Forensic psychiatrist reveals haunting note Lindsay Clancy wrote after killing her three children
Lindsay Clancy left a haunting note after killing her three children, a forensic psychiatrist has testified.
The murder trial has entered its third week as the defence does not dispute that the 35-year-old killed her children Cora, five, Dawson, three, and Callan, eight months, in January 2023.
After killing the children in the family’s Massachusetts home, Clancy attempted to take her own life.
Her legal team argue that she cannot be held criminally responsible due to poor mental health.
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Dr Sejal Shah examined Clancy in January and February 2023 at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
The psychiatrist said Clancy was ‘calm and cooperative’ during an examination one week after the killings.
Clancy’s thought-process was ‘organized’ and ‘goal-directed’, Dr Shah said, agreeing that she was an ‘honest’ patient.
Two days after the killings and suicide attempt, Clancy wrote on a piece of paper that she was ‘horrified’ and asked for a lawyer.
Because Clancy was on a ventilator she could not speak, so asked for a pen and paper to write responses to questions.
Dr Jhilam Biswas testified that she wrote that she was ‘horrified’ and asked if her body was ‘broken’, ‘are my legs straight’, and if she could have any visitors.
The questions did not show signs of psychosis or hallucinations, Biswas said.
Childhood friend Amy Bevins told the court that Clancy sent her a text days before killing her children, and complained that medication caused her to have ‘some dark thoughts’.
“She had shared that she had been taking a medication that caused her to have some dark thoughts but that she was going to, or had been, tapering off that medication and was trialing new ones that would remove those side effects and be more helpful and therapeutic to what she needed,” her friend of nearly 30 years testified.
Her father-in-law, Christopher Clancy, said he saw Clancy shortly before Christmas 2022 and said she was having ‘struggles’ at the time.
“I knew she was having a hard time sleeping. I knew she just didn’t feel well. I knew she had gone to the emergency room where my wife was working,” he testified.
The prosecution has claimed that Clancy had instructed her then-husband to leave the family home on a series of errands on the day of the children's deaths.
However, the defence argues that her deteriorating mental health means that she is not criminally responsible for the deaths of her children.
If found guilty of murder, Clancy faces the prospect of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
A not-guilty verdict would see her committed to a psychiatric hospital.
Timeline of Lindsay Clancy case
May 2022
Lindsay gives birth to her third child, Callan.
She’s open about her postpartum struggles with her other two kids on social media. Six weeks after Callan’s birth, she posts that she’s feeling ‘dialed in’ while focusing on exercise, nutrition, and mindset, and ‘it has made all the difference’.
September 2022
As the end of her maternity leave nears, Lindsay, who works as a labour and delivery nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital, starts to experience anxiety about returning to work.
She visits two different psychiatrists and receives a diagnosis of generalised anxiety disorder.
Lindsay is prescribed several different psychiatric medications.
October 2022
According to court docs, she writes in a note on her phone: “I think I sort of resent my other children because they prevent me from treating Cal like my first baby. And I know that’s not fair to them. I know that. I was feeling so depressed last evening when Cora and Dawson came home from school, I know it runs off on them, so we had a pretty rough evening, I want to feel love and connection with all my kids.”
December 2022
Lindsay undergoes an evaluation at the Women and Infants Hospital Centre for Women’s Behavioural Health. She is not diagnosed with postpartum depression, prosecutors say.
Lindsay’s husband Patrick tells police she is having suicidal thoughts and thoughts of harming their children, according to his testimony in court.
1-5 January, 2023
Lindsay admits herself to McLean Hospital for psychiatric treatment. She is discharged after five days as clinicians do not believe she poses an imminent danger to herself or others, prosecutors say.
22 January, 2023
Lindsay, Patrick, Cora and Dawson have dinner at family friend Kyle Carney’s home. Kyle later tells police that Lindsay ‘seemed fairly normal’.
23 January, 2023
According to prosecutors, Lindsay pens a note on her phone which says she has ‘a touch of postpartum anxiety’ about going back to work.
24 January, 2023
Prosecutors allege the following took place this day:
Morning: Lindsay takes Cora to a scheduled paediatrician appointment. After returning home, they play in the snow with Dawson. She sends photos of the kids to Patrick and her mom.
4:02pm: Lindsay searches for ‘kids Miralax’ (a laxative) on her phone, and 11 minutes later looks up ‘take out 3v’, referring to restaurant ThreeV in Plymouth. She uses Apple Maps to calculate how long it would take to drive from the family’s home to ThreeV.
4:47pm: Lindsay rings a CVS in Kingston to ask if they have any Miralax in stock. A manager tells her they don’t, but they do have similar medications.
The manager later tells authorities that she did not slur her words or sound impaired during the call.
4:35pm: Lindsay texts Patrick, who is working from home: “Any chance you want to do takeout from 3V … I didn’t cook anything … It’s been a long day.”
Patrick says yes, and Lindsay asks him to ‘check the menu when you can’.
5:10pm: Lindsay calls ThreeV to place the order.
5:15pm: Lindsay allegedly texts Patrick: “Pedialax liquid stool softener.” He then leaves to pick up the medication.
5:33pm: When Patrick arrives at CVS, he rings Lindsay, but she doesn’t pick up. She rings back one minute later and confirms the medication.
5:54pm: Patrick gets to ThreeV, pays for the food and leaves.
6:09pm: Patrick returns home. “The first thing he noticed was the silence,” prosecutors say. “He did not see or hear the defendant or the children.”
Patrick calls for his wife but gets no response. He discovers their second-floor bedroom is locked. Patrick eventually manages to get in the room but sees blood on the floor and an open window. He runs outside and finds Lindsay lying on the ground, according to prosecutors.
6:11pm: Prosecutors say that Patrick rings 911 and Lindsay is saying: “I tried to kill myself and jumped out the window.”
He is then said to ask Lindsay: “Where are the kids?” She responds: “In the basement.”
While on the call, Patrick goes down to the basement and is heard ‘screaming in agony’,
Cora and Callan are discovered on the floor of the den. Dawson is found in his dad’s home office.
When officers arrive at the scene, Patrick alleges: “She killed the kids.”
Lindsay is taken to hospital, where she is treated for injuries that leave her paralysed below the waist. The three children are also rushed to hospital.
7:28pm: Cora and Dawson are pronounced dead. Callan is medically flown to another children’s hospital.
25 January, 2023
Police issue Lindsay an arrest warrant, charging her with two counts of murder, three counts of strangulation or suffocation, and three counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.
27 January, 2023
Callan is pronounced dead at 11.18am.
According to Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague, Lindsay later wakes up and uses a whiteboard to ask: “Do I need an attorney?”
6 February, 2023
While in the presence of a psychologist hired by her lawyer, Lindsay calls Patrick and tells him she had a ‘moment of psychosis’ and heard ‘a man’s voice telling her to kill the kids and kill herself’ after he left on January 24.
7 February, 2023
On the day of her arraignment, Lindsay’s attorney says that she’s still suicidal. She pleads not guilty to three counts of murder.
October 2024
Patrick asks the public to forgive Lindsay, telling The New Yorker: “I wasn’t married to a monster - I was married to someone who got sick.”
January 2026
Lindsay and Patrick file a civil lawsuit, accusing medical providers of not properly diagnosing, treating and monitoring her for a ‘severe postpartum psychiatric condition’.
9 July, 2026
The Plymouth County District Attorney's Office says the three counts of strangulation would be subsumed into the murder charges.
27 July, 2026
Lindsay’s murder trial begins.
Anish Vij