Lindsay Clancy was falling to pieces in days before killing her kids
· Toronto Sun
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Lindsay Clancy was not in a good place.
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In fact, she was falling to pieces mentally and had been briefly institutionalized. Nineteen days after she was released, her three young children were dead.
Clancy, 35, is now standing trial in Plymouth, Mass., Superior Court for the first-degree strangulation murders of her children, Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months, on Jan. 24, 2023.
Tried to kill herself
Her defence team is arguing that Clancy — who has pleaded not guilty — should be held not criminally responsible because of the postpartum depression that plagued her. There is no argument that she killed her kids using exercise bands.
After the vile deed, Clancy tried to kill herself by jumping out of a second-story window. While that act didn’t send her to the hereafter, it did leave her paralyzed from the waist down.
On Monday, her ex-husband, Patrick Clancy, took the stand revealing details of their family life. Patrick testified that months before the murders, Lindsay revealed she was having dark thoughts of harming the children and killing herself.
And then she would make them lunch or play with them.
‘Never saw Lindsay harm the kids’
“I never saw Lindsay harm the kids,” Patrick Clancy said.
But after the birth of their third child, she went into a tailspin, plagued by insomnia and overwhelmed by the thought of harming herself.
Lindsay sought expert help on postpregnancy mood disorders, took a slew of psychiatric medications, and finally, when nothing helped, she admitted herself to a psychiatric hospital.
Lindsay Clancy’s lawyer, Kevin Reddington, said she had rare postpartum psychosis, adding she also suffered from bipolar disorder and the antidepressants prescribed after the birth of her third child made her condition worse.
“She loved those children right up to the time of their death,” Reddington told jurors.
The prosecution took a dimmer view of Lindsay Clancy, claiming the Massachusetts mom “acted intentionally, rationally and swiftly” and is 100% responsible for her children’s tragic deaths.
“This was not a woman in the throes of psychosis,” Buckingham said. “This is not a public debate about women’s mental health and how the medical system treats women. This case is about this defendant, Lindsay Clancy.”
If convicted of murder, Clancy faces life in prison without parole. If found not guilty due to a lack of criminal responsibility, she would be committed to a state mental health facility.
‘She seemed better’
Most harrowing for the distraught Patrick Clancy was testifying about the day his three children were murdered. His wife’s anxiety skyrocketed as the day she returned to work as a nurse edged closer. But in the three weeks before the slayings, her condition seemed to improve, her husband said.
“I was hopeful,” Patrick Clancy told the jury. “She seemed much better.”
Indeed. The day of the murders was routine, with a doctor’s appointment for Cora and an exchange of photos of the kids between the couple via text. Hours later, Lindsay Clancy built a snowman with the kids and worked on art projects.
“She was having one of her best days,” Patrick Clancy testified.
But when he left their home to run a few errands, his wife proceeded to strangle their children to death. Her lawyer told the court that his client heard voices that day.
“This is your last chance. Kill the children so you can kill yourself,” Reddington told jurors.
Testimony continues on Wednesday with Patrick Clancy returning to the stand.
‘It rattles emotions’
One Boston lawyer said it remains to be seen whether Lindsay Clancy skates.
“Whenever there are deaths of children, it rattles emotions,” Elyse Hershon said. “Some people naturally will identify and sympathize with Clancy and her postpartum depression, and others will not be able to understand how one could end their children’s lives, and demand responsibility.”
The best-known killer who used the postpartum psychosis defence was Texas mom Andrea Yates. In 2001, she drowned her five children in a bathtub.
Yates believed killing her kids would save them from hell. She was convicted of murder, but that was overturned and in a retrial she was found not guilty by reason of insanity.
She remains in a Texas mental hospital.