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Warning: this article contains details that some people might find distressing
Jurors in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial are visiting the Duxbury, Massachusetts, home where prosecutors say she strangled her three children on the evening of January 24, 2023.
The visit is taking place today, Day 4 of a trial that has already heard two days of testimony from Clancy's ex-husband Patrick, the 911 call he made when he found the children, and accounts from 10 first responders who arrived at the scene.
Clancy, 35, is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Cora, five, Dawson, three, and Callan, eight months.
She admits she killed them but has pleaded not guilty on the basis that she was suffering from severe postpartum psychosis at the time and was not criminally responsible for her actions.
Her husband has since revealed that a voice in her head told her to do it.
According to a court order issued ahead of the visit, jurors are permitted to inspect the outside of the property, the basement, and all rooms on the first and second floors.
They are not allowed to open any closet doors. They cannot touch anything inside the house. They cannot move or disturb any items.
Neither the prosecution nor the defence teams are permitted to interact with items in the property during the visit.
The jurors will be supervised by police throughout.
Before arriving at the house on Summer Street, the jury bus will pass two other locations connected to the night of the killings.
First, ThreeV restaurant in Plymouth, where Patrick Clancy picked up takeout food that Lindsay had ordered. Then the CVS pharmacy in Kingston, where he collected medicine for Cora.
Patrick testified on Wednesday that he called Lindsay while he was at the CVS to check he was picking up the right item.
"She was pretty quiet. It sounded like she was busy," he said.
"I remember hanging up thinking she was probably in the middle of giving baths or something like that."
Prosecutors allege Clancy deliberately chose a restaurant far enough from the house to give herself time alone with the children.
The defence says she was in the grip of a psychotic episode and not capable of that kind of planning.
On January 24, 2023, Clancy sent Patrick out of the house to pick up food and medicine.
While he was gone, prosecutors say she took the three children to the basement and strangled them using exercise resistance bands.
She then went upstairs, cut herself, and jumped from a second-storey bedroom window.
The fall left her paralysed from the waist down. She has used a wheelchair throughout the trial.
When Patrick returned home, he found Lindsay outside on the ground.
He then went inside and discovered the children in the basement.
His 911 call, played to the jury earlier this week, captured him saying: "I need help in the basement right now... she killed the kids!"
Clancy sobbed with her face in her hands as the recording played in court.
Patrick was later shown photographs of the children's bodies while on the stand.
Graphic crime scene images were also presented to the jury during his testimony.
Paramedics who testified on Thursday described trying and failing to save the children. One said the scene "turned very chaotic very quickly".
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Prosecutors say the killings were premeditated.
They point to internet searches Clancy made in the days before, including one for the phrase "can you treat a sociopath" four days before the children died.
They allege she researched how long Patrick would be away and timed the killings accordingly.
They say she "did not feel love or connection with some of her kids".
A handwritten note found at the scene has also been entered into evidence.
The defence says Clancy was a loving mother who had been failed by the mental health system. Her lawyer Kevin Reddington has said she was prescribed more than a dozen different medications for postpartum depression and anxiety, and that the drugs caused homicidal and suicidal ideation rather than treating her condition.
"Our society fails miserably in treating women with postpartum depression, or even postpartum psychosis," Reddington said.
"It's medicate, medicate, medicate. Throw the pills at you, and then see how it works."
He described Clancy as "a beautiful person who was thoroughly destroyed by these medications".
Clancy had been a labour and delivery nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Patrick has separately filed a civil lawsuit against her medical providers, alleging they failed to properly monitor her prescriptions and ignored warning signs including panic attacks and suicidal thoughts.
By every public account, she was a devoted mother. Patrick's own mother told a grand jury: "She loved her kids, and she was a nurturing mother who smiled all the time."
After her youngest child Callan was born in May 2022, Clancy's mental health deteriorated.
She managed symptoms of postpartum anxiety after her first two children through exercise, meditation, and therapy.
After her third, it got worse.
She sought help, went to outpatient psychiatric care and inpatient care and was prescribed drug after drug.
Patrick has said he asked her three specific questions every morning to monitor her mental state.
After her arrest, Clancy was described as unable to express emotion or feel anything.
When Patrick asked her why she did it, her response became one of the most discussed details of the case.
Whether the system that was supposed to help her instead contributed to what happened on January 24 is now the central question of the trial.
A GoFundMe for Patrick raised over $1 million in the weeks after the children's deaths.
After the jury view, the trial returns to Plymouth Superior Court this afternoon.
Jurors are expected to hear testimony from medical staff at South Shore Hospital who treated Clancy after her fall.
The trial is expected to continue for several more weeks.
If convicted of first-degree murder, Clancy faces a mandatory life sentence without parole.
If the jury accepts the insanity defence, she would be committed to a psychiatric facility rather than prison.
If you or someone you know is experiencing emotional distress or a mental health crisis, you can reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988.
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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.
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.
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.
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".
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.
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."
Warning: This article contains content some readers may find distressing.
The distraught husband of the woman who is accused of killing their three children has revealed the chilling response she allegedly gave when he asked why she did it.
Patrick Clancy, 33, had left his family home in Duxbury, Massachusetts on January 24, 2023, to pick up dinner and medication for one of his three children.
Patrick told the New Yorker that he was at the CVS store when he suddenly got a feeling that something was amiss and called his wife Lindsey.
Lindsey didn't pick up at the first ring so she called her husband back and told him to pick up Pedia-Lax for Cora.
The father-of-three revealed to the the publication that his wife sounded normal during the call, which took place on the day of the tragedy, but "seemed to be in the middle of something".
Once Patrick returned home after being out for less than an hour, he discovered his master bedroom locked. He forced his way inside and found blood spattered on the floor, a bloody knife on the nightstand, and a window open.
He then took a closer look and saw his barely conscious wife lying in their backyard after allegedly trying to take her own life by jumping out their home’s second-story window.
Patrick asked his partner "What did you do?” after finding her on the ground and she allegedly said: “I tried to kill myself.” He then asked where their children were, and she responded: “In the basement.”
He soon discovered his three children: Cora, five, Dawson, three, and Callan, eight months, in the basement with exercise bands still around their necks, and attempted to resuscitate them.
Despite his best efforts to save them, Cora and Dawson were pronounced dead while Callan tragically passed away a few days later.
Lindsay was left paralyzed from the waist down after she reportedly attempted to take her own life. She has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder, three counts of strangulation, and three counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, per Daily Mail.
The mom-of-three, who worked as a labor nurse, suffered from anxiety and was institutionalized in the months before the horrific incident.
The heartbroken father revealed that he asked his wife several questions after the tragedy, such as whether she planned to kill his children.
“I think one of the first things I asked was, ‘Did you plan this? Is that why you sent me out?’" he told the outlet. In response, Lindsay allegedly made it clear that the deaths were not something she'd planned.
“She said, ‘No, it just was, like, a snap of the fingers,'" Patrick said, adding that she had Googled "ways to kill" for herself before she was feeling "suicidal for two months".
The grieving father said he has chosen to speak out to stop “lies and misinformation” that have come out due to the interest around Lindsey's forthcoming murder trial.
Looking back on his relationship with his wife, Patrick said that he "wasn't married to a monster," but was instead married to "someone who got sick".
A date for Lindsey's trial has not yet been set.
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.
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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