What happened in court today
• The jury was excused for the day after prosecutors called nearly a dozen first responders to the stand as they presented their case against Lindsay Clancy, the woman accused of murder after strangling her three young children in 2023.
• In new testimony, paramedics described their attempts to revive the Clancy children and the nature of Lindsay Clancy’s injuries when they treated her at the house after the killings.
• Her ex-husband, Patrick Clancy, was on the stand the first two days of the trial and testified about finding his children fatally injured and his then-wife’s struggles with mental health.
• Lindsay Clancy’s attorney is arguing she should not be held criminally responsible for the killings because she was suffering from postpartum psychosis and extreme mental illness. Lindsay Clancy has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder and faces life in prison if convicted.
Editor’s note: Coverage of this story contains graphic descriptions of child killings, suicidal ideation, and an attempt to die by suicide.
Our live coverage of the third day of testimony in Lindsay Clancy’s triple-murder trial has ended. Read our takeaways from today here.
Here's what we learned from first responders' testimony in Lindsay Clancy's trial
The jury in Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial heard from several of the firefighters and paramedics who responded to her Massachusetts home on the night she fatally strangled her children.
Tomorrow, the jury will visit the Clancy’s former home, where the incident happened. Jurors will be able walk around and the lawyers are expected to point out significant features, Judge William F. Sullivan said today. After the viewing, they will come back to the courtroom to hear from the prosecution’s next witnesses.
Here’s a recap of what happened in court today:
- Lindsay Clancy was semi-conscious and on the ground in the backyard when Duxbury Police Officer Stephen Hall arrived, he said, and none of the cuts on her wrists or neck were actively bleeding. The defense implied that the cold weather and snow could have affected her injuries and blood flow.
- First responders treated Lindsay Clancy for a potential opioid overdose while she was being transported to the hospital, Pembroke firefighter and paramedic Robert Costanzo said. Clancy became agitated, but never fully woke up once given the Narcan, he said.
- Several firefighters testified about performing CPR on Callan and Cora Clancy, who were found near each other in the basement. Jennifer Stratton, with the Duxbury Fire Department, said Callan had “deep strangulation marks” and she “scooped him up in my arms” and carried him to the ambulance.
- Cora’s skin appeared pale, Duxbury firefighter Patrick Dwyer said, as he gave her CPR in the basement. Dwyer also used a defibrillator to try and regain a heartbeat, he said. Both Stratton and Dwyer said neither child ever started breathing.
- First responders also attempted to revive Dawson Clancy using intubation, CPR and medications like epinephrine, but were never able to restart heart activity, Duxbury Fire Department Capt. Keith Nette testified.
- Patrick Clancy was initially standing in the yard with Lindsay Clancy, who was lying on the ground, Duxbury Police Officer Brian Josephine said.
- Josephine later heard screams coming from inside the home and he ran into the basement with another officer, he said. They found Patrick Clancy who screamed, “She killed the f**king kids!” Josephine testified.
CNN’s Rebekah Riess and Andi Babineau contributed reporting to this post.
Court is recessed for the day
Judge William Sullivan unexpectedly recessed proceedings midday Thursday, telling jurors there were “a couple of issues” to “hammer out and get done.”
“And rather than have you wait around, not quite sure how long that’s going to go, I’m going to excuse you for the day,” Sullivan said.
The hearing was expected to last all day based on a schedule the judge gave before testimony began Thursday morning.
"Wicked cold" temperatures could have affected Lindsay Clancy's injuries, defense implies
Dried blood was on Lindsay Clancy’s neck when he arrived at the family’s home, Duxbury firefighter and paramedic Daniel Dougherty testified on direct examination. “Seemed to be somewhat superficial since there was no active bleed.” He said she wasn’t actively bleeding from her wrists, either.
Her wrists were bandaged and a sterile pad was placed on her neck, Dougherty said.
Lindsay Clancy was “not totally responsive,” but she reacted to painful stimuli, according to Dougherty.
“As we were moving her, she somewhat regained consciousness on us,” he said.
Dougherty helped load Lindsay Clancy into an ambulance but did not transport her to the hospital, he said. Instead, he went to the ambulance that ended up transporting Dawson Clancy.
“I was operating the bag valve mask for him” during transport, Dougherty testified.
Lindsay Clancy’s attorney, Kevin Reddington cross-examined Dougherty about the temperature that night, calling it “wicked cold,” and asking how hypothermia might impact blood flow in a person’s body.
“So all these questions about whether or not there’s blood seeping through the wrist bandages and whether or not there’s blood through loop holes from the neck brace – you don’t know what effect the hypothermia, if any, had on that, would you?” Reddington asked.
“No,” Dougherty replied.
Patrick Clancy was screaming as he directed responders to children, police officer says
Patrick Clancy was screaming as law enforcement responded to the basement where his dead children were, Vincent Cahill of the Duxbury Police Department testified.
Cahill said he went inside the house and found Patrick Clancy in the basement. The father directed Cahill to the left side, where he saw two children.
Neither child had a pulse, he testified, and he worked to move furniture and clear the area for the firefighters and paramedics that were arriving. Cahill also helped with CPR and rescue breaths using a bag valve mask on Cora.
The police officer said he was tasked with monitoring who came in and out of the scene that night.
Lindsay Clancy treated with Narcan but never “fully woke up” during transport, medic said
Lindsay Clancy’s pupils were constricted, and she was unresponsive while being loaded into an ambulance by first responders, who treated her for a potential opioid overdose during the transport, Pembroke firefighter and paramedic Robert Costanzo testified.
“She was moaning and groaning,” Constanzo said.
Clancy became agitated, but never fully woke up once given the Narcan, which is typically used to treat heroin or fentanyl overdoes, Constanzo noted. “She started like reaching and grabbing a little bit more than she was before,” he said.
Clancy’s attorney asked Constanzo if he was aware, at the time, that Lindsay Clancy had suffered a burst fracture of the cervical spine, fractured her ribs and that she was hemorrhaging. Constanzo said he was unaware.
Constanzo then confirmed to the prosecutor that he never saw blood pooling around Clancy’s neck or flowing from the neck.
Firefighter says she scooped up Callan Clancy and carried him to the ambulance
Jennifer Stratton, a paramedic and firefighter with the Duxbury Fire Department, recounted providing CPR to Callan Clancy, who was 8 months old, in the moments after first responders arrived at the house.
When she arrived with her partner, Patrick Dwyer, one ambulance crew was already there, kneeling beside Lindsay Clancy who was in the back yard, she said. Someone yelled for them to get inside of the house, Stratton said, and she and Dwyer went to the basement.
There, Stratton said she saw two of the children, Callan and Cora, lying on the ground and she ran to Callan and started performing CPR, she said.
“He had deep strangulation marks around the entire circumference of his neck,” she said.
Eventually, more first responders arrived as well as an ambulance to take the children to a local hospital, Stratton said.
Paramedic describes trying to revive Cora Clancy
A firefighter and paramedic with the Duxbury Fire Department, Patrick Dwyer, described arriving at the Clancy house on January 24, 2023, and being redirected from the backyard into the basement.
“We saw two children on the ground and the father sitting on the couch next to them,” Dwyer testified.
He said he began CPR on Cora while his partner attended to Callan.
Her skin appeared pale while he was working on her, Dwyer said.
Dwyer accompanied Cora to the hospital in the ambulance and used a defibrillator to try and regain a heartbeat, he said.
“We shocked once but did not regain pulses,” Dwyer told the jury.
First responders tried to revive Dawson Clancy in ambulance while en route to the hospital
First responders attempted to revive the Clancy’s middle child, Dawson Clancy, using intubation, CPR and medications like epinephrine, but were never able to restart heart activity, Duxbury Fire Department Capt. Keith Nette testified.
Nette said he saw “dark red marks” around Dawson’s neck while treating the boy in the back of an ambulance on the scene.
The ambulance eventually took Dawson to a nearby hospital, but paramedics never got a pulse during the transfer, Nette said.
Firefighters assisted Lindsay Clancy before children were discovered, fire captain said
When firefighters with paramedic and EMT training arrived on the scene, initially all the paramedics were assisting Lindsay Clancy, Capt. PJ Hussey, a paramedic for the Duxbury Fire Department testified.
Once the bodies of the three children were discovered, one paramedic was left with Lindsay Clancy while three other paramedics turned their attention to the children, the captain recalled.
Eventually, someone was also assigned to tend to Patrick Clancy, Hussey said.
"She killed the f**king kids!" officer says ex-husband screamed
Duxbury police Officer Brian Josephine is the prosecution’s fifth witness. He said it took him about three minutes to respond to the Clancy home.
When he arrived, Josephine testified, he saw Patrick Clancy standing in the yard with Lindsay Clancy, who was lying on the ground.
Josephine said he saw injuries to Lindsay Clancy’s right wrist and to the right side of her neck. “They were bleeding, but not profusely,” he said, adding he didn’t see a need to use a tourniquet.
The officer later heard screams coming from inside the home and he ran into the basement with another officer, he said.
They found Patrick Clancy in a back room. He looked up and screamed, “She killed the f**king kids!” Josephine testified.
Prosecution shows photographs of basement where children were found
Photographs of the basement of the Clancy home, where all three children were found fatally injured, were shown as responding Duxbury Police Officer Stephen Hall testified on Thursday.
In one of the photographs was a yellow exercise band, which Hall testified was next to the body of Dawson Clancy.
Another photograph submitted as an exhibit appeared to show blood stains in the carpet of the room where Hall testified two of the children were discovered.
One of first police officers to respond to the scene takes the stand
The first witness to be called to the stand by prosecutors on Thursday, the third day of the triple-murder trial of Lindsay Clancy, was Duxbury Police Officer Stephen Hall. Hall was one of the first officers to arrive on the scene at the Clancy home.
Lindsay Clancy was semi-conscious and on the ground in the backyard of the home when he arrived, Hall testified.
She had cuts to both wrists and to the left side of her neck,” Hall said.
He observed none of the cuts were actively bleeding and based on his training, Hall said, he did not feel he needed to provide first aid to the cuts.
The defense did not cross-examine Hall.
Prosecutors have two "prongs" to overcome mental illness defense, CNN contributor says
Prosecutors will have to overcome two “prongs” to prove Lindsay Clancy was not suffering from mental illness, CNN contributor and criminal defense attorney Elyse Hershon said Thursday.
“In Massachusetts, once a mental illness or mental health defense is raised for lack of criminal responsibility, the prosecution has to prove that they were criminally responsible and were not suffering mental illness,” Hershon said on CNN All Access.
Understanding the difference between right and wrong is different than having the knowledge that something is wrong, Hershon said.
“Lindsay knowing that what she’s doing is wrong is not enough for the prosecution to prove this beyond a reasonable doubt,” she said. “They would have to prove that she understood – not just know, but understood – and could appreciate the wrongfulness.”
In addition, prosecutors would need to prove Lindsay Clancy “was able to function normally.”
“They’re probably going to hit that because she was able to call and order takeout, she was able to converse with her husband, she was able to feed her kids chicken nuggets and green beans,” Hershon said.
Hershon also described the way the prosecution is approaching mental health in the trial as “archaic.”
“To say that because somebody’s smiling or functioning normally and feeding kids and going through these motions of being a functional human is dispositive of her not being in psychosis is just absolutely wrong,” Hershon said.
Court is now in session
The third day of testimony in Lindsay Clancy’s triple-murder trial is now underway in Plymouth County Superior Court, with more testimony from the prosecution’s witnesses.
Patrick Clancy, the defendant’s ex-husband, finished testifying for the prosecution yesterday and faced cross-examination from the defense.
"I knew he was gone." How Patrick Clancy described finding his children in the basement
Patrick Clancy told the jury about the moment he found his children fatally injured in their family’s basement after returning from running errands on January 24, 2023.
“I saw Cora,” Patrick Clancy testified. “She had a band around her neck.”
She was lying face down as he ran over to untie the band, he said.
His youngest son, Callan, was lying next to Cora in the same position, also with an exercise band around his neck, he testified.
After removing that band, Patrick Clancy said he went looking for his middle child, Dawson.
“I looked in the bathroom, and on the other side of the couch, and then I went to the other side of the basement, and he was in my office,” he said. Dawson was also found with an exercise band around his neck.
“I knew he was gone,” Patrick Clancy said.
He testified he went back to Cora and tried to give her CPR before first responders entered the basement.
Patrick Clancy’s 911 call was played in court but was not broadcast, in accordance with a court order.
Jury heard ex-husband describe the moment he found his children dead in the basement
Patrick Clancy was back on the stand yesterday, answering question from both the prosecution and the defense in the second day of his ex-wife’s murder trial.
He described his ex-wife’s struggles with her mental health and the day he found his children after they had been fatally strangled. The jury also heard the 911 call Patrick Clancy made upon discovering the grisly scene.
Here are the key things we learned. You can catch up on the first day of his testimony here.
- When Patrick Clancy returned home after running errands on January 24, 2023, he found his bedroom covered in blood and after running outside and looking below his bedroom window, he saw his then-wife lying face-up in their backyard, he said.
- Shortly after, he found his three children in the basement with exercise bands around their necks, he said. His 911 call was played in court but was not broadcast, in accordance with a court order.
- About a week after she killed her children, Lindsay Clancy called him from a hospital and told him she “heard a man’s voice” the day she killed the kids, he said.
- During cross-examination, Patrick Clancy described his then-wife as a “very dedicated” mother who “did everything” for her family.
- Patrick Clancy discussed numerous medications his ex-wife was prescribed in late 2022, saying during cross-examination she always took the pills as instructed and kept track with a journal. During re-direct questioning, Patrick Clancy acknowledged he was not with her every time she took a pill.
- Lindsay Clancy’s mental health worsened in December 2022 after a doctor increased her dosage of Seroquel, he said. She visited two medical centers in the following weeks, including a multi-day stay at a locked-ward facility in early January, he said.
Defense works to paint Lindsay Clancy as a dedicated mother
Lindsay Clancy had anxiety about returning to work after having children because “she struggled to be away from our kids at a young age,” her ex-husband Patrick Clancy testified.
“She was very dedicated. She did everything,” he said when describing how she was as a mother.
Lindsay Clancy is accused of murder for the deaths of her three children. Her defense argues she was suffering from postpartum psychosis and extreme mental illness when she killed them on January 24, 2023 and should not be held criminally responsible.
The defense tried to show that Lindsay Clancy loved her children during its questioning of Patrick Clancy yesterday. Patrick Clancy described how the family would spend time together and how his then-wife would hang up the kid’s art projects around the house.
“She started reading them books at three months,” Patrick Clancy said. “She used to make green eggs and ham for Cora because she liked that book.”
Lindsay Clancy was a dedicated nurse and mother who “tried very hard to get the help she needed,” her defense attorney Kevin Reddington said in his opening statement Monday.
“This was a woman that was suffering from psychosis at the time that she went down to that basement,” Reddington said. “She had no motive. She loved her children. She intended to kill herself. She didn’t fake that.”
What to expect in court today
The prosecution is expected to call more witnesses today in the trial of Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts mother accused of murdering her three children.
Three people have testified so far:
- Patrick Clancy, the ex-husband of Lindsay Clancy, testified for two days for the prosecution and later was called back to the stand by the defense.
- Angela Krause, the manager of the CVS pharmacy Patrick Clancy visited around the same time his children were being killed.
- Saria Sweeney, a hostess at the ThreeV restaurant where Patrick Clancy picked up takeout after leaving the CVS pharmacy.
What else to know: Lindsay Clancy does not deny she killed her children — Cora, 5; Dawson, 3; and 8-month-old Callan. But she has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder.
Her attorney has argued she should not be held criminally responsible for fatally strangling them in the basement of their home in January 2023 because she was suffering from postpartum psychosis and extreme mental illness.
The trial is expected to last six to eight weeks and include dueling expert testimony focusing on postpartum mental illness.
If convicted, Lindsay Clancy would face life in prison. Should jurors find she cannot be held criminally responsible for the killings, the court would likely begin the process of committing her to a state psychiatric hospital.
