the murders.
If she were to be found not guilty on grounds of insanity, the trial would have been significantly shortened as witnesses would no longer be needed to testify to confirm details about evidence.
Reddington grew frustrated in court on Tuesday after prosecutors called for witnesses to testify about facts he said Clancy agreed to.
He also said that Clancy has remained under 24/7 suicide watch, adding: “She’s extremely emotional. However, she’s unable, and has been unable, to express any happiness or sadness or cry.”
If you or someone you know is struggling or in a mental health crisis, help is available through Mental Health America. Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org. You can also reach the Crisis Text Line by texting MHA to 741741.
If you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call National Suicide Prevention Helpline on 1-800-273-TALK (8255). The Helpline is a free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The father of three children allegedly killed by their mother has asked a judge to prevent graphic photographs and other deeply distressing evidence from being publicly displayed during her murder trial.
Massachusetts mom Lindsay Clancy was accused of killing her three young children by strangulation at their home before attempting to take her own life in January 2023. She survived but sustained severe spinal injuries and remains paralyzed.
Lindsay’s lawyers have argued that she was suffering from severe postpartum mental illness, but prosecutors are pursuing murder charges in the ongoing trial.
Her husband Patrick Clancy recently requested restricted public access to evidence connected to the deaths of his children, Cora, five, Dawson, three, and Callan, eight months.
His wish includes limiting public access to crime scene and autopsy photographs, images of the children's clothing, and a recording of the emergency 911 call he made after discovering them at the family's home.
In court papers, Patrick’s representatives argued that publicly displaying the material could cause lasting emotional harm to the family and would undermine the dignity and memory of the three children.
While the request does not aim to prevent the judge and jury from seeing relevant evidence, it asks that the sensitive material be kept hidden from the media and therefore wider public access.
The request comes as jury selection concluded in the closely watched trial of Lindsay Clancy, who is accused of killing her three children before attempting to take her own life by jumping from a second-story window. Clancy survived the fall but suffered severe injuries and is now paralyzed from the waist down.
Prosecutors argue that Lindsay used exercise bands to strangle the children while her husband was away. Cora and Dawson died shortly after they were found, while Callan died several days later in hospital.
The mom-of-three then attempted to take her own life by jumping from a second-story window.
Lindsay has pleaded not guilty. Her defense will likely argue that she was experiencing severe postpartum psychosis and so is not criminally responsible for her actions.
The case has attracted national attention because of the competing arguments over Lindsay’s mental state and the circumstances surrounding the children's deaths.
Her now-ex-husband is expected to testify during the trial and has previously supported claims that she was suffering from serious mental health problems.
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or visit 988lifeline.org.
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