A visibly distressed Lindsay Clancy cried out ‘I can’t do this’ as she heard graphic evidence in court.
Clancy, 36, has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder following the deaths of Cora, five, Dawson, three, and eight-month-old Callan.
The former nurse is accused of intentionally strangling her three children with fitness bands at her home in Duxbury, Massachusetts, in January 2023.
While prosecutors argue her actions were the result of a ‘calculated decision’, Clancy has pleaded not guilty to murder, with her lawyers saying she was in the throes of postpartum psychosis and taking powerful drugs to cope with depression at the time.
Clancy, who is paralysed and in a wheelchair after using multiple methods in an attempt to end her own life, does not dispute the killings.
Her murder trial continued today at Plymouth County Superior Court, with the jury and courtroom having to be cleared out twice due to Clancy’s emotional state.
In the first instance, Dr Renee Stonebridge, who works at the Massachusetts Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, had been testifying about the children’s eye and brain injuries.
Clancy looked to be hyperventilating as she listened, making gulping sounds.
A 15-minute recess was ordered, at which point Clancy’s defence attorney Kevin Reddington stood over her, his arm around her shoulder as she leaned in.
At some points, she was seen holding his hand.
After court resumed, Judge William Sullivan issued a reminder to jurors that they should separate emotions from the facts of the case, despite the upsetting nature of the evidence.
‘The law says you must separate any emotional reaction on your part from the informational value and weight that the evidence produces,’ he said.
‘Your verdict in this case is going to have to be based solely on the evidence, and it cannot be based on sympathy, or anger, or passion or prejudice.’
Following Dr Stonebridge’s testimony, Dr Barbara Olson was called by prosecutors. She described how Cora had neck, arm, and leg injuries and that Dawson died of asphyxia.
As she listened to details of the injuries she inflicted on her children, Clancy put her head in her hands on the desk and continued sobbing.
Crying loudly, she declared, ‘I can’t do this,’ prompting Judge Sullivan to order another break.
Clancy was comforted and taken out of the room by nurses.
Upon the court resuming once again, members of the jury grew tearful as the small children’s bodies were shown on-screen, with one woman seen wiping her eyes.
On the day of the killings, Clancy asked her husband, Patrick Clancy, whom she is now separated from, to go and pick up takeout food and something at a pharmacy.
Prosecutors argue that she did this deliberately to get him out of the house.
Patrick has since filed a motion to restrict the sharing of the children’s autopsy photos, as well as the audio of the 911 call he made on the night of their deaths.
Clancy’s ex-husband testified earlier in the trial, recalling witnessing his then-wife’s mental health deteriorating roughly four months after giving birth to Callan.
In September 2022, one month before she was due to return to work, Clancy sought professional help for her anxiety and was prescribed an antidepressant.
Patrick, who has since moved to New York and remarried, said Clancy’s condition was ‘not improving’, and she developed insomnia as ‘she just kept getting worse and worse’.
As previously told by Reddington in his opening statement, Clancy was prescribed more than a dozen different medications from September 2022 to January 2023.
What is postpartum psychosis?
According to the NHS, postpartum psychosis is a rare, severe mental illness that causes hallucinations, delusions, and extreme mood swings.
It affects about 1 in 1,000 mothers and is a medical emergency that needs quick hospital care.
Symptoms of postpartum psychosis include:
- Feeling very confused
- Hallucinations – hearing, seeing, smelling or feeling things that are not there
- Delusions – suspicions, fears, thoughts or beliefs that are unlikely to be true
- Mania – feeling very ‘high’ or overactive, for example, talking and thinking too much or too quickly, restlessness or losing normal inhibitions
- A low mood – showing signs of depression, being withdrawn or tearful, lacking energy, having a loss of appetite, anxiety, agitation or trouble sleeping
- Sometimes a mixture of both a manic mood and a low mood – or rapidly changing moods
She also had several hospital stays for specialised postpartum treatment, including a stint in a psychiatric hospital just days before the deaths.
As for the day his children were killed, he remembered Clancy seeming ‘happy’, telling the court: ‘She was having one of her best days.’
Clancy’s ex-mother-in-law further attested to how she had been ‘begging for help’ in the lead-up to the killings, remembering her as a ‘very nurturing, very loving’ mother.
If convicted of murder, Clancy faces life behind bars without parole. If found not guilty due to lack of criminal responsibility, she would be sent to a state mental health facility.
Her case continues to garner widespread public interest, with journalists packing out the courtroom.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
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