Lindsay Clancy's husband told police children were dead, court hears

Jurors heard harrowing accounts on Thursday of the aftermath of a tragedy that saw three young children die in their Massachusetts home. Officers described arriving at the Duxbury residence in January 2023 to find Lindsay Clancy in distress outside, having jumped from a second-story window. Inside, her then-husband, Patrick Clancy, was screaming that their children were dead.

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I can’t wake them up – I can’t get them up!

The murder trial is centered on Clancy's mental state, with her defense team asserting she was in the throes of postpartum psychosis, a severe mental illness following childbirth. They do not dispute that she strangled the children with exercise bands. However, prosecutors maintain that Clancy, a former nurse, acted with criminal intent.

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Based on my training experience from previous incidents, I knew it wasn’t going to be good.

Testimony from officers Stephen Hall and Brian Josephine painted a grim picture of the scene. Hall found Patrick Clancy in distress behind the home, while Josephine raced into the basement after hearing the father's desperate cries. There, they found the children, with only the infant, Callan, showing a faint pulse. Firefighters and paramedics attempted to provide aid, but the infant ultimately could not be revived.

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It turned very chaotic very quickly.

Jurors had previously heard Patrick Clancy's anguished 911 call and his testimony. He stated that his wife had asked him to run an errand and had told him the children were in the basement, but not that they were dead. He has since expressed forgiveness for his ex-wife, viewing her as ill rather than evil. Lindsay Clancy remains paralyzed from the waist down following an apparent suicide attempt that night. Her lawyer stated she reported hearing a voice instructing her to kill the children before killing herself.

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This is your last chance. Kill the children so you can kill yourself.