Patrick Clancy’s Parents and Sisters: What to Know About His Family Amid the Lindsay Clancy Trial

Patrick Clancy was raised on Massachusetts’ South Shore alongside his two sisters, Erin Donahue and Laura Sullivan, by parents Christopher and Susan Clancy. During Lindsay Clancy’s highly publicized murder trial, several members of Patrick’s family have offered emotional testimony about their son, brother and former daughter-in-law.

Patrick, a sales executive, has faced unimaginable loss since Jan. 24, 2023, when his three young children — Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and 8-month-old Callan — were killed at the family’s Duxbury, Mass., home.

On that day, Lindsay asked Patrick to leave the house to pick up takeout and medication. When he returned, he discovered Lindsay seriously injured outside the home after jumping from a second-story window. Their three children were found in the basement, having been strangled.

 

Lindsay survived the fall but was left paralyzed from the waist down. She later told Patrick that she had attempted to take her own life.

The tragedy became the center of Lindsay’s 2026 murder trial, with her defense arguing that she was suffering from postpartum psychosis and had received inappropriate or excessive medication. Patrick’s family has also spoken publicly about the mental health difficulties they witnessed in Lindsay before the killings.

Christopher and Susan Clancy both testified during the trial, providing jurors with a picture of the woman they had known before the deaths of their grandchildren.

Christopher and Susan Clancy raised their family in Massachusetts

Christopher and Susan raised Patrick and his sisters on Massachusetts’ South Shore, an area sometimes known as the “Irish Riviera.”

Christopher worked as a plumbing contractor before retiring, while Susan spent nearly four decades working as a nurse practitioner at South Shore Hospital.

 

Susan has described Patrick as a gentle person who has never been comfortable with anger or confrontation. In an interview with The New Yorker, she recalled that he had been that way since childhood, often choosing to give people the benefit of the doubt rather than assume the worst.

During Lindsay’s trial, Christopher described Lindsay as someone who had been deeply involved in motherhood. He testified that she was “very mothering” and said she had been close with his daughters and daughter-in-law.

Susan similarly told jurors that she had maintained a good relationship with Lindsay and remembered her as a loving and nurturing mother.

“She loved her children, all of them, very very much,” Susan said during her testimony, according to Boston 25 News.

But Susan also described the serious mental health struggles she believed Lindsay was experiencing before the tragedy. Her testimony became part of the broader picture presented by the defense, which argued that Lindsay’s condition had deteriorated dramatically after the birth of Callan.

Patrick grew up with two sisters

Patrick’s sisters are Erin Donahue and Laura Sullivan. Both have largely stayed out of the spotlight as the case has unfolded, but Erin has spoken about the lasting impact of the tragedy and the difficult questions that remain for the family.

Speaking with The New Yorker, Erin acknowledged the complicated emotions surrounding Lindsay’s survival.

Because Lindsay is still alive, Erin explained, the family continues to face unanswered questions and lingering anger over what happened.

Erin also emphasized the difficulty of remembering the good parts of Lindsay while simultaneously confronting the horrifying circumstances surrounding the deaths of Patrick’s children.

Patrick has also referred during his testimony to a brother and sister-in-law, according to CBS Boston.

Erin initially remembered Lindsay as “just lovely”

Patrick first brought Lindsay to meet his family at their Fourth of July celebration in 2013.

Erin recalled her first impression of Lindsay as positive, describing her as sweet, somewhat quiet and “just lovely.” Lindsay eventually became closely connected to Patrick’s family as the couple married and welcomed their three children.

That relationship remained close for years.

Christopher testified that Lindsay had been particularly close to his daughters and daughter-in-law. Susan likewise told jurors that she and Lindsay had shared a good relationship.

Those memories stood in sharp contrast to the events that unfolded in January 2023 and became especially significant during the trial, as prosecutors and defense attorneys offered very different explanations for what led to the children’s deaths.

The defense has argued that Lindsay’s mental state had deteriorated into postpartum psychosis and that medication and inadequate medical care contributed to her condition. Prosecutors, meanwhile, have maintained that Lindsay knew what she was doing and should be held criminally responsible.

Patrick and his sisters turned their loss into a mental health mission

In the aftermath of the tragedy, Patrick, Erin and Laura chose to channel their grief into efforts aimed at helping other families.

In 2024, the three siblings founded the Heard Foundation, a nonprofit focused on improving perinatal mental health care. One of its goals is to establish Massachusetts’ first postpartum treatment center while supporting families affected by Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders, or PMADs.

The organization was created in honor of Patrick’s three children and seeks to turn their memory into a broader effort to help parents and families facing mental health challenges.

The foundation describes its work as a family promise transformed into a community movement built around empathy, action and love. Its mission is intended to ensure that the lives of Cora, Dawson and Callan continue to have an impact by helping shape better mental health support for families.

For Patrick and his sisters, the foundation has become one way to honor the children they lost while addressing the very mental health issues that became central to the devastating case.