Testimony has concluded in the trial of Lindsay Clancy, with closing arguments, jury instructions and deliberations expected to begin Thursday as the case moves into its final stage.
Clancy, 36, is accused of killing her three children — Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months — at the family’s home in Duxbury, Massachusetts, on January 24, 2023. She has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
The prosecution presented its final rebuttal witness, FBI psychiatrist Dr. Gregory Saathoff, who testified that Clancy was capable of understanding right from wrong and controlling her behavior at the time of the killings.
Saathoff pointed to what he described as evidence of “preparatory planning.” He noted that Clancy conducted searches on her phone, calculated the distance between the family home and a restaurant, and carried out the killings while her husband was away.
He also said it was significant that Clancy’s husband had been sent out on an errand, meaning there was no potential witness inside the home when the children were killed.
“The fact that this was done without any witness present during a time where she had asked a potential witness to go on a longer errand – also I thought was significant,” Saathoff testified.
Each side is expected to have up to one hour for closing arguments.
The central issue before the jury is whether Clancy was “criminally responsible” for the deaths. Under Massachusetts law, the question involves whether she understood that her actions were wrong and whether she was capable of following the law.
Both the prosecution and defense agree that Clancy fatally strangled her three children using exercise resistance bands. Afterward, she cut her wrists and neck and jumped from a window in an apparent suicide attempt.
Clancy survived but was left partially paralyzed. She is currently being held at Tewksbury Hospital.
Prosecutors called more than 70 witnesses during their case. They argued that Clancy acted intentionally and rationally when she killed her children and maintained an understanding of right and wrong.
They highlighted the fact that she sent her husband out to pick up food and medication before the killings. Prosecutors also pointed to her behavior after she regained consciousness in the hospital, when she was described as horrified and asked for an attorney.
The defense, meanwhile, called 10 witnesses in an effort to show that Clancy was suffering from severe postpartum psychosis and was not criminally responsible for her actions.
In the months before the killings, Clancy had been prescribed more than a dozen psychiatric medications and had several hospital stays related to depression, anxiety, insomnia and suicidal thoughts.
Clancy had previously worked as a labor and delivery nurse. Her mental health difficulties became increasingly serious in late 2022 as she prepared to return to work after the birth of her children.
Her former husband, Patrick Clancy, testified that she struggled deeply with the idea of being separated from her children.
“She just had a really hard time being separated from them,” he testified.
Clancy eventually postponed her return to work as her condition worsened. Patrick said she experienced intrusive thoughts, particularly after beginning Zoloft in October 2022.
She checked herself into a hospital in December and later received treatment again around New Year’s.
In a note found on her phone, Clancy wrote, “Medication stole my motherhood and my life.”
Her treating doctors testified that she had not expressed a plan to kill herself or thoughts of harming anyone else and did not display clear signs of psychosis before the killings. Her psychiatrist, Dr. Jennifer Tufts, said Clancy appeared to be doing well when they met the day before the tragedy.
On January 24, Clancy asked Patrick to leave the house to pick up takeout food and medication. When he returned, he found his wife seriously injured in the backyard and his three children in the basement with exercise bands around their necks.
A first responder later recalled Patrick screaming, “She killed the f***ing kids!”
About a week later, Patrick said Lindsay called him from the hospital and told him she had heard a man’s voice telling her that she had to act immediately or she would lose her opportunity.
“She didn’t talk about our kids, she talked about what she went through,” Patrick testified. “She said she heard a man’s voice telling her that if she didn’t do it now, she would lose her chance – or something like that.”
The trial has featured sharply different opinions from psychiatric experts about Clancy’s mental state.
Defense forensic psychiatrist Dr. Phillip Resnick testified that Clancy was “frankly psychotic” when she killed her children. He described her account of hearing a commanding voice as an auditory hallucination and said she believed an external force had taken control of her body.
According to Resnick, Clancy felt as though she were in a dream and had no control over her actions, comparing the experience to being a puppet controlled by someone else.
Prosecution psychologist Dr. Kirk Heilbrun reached a very different conclusion. He testified that Clancy understood right from wrong and remained in control of her behavior during the killings.
Heilbrun also questioned Clancy’s claim that she heard a voice, noting that she had not reported hearing such a voice either before or after the killings.
He described the alleged hallucination as highly unusual and inconsistent with the typical pattern of such psychiatric symptoms.
Despite their disagreement over whether Clancy was criminally responsible, both psychiatric experts described the killings as “altruistic filicide,” a term used when a parent kills a child believing the act is motivated by love or an attempt to protect the child from suffering.
Heilbrun testified that Clancy may have believed that once she decided to end her own life, she could not leave her children behind because she feared they would suffer without her.
Clancy did not testify during the trial.
The case has also drawn renewed attention to postpartum mental health and the potentially devastating effects of postpartum psychiatric disorders.
If the jury finds Clancy guilty of murder, she could face life in prison. The jury may consider first-degree murder, second-degree murder or manslaughter.
If she is found not guilty by reason of insanity, the court would begin proceedings to commit her to a mental health facility.
After weeks of testimony and conflicting expert opinions, the jury will soon be asked to decide one of the central questions of the case: whether Lindsay Clancy was legally responsible for the deaths of her three children on January 24, 2023.
