Crime
“She was very concerned with their safety. She was very concerned with Callan’s eating and sleeping. She was a wonderful mother.”
updated on August 6, 2026 | 9:30 AM
2 minutes to read
Livestream via NBC 10 WJAR.
On the stand: Dr. Kimberley Springer, medical examiner at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Boston
Additional witnesses are expected on the stand Thursday in Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial, one day after the Clancy family’s former nanny told jurors she was a “wonderful mother.”
Clancy is standing trial on three counts of first-degree murder as prosecutors allege she “deliberately and meticulously” killed her three children in 2023 because she had grown tired of motherhood.
Now 35 years old, Clancy doesn’t deny that she strangled 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson, and 8-month-old Callan at home in Duxbury on Jan. 24, 2023. But she’s raising what’s commonly known as an insanity defense as she argues she can’t be held criminally responsible because she was wracked by postpartum mental illness and heard a voice in her head instructing her to kill.
Elaine Rossi testified that Clancy was open about her postpartum mental health struggles and insomnia in the fall of 2022, while Rossi was working as the family’s part-time nanny. Still, Rossi maintained she never had concerns about the children’s welfare or Clancy’s interactions with them.
“I observed a wonderful mom who loved her kids,” Rossi testified. “She was very concerned with their safety. She was very concerned with Callan’s eating and sleeping. She was a wonderful mother.”
Also on the stand Wednesday was Justin Brower, a forensic toxicologist from NMS Laboratories who testified that Clancy had slightly elevated levels of the antipsychotic quetiapine, or Seroquel, in her blood the night of the killings.
Quetiapine was one of four psychiatric medications in Clancy’s system at the time, in addition to the antidepressant mirtazapine, mood stabilizer lamotrigine, and antidepressant trazodone. Nicholas Roberts, who previously worked for the Toxicology Unit within the Massachusetts State Police Crime Laboratory, also testified that Clancy tested positive for benzodiazepines.
According to Brower, the amount of quetiapine in Clancy’s system was not at a toxic or suicidal level. Lawyers on both sides say Clancy consumed prescription psychiatric medications as part of a suicide attempt after strangling her children.
“Usually people take handfuls of pills when they’re trying to harm themselves and take their own life, and this is not consistent with that,” Brower testified.
He also confirmed the levels of lamotrigine, mirtazapine, and trazodone suggested the drugs had likely been used appropriately as prescribed. Prosecutors have accused Clancy of seeking a “quick and easy fix” when she began to struggle with her mental health, also suggesting Clancy was less than diligent with the various psychiatric medications she was prescribed in the months prior to the killings.
Lindsay Clancy enters the courtroom after a short break in the trial at Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth on Aug. 5, 2026. – David L. Ryan/Boston Globe Staff
Abby Patkin is a general assignment news reporter whose work touches on public transit, crime, health, and everything in between. She has been covering the Lindsay Clancy murder case since January 2023.
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