Patrick Clancy spent two days on the witness stand describing the life he shared with Lindsay Clancy and their three children, giving jurors an emotional account of the months leading up to the January 2023 killings.
Lindsay Clancy, 35, is accused of killing their children — 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson and 8-month-old Callan — at the family’s home in Duxbury, Massachusetts, on Jan. 24, 2023.
She does not dispute that she strangled the children. Her defense, however, argues that she should not be held criminally responsible because she was experiencing postpartum psychosis and severe mental illness at the time.
Prosecutors have presented a different picture, arguing that Clancy was aware of what she was doing and acted deliberately.
“This is a woman who acted intentionally, rationally, and swiftly to accomplish a very specific goal — to kill,” Plymouth County Assistant District Attorney Shanan Buckingham told jurors in opening statements.
Defense attorney Kevin Reddington has argued that Clancy had no motive to harm her children and was instead consumed by a psychiatric crisis.
“She had no motive. She loved her children,” Reddington said. “She intended to kill herself. She didn’t fake that.”
The trial is expected to feature extensive testimony from psychiatric experts on both sides. If convicted, Clancy faces life in prison.
But before the expert testimony took center stage, Patrick provided jurors with an intimate look at the family and the dramatic changes he says he witnessed in his former wife.
He described Dawson as an energetic little boy who loved trucks and firefighters. Cora loved princesses, while Callan was, in his father’s words, a “happy baby.”
Patrick testified that Lindsay was a “very dedicated” mother who devoted herself to their children.
She took hundreds of photographs of them, created collages and decorated their home with their artwork, toys and colorful stickers.
Yet Patrick said Lindsay was also struggling beneath the surface.
After Callan was born in May 2022, she began experiencing increasing anxiety and difficulty separating from her children. As she prepared to return to work as a labor-and-delivery nurse, her mental health became an increasing concern.
“She just had a really hard time being separated from them,” Patrick testified.
From September 2022 through January 2023, Lindsay was prescribed multiple medications by several doctors as she searched for treatment.
Prosecutors have suggested that she repeatedly sought different doctors and medications in pursuit of what they characterized as a quick solution.
Patrick disagreed with that characterization.
“It wasn’t a matter of trying to get off the medication — it was trying to get on the right medication,” he testified.
The changes Patrick noticed
According to Patrick, Lindsay’s condition took a significant turn in early December 2022 after she began taking a new antipsychotic medication.
Around that time, she told him she was suicidal and experiencing intrusive thoughts involving the children.
Patrick said Lindsay described thoughts about hurting the children or imagining that something might happen to them.
Even though those thoughts frightened him, he testified that he did not believe she intended to harm the children because she had not shown what he considered an intention to act on them.
Her condition worsened after her medication dosage was increased, according to Patrick.
She subsequently visited two medical centers as her mental health deteriorated.
Then, in early January, Lindsay spent several days in a locked psychiatric facility.
Patrick testified that he noticed a dramatic improvement afterward. She told him she was no longer suicidal and did not again mention thoughts about hurting their children.
The family also spent time together during that period, visiting an indoor waterpark and a museum.
“I was hopeful,” Patrick said. “She seemed much better.”
The final day
On Jan. 24, Lindsay spent part of the day with her children outside, helping them build a snowman.
She also sent Patrick photographs of the children playing in the snow while he worked downstairs.
Patrick said Lindsay appeared to be in a good mood and described it as “one of her best days.”
Later that afternoon, Patrick left the house to pick up medicine for their oldest child and collect a takeout order Lindsay had requested.
Before leaving, he rocked Callan, kissed Cora on the head and told his family he would be back soon.
While at the pharmacy, Patrick called Lindsay. She did not initially answer but returned the call about a minute later.
Their conversation was brief and centered on the medication, Patrick testified.
“She was pretty quiet. It sounded like she was busy,” he recalled.
He said he assumed she was probably bathing the children or otherwise occupied with them.
When Patrick returned home after picking up the food, however, something immediately felt wrong.
The house was unusually quiet.
He called out for his family and searched through the children’s rooms and bathroom before going upstairs to the bedroom he shared with Lindsay.
The bedroom door was locked.
“And that’s when I knew something was wrong,” Patrick testified.
When he opened the door, he found blood throughout the room and saw that the window was open.
Lindsay was lying in the backyard below the window. She had cuts on her wrists and neck.
Patrick asked what had happened.
According to his testimony, Lindsay responded: “I tried to kill myself.”
He then asked where their children were.
Lindsay told him they were in the basement.
Patrick called 911 and remained with Lindsay outside while emergency responders were dispatched to the home.
‘She killed the f—ing kids!’
A recording of Patrick’s emergency call was played for jurors but was not publicly broadcast under a court order.
Lindsay became emotional as the recording played, holding her head in her hands and sobbing.
After emergency personnel arrived, Patrick ran into the house and went downstairs.
There, he found Cora, Dawson and Callan lying motionless, each with an exercise resistance band around their necks.
Patrick immediately realized that Dawson was gone.
First responders later made desperate attempts to revive the children.
Cora and Dawson were pronounced dead that night. Medical personnel were able to restore a heartbeat to Callan after he was taken to the hospital, but the infant never regained consciousness and died three days later.
Officer Brian Josephine of the Duxbury Police Department testified that he heard screams coming from inside the house after arriving at the scene.
He and another officer ran inside and found Patrick in the basement.
Josephine recalled Patrick looking up and screaming, “She killed the f—ing kids!”
Lindsay’s account from the hospital
About a week after the killings, Lindsay called Patrick from the hospital, according to his testimony.
Patrick said their conversation did not initially focus on the children.
“She didn’t talk about our kids, she talked about what she went through,” he testified.
During the call, Lindsay allegedly told him that she had heard a man’s voice telling her that if she did not act immediately, she would lose her opportunity.
Patrick said she described the voice as telling her that she needed to do it then or she would lose her chance.
He testified that Lindsay had never previously told him she was hearing a man’s voice.
That account has become particularly significant in a case where the defense argues that Lindsay was experiencing postpartum psychosis when she killed her children.
The prosecution, however, maintains that her actions were intentional and calculated.
As the trial continues, jurors are expected to hear extensive evidence about Lindsay’s psychiatric history, her treatment attempts and the competing expert opinions over whether she was experiencing psychosis at the time of the killings.
Patrick’s testimony has already provided the jury with one of the most painful perspectives in the case: that of a father who left his home believing he would soon return to his wife and three children, only to come back to a scene that would permanently change his family.
