This story may contain content readers find disturbing or triggering. For help with postpartum mood disorders, contact Postpartum Support International at www.postpartum.net or call or text 800-944-4773. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, call 988 or go to https://988lifeline.org/ to chat online.
After an emotional day of testimony on Monday, Patrick Clancy, the former husband of Lindsay Clancy and the father of the three children she is charged with killing in January 2023, returned to the stand on Wednesday.
Patrick Clancy testified about the days and weeks before the children were killed in their Duxbury home, and prosecutors began to ask him about the day they were found dead. On Wednesday, prosecutors continued that line of questioning. The 911 call he made after arriving home is expected to be played in court.
While on the stand Monday, he also recounted the medications Lindsay Clancy was taking, her health and demeanor, and the “intrusive thoughts” she told him she was having about suicide and harming their children.
Patrick Clancy, 38, who has remarried and lives in New York, testified for more than two hours Monday, growing emotional at times when describing his children’s interests and personalities before they were killed.
During opening statements earlier on Monday, prosecutors and Lindsay Clancy’s attorney presented opposing arguments about whether she was in psychosis on the day of the killings.
Prosecutor Shanan Buckingham claimed Lindsay Clancy “was not a woman in the throes of psychosis,” but acted “intentionally, rationally, and swiftly.”
Clancy’s attorney, Kevin Reddington, emphasized that the case is about “women’s health and postpartum psychosis,” pushing back on the state’s assertions about Clancy’s mental state. He said that Plymouth District Attorney Timothy Cruz, in bringing murder charges, knew “it was going to kill the soul of this young woman.”
While she has admitted to strangling her children, Clancy has pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges, saying she was suffering from severe postpartum mental illness and heard a voice telling her to kill the children and herself. (Clancy survived the attempted suicide but remains paralyzed and in a wheelchair.)
Should jurors acquit her in Plymouth Superior Court, she would not go free but would be sent to a state psychiatric hospital where she’d face periodic reviews to determine whether she can live safely in the community.
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Watch live: Day 2 Lindsay Clancy murder trial
Testimony continues in Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial.
Prosecution’s focus on normalcy — 9:43 a.m.
By Sean Cotter, Globe Staff
The prosecution is continuing to stress how normal Lindsay Clancy seemed around the time of the killings. That’s the point of the questions about how she seemed on the phone to her then-husband — to establish, in the prosecution’s telling, that she was of sound mind.
Patrick Clancy said it sounded like she was “in the middle of something.” He would have guessed something like giving the kids baths. But, he said, she seemed otherwise coherent and that she understood what he was saying as he asked about what to pick up from CVS.
The defense contends she was in the throes of postpartum psychosis and depression, potentially hallucinating a voice commanding her to kill.
The defense attorney, Kevin Reddington, will have the chance to cross-examine Patrick Clancy; watch to see if he returns to this time period.
House photos shown — 9:43 a.m.
By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff
When shown a series of photographs of the home’s exterior, Patrick Clancy said the photos were an accurate representation of the house at the time.
The photos were then placed on the monitor.
Patrick arrives home from 3V restaurant, he recalls — 9:41 a.m.
By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff
Patrick Clancy said after the sidebar that he went home from the restaurant.
He said it took him about 10 to 12 minutes to arrive home. He parked in the driveway.
Patrick recalls going to 3V — 9:39 a.m.
By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff
Patrick Clancy said he went to the 3V restaurant in Plymouth after leaving CVS.
He said it took about 10 minutes to get to the restaurant. Video surveillance of Patrick entering the restaurant was played for jurors.
“I think I was looking for the bag [of food] with my name on it,” Patrick said.
He said he didn’t recall what he was doing on his phone as he waited in line. He said Lindsay had called in the order and left his name for pickup.
The lawyers were called back to sidebar.
Patrick Clancy testifies about CVS run — 9:34 a.m.
By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff
Patrick Clancy said Lindsay texted him the name of the product to pick up at CVS around 5:15 p.m. Patrick said he went to CVS before going to the restaurant.
He said it took about three minutes to reach the CVS, where he went to the pediatrics section of the store.
Video footage of Patrick entering the store and going to that section was played for jurors.
Patrick said he called Lindsay at that time “because what we were looking for wasn’t there.” That call was placed around 5:35 p.m., and Lindsay initially did not pick up but called back a minute later.
“It was very brief,” he said of the call, adding that Lindsay said a generic brand was “fine.” He said Lindsay sounded quiet and “busy” on the call.
He said “that’s correct” when asked if Lindsay didn’t seem to have trouble recalling why he was at the store.
Patrick Clancy testimony resumes — 9:28 a.m.
By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff
Patrick Clancy said he did not view a website related to suicide methods in August 2022 on a tablet he and his wife shared.
He said his son Dawson was on the couch eating chicken nuggets when he left to pick up takeout on Jan. 24, 2023.
Asked if Lindsay said anything to him, he said she “wanted me to pick up some stool softener for Cora” at CVS, something she hadn’t mentioned in prior texts about the takeout.
Patrick Clancy returns to the stand — 9:24 a.m.
By Amanda Kaufman, Globe Staff
The former husband of Lindsay Clancy will continue his testimony, and his anguished 911 call on the day he found his children dead is expected to be played in court.
Judge Sullivan lays out schedule — 9:23 a.m.
By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff
Sullivan told jurors they will go on a crime scene view on Friday.
“It looks like the weather should be fine,” he said.
Jury enters — 9:22 a.m.
By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff
Following the sidebar, court officers brought in the jury.
Judge Sullivan asked jurors if they were able to avoid outside coverage of the case, a standard line of inquiry in trials. No jurors reported seeing any outside reports.
Judge asks jury to enter — 9:19 a.m.
By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff
After a brief sidebar, Judge William F. Sullivan has asked for the jury to be brought into the courtroom.
The parties have entered — 9:17 a.m.
By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff
The parties entered the courtroom shortly after 9 a.m.
Judge William Sullivan greeted everyone including Clancy, who quietly replied “good morning” from the defense table, before Sullivan called the attorneys to sidebar.
The line up for court to open in the morning.David L. Ryan/Globe Staff
What to know about Patrick Clancy — 9:02 a.m.
By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff
Patrick Clancy, the former husband of Lindsay Clancy, has spoken repeatedly to Lindsay Clancy since the killings, sued some of her former doctors, and has remarried.
Patrick Clancy is a witness for both sides — 8:58 a.m.
By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff
Patrick Clancy is listed as a witness for both the prosecution and defense. Generally, lawyers are limited during cross examination of a witness to matters that were raised during their direct testimony. But, Lindsay Clancy’s lawyer, Kevin Reddington, is expected to be granted some leeway if he wants to question Patrick Clancy about additional matters, which would avoid the need to recall him to the stand as a defense witness.
Patrick Clancy’s 911 call to be heard — 8:45 a.m.
By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff
Prosecutors are poised to play a recording for jurors Wednesday of Patrick Clancy’s anguished 911 call on Jan. 24, 2023, after finding his injured wife outside their Duxbury home, then discovering their children’s bodies in the basement and screaming, “She killed the kids!”
The recording will only be heard by those present in the courtroom where Lindsay Clancy’s trial is being held in Plymouth Superior Court. Judge William F. Sullivan granted Patrick’s request last week to prohibit the audio from being publicly released after his lawyer argued that public dissemination of it could cause an “everlasting and emotional impact” on Patrick Clancy and his family. The order does not prohibit members of the media who hear the 911 call in court from describing its content.
Some details about the call have been previously disclosed in court.
What to know about the case — 8:38 a.m.
By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff
The allegations
Prosecutors allege that Lindsay Clancy strangled her three children, Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months, with exercise bands in the basement of her home on Jan. 24, 2023, after sending her husband out to pick up a food order.
Authorities say she then cut her wrists and leapt from a second-story window in a failed attempt to end her own life. She remains paralyzed from the waist down.
Lindsay Clancy watched as her ex-husband Patrick Clancy took the witness stand on Monday.Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger/Pool
The charges
Clancy has pleaded not guilty to three counts of first-degree murder, each of which carries a mandatory sentence upon conviction of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
She had pleaded not guilty to three additional counts of strangulation or suffocation, but prosecutors dropped those counts earlier this month, stating in court papers that they’ll “be subsumed into the murder charges” and are “therefore redundant.”
The defense
Clancy’s lawyer, Kevin J. Reddington, is not disputing that she killed her children but has said in court papers and legal filings that he plans to mount what’s commonly known as an insanity defense, asserting her mental state at the time rendered her unable to conform her behavior to the law.
Reddington has asserted that Clancy was battling postpartum issues and had been prescribed 13 different medications in the months leading up to the killings, a regimen that “caused homicidal ideation, suicidal ideation.”
Lindsay Clancy was prescribed 13 different medications. See a timeline. — 8:30 a.m.
By Sarah Rahal, Globe Staff
Before killing her three children, Clancy was prescribed 13 psychiatric medications by multiple providers, including psychiatrists, nurse practitioners, emergency department doctors, and staff at an inpatient psychiatric program.
The medications included antidepressants like Zoloft, antipsychotics like Seroquel, sedatives like Benadryl and Klonopin, benzodiazepines like Valium, and the mood stabilizer Lamictal. Even as Clancy sought help, her symptoms worsened as she experienced insomnia, depression, anxiety and, ultimately, hallucinations.
The timeline is central to her defense, which argues Clancy’s clinical course was complicated by “polypharmacy and the involvement of multiple prescribers,” while prosecutors contend she was criminally responsible despite her documented mental health struggles.
Defense attorney Kevin Reddington presented a list of medication prescribed to Lindsay Clancy to the jury during his opening statement on Monday.Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger/Pool
Here’s what Patrick Clancy testified on Monday — 8:20 a.m.
By Sean Cotter, Shelley Murphy, and Travis Andersen, Globe Staff
Patrick Clancy faced Lindsay Clancy for the first time since she killed their three children in 2023, as he described how their family life unraveled.
Clancy said his then-wife was suffering from postpartum depression and anxiety and confided in December 2022 that she was having “intrusive thoughts” about harming the children or of something bad happening to them.
But, he said, she sought help from numerous doctors, received in-patient psychiatric care, and “seemed happy” and “was having one of her best days” when she sent him to pick up takeout for dinner on Jan. 24, 2023. He said he had no inkling anything was wrong.
Patrick Clancy, Lindsay Clancy’s former husband, testifies
Patrick Clancy was called as the prosecution’s first witness.
Watch recaps of opening statements — 8:13 a.m.
By Globe Staff
The prosecution and defense delivered opening statements Monday before Patrick Clancy took the stand.
Prosecution and defense give opening statements in Lindsay Clancy murder trial
Prosecutor Shanan Buckingham and Clancy’s attorney, Kevin J. Reddington, delivered opening statements on Monday in Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial. (undefined)
Shelley Murphy can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her @shelleymurph. Sean Cotter can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @cotterreporter. Travis Andersen can be reached at [email protected]. Hazel Nystrom can be reached at [email protected].
