Today in court
• What to expect today: Prosecutors are calling more witnesses, including first responders who came to the home after the killings, as they present their case against Lindsay Clancy, the woman accused of murder after strangling her three young children in 2023.
• Key witness: 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.
• About the case: 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.
"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.
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