A Massachusetts mother accused of murdering her three children described in her journal how she was suffering ‘horrible thoughts’ as she took prescription medication for her mental health.
Lindsay Clancy, 35, is facing three counts of murder and three counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon in what has been dubbed ‘America’s saddest murder trial.‘
Her defense team does not dispute that Clancy strangled her children Cora, five; Dawson, three; and eight-month-old Callan with exercise bands on January 24, 2023.
Instead, they argue Clancy was overmedicated and was suffering from severe postpartum psychosis at the time, and as a result she should be found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity.
To bolster their point, the defense on Wednesday entered into evidence a log that the mother-of-three kept about her mental health while she was taking prescription medication.
Many of the logs noted had ‘horrible thoughts,’ with one saying she had ‘no motivation,’ alongside the medication she took and the dosage.
Meanwhile, prosecutors showed the court the children were wearing when they were killed at the family’s Duxbury home, and played the 911 call Clancy’s now ex-husband made after he discovered the children with exercise bands wrapped around their necks.
Clancy broke down in tears as the call was played, as did at least two members of the jury.
Lindsay Clancy, 35, is facing three counts of murder and three counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon
She is accused of killing her three children, Cora, five, Dawson, three, and eight-month-old Callan, by strangling them with exercise bands on January 24, 2023
Evidence presented at the murder trial on Wednesday included a journal in which she logged which medications she was taking and how she felt
Prosecutors have claimed that Clancy deliberately killed her three children, and that their deaths were premeditated.
They detailed how the children’s father, Patrick Clancy, returned home from picking up food that night to find his wife sprawled out on the lawn, paralyzed, and his children strangled with exercise bands in the basement.
He had shopped at a CVS Pharmacy on the day his children were killed, recounting in court on Wednesday how he called his wife to ask a question about the stool softener she had asked him to collect.
‘She was pretty quiet,’ the distraught father said of the call. ‘It sounded like she was busy. I remember hanging up and thinking it sounded like she was giving baths or something like that.’
The court was then also shown footage of Patrick Clancy picking up the takeout food ordered by Lindsay on the day of the alleged murders.
He quickly checked his phone, then received the food – a Mediterranean power bowl and scallop and pork belly risotto.
When he then returned home, he found his ex-wife had attempted suicide.
Patrick said he found their bedroom door locked ‘and that’s when I knew something was wrong.’
Patrick Clancy, the father of the three children, took the stand at Lindsay’s murder trial on Wednesday
He described what he saw when he returned to the family’s Duxbury home on January 24, 2023, but called his ex-wife a ‘very dedicated mother’
He then went on to describe how the window was open and the wind was blowing in, while inside the room there was blood ‘everywhere’ that ‘looked like it was sprayed with a hose.
‘I remember it was on the doorknob,’ he noted, trembling as he spoke.
At that point, Patrick said he ran outside.
‘I ran downstairs and went outside. I just looked around outside below that window, and I found Lindsay. She was face up in the backyard,’ the father-of-three recounted.
When he then approached his wife, he saw she had deep cuts on her wrist and a red line across her neck.
‘I wasn’t sure what it was at first,’ he said.
Patrick said he then asked Lindsay what happened, and she told him she tried to kill herself.
When he then asked where the children were, she told him they were in the basement.
Prosecutors presented jurors with the clothes the children were wearing when they were killed
The first child he saw when he then rushed down into the basement was his daughter, Cora, who he said ‘had a band around her neck’ and was ‘face down.’
He previously described the bands as if you ‘tied your shoes but don’t tie the bow.’
‘I immediately ran over and tried to take the band off,’ Patrick continued.
He said she was unresponsive. He then noticed Callan next to Cora with a band around his neck.
Finally, Patrick said he found Dawson and said he ‘knew he was gone.’
Prosecutors then pulled out the clothes the children were wearing when they were killed, as well as the exercise bands used in the tragic killings.
As they were shown, Clancy tightly gripped her lawyer, Kevin Reddington’s, hand.
But when the 911 call Patrick made to police that night was then played in court, Clancy broke down in tears.
Lindsay was seen sobbing in court on Wednesday as the 911 call Patrick made was played for jurors
In the call, Patrick could be heard reporting that his wife had tried to commit suicide. He spoke in a panicked voice, sometimes talking over the dispatcher as he urged Lindsay to stay awake.
Patrick told Clancy ‘open your eyes,’ as her sobs were heard in the background of the call.
When the first responders arrived, Patrick then entered the house.
He was heard wailing and screaming as he discovered the children, Cora, five, Dawson, three, and eight-month-old Callan, in the basement.
‘She killed the kids,’ Patrick said.
Following the tragedy, Patrick said he spoke with Lindsay as she remained in the hospital.
‘She didn’t talk about our kids; she talked about what she went through,’ he noted.
‘She said that she heard a man’s voice telling her that if she didn’t do it now, she would lose her chance.’
Patrick had been on the phone with 911 when he discovered his children strangled in the basement
Some of the pill bottles prescribed to Lindsay were seen in court
The heartbroken father went on to describe how his ex-wife had suffered from depression and anxiety, and desperately wanted to find the right medication.
She then took the medications as prescribed, Patrick insisted, but said her condition only worsened after she began taking Seroquel.
By December 2022, Lindsay was ‘was extremely sleep-deprived and highly anxious,’ and at some points would rock back and forth on the sofa, he recalled.
Yet, he said, his ex-wife was a ‘very dedicated’ mother who ‘did everything’ for their children.
She read the kids books, made up songs for them and took hundreds of pictures, Patrick said.
‘She used to make green eggs and ham for Cora because she liked that book,’ he told the court.
Patrick also said that Lindsay loved Dawson very much and did not resent him.
The court was then shown pictures of stickers in the children’s rooms.
Testimony in the trial will now continue on Thursday.
If you or someone you know needs help, please call or text the confidential 24/7 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in the US on 988. There is also an online chat available at 988lifeline.org.
