Lindsay Clancy murder trial begins; ex-husband testifies she had 'one of her best days' before killings

The trial of Lindsay Clancy began Monday morning in a Plymouth courtroom with the weight of an unspeakable act hanging over every word. Clancy, 35, sits in a wheelchair as she faces three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of her three young children—Cora, five; Dawson, three; and Callan, eight months old—who died on January 24, 2023, in their Duxbury home. She has pleaded not guilty, though the central question before the jury is not whether she killed them, but why, and whether her mind was capable of understanding what she was doing.

The prosecution's opening statement laid out the mechanics of the deaths with clinical precision. Prosecutor Shanan Buckingham told jurors that Clancy sent her then-husband Patrick to pick up takeout and medication, then took the children to the basement. She separated them, wrapped exercise bands around each child's neck, and pulled the bands tight. After killing all three, she cut her own wrists and jumped from a window, an act that left her paralyzed. When Patrick returned home to find the house, as Buckingham said, "eerily quiet," he discovered the children in the basement, the bands still around their necks. He screamed for help and called 911. The prosecution's theory is that this was calculated, methodical, the work of a woman who was controlling and manipulative.

The defense took a different approach. Attorney Kevin Reddington acknowledged to jurors that Clancy killed her children but argued she was not the architect of her own actions. He described a woman living in "her own hell," someone who had desperately sought help for her mental health struggles and whose medications may have pushed her into a state of extreme postpartum psychosis. He asked jurors to consider how a devoted mother—a "heck of a mother," he called her—could have done this without being profoundly broken. He criticized the district attorney for bringing first-degree murder charges when he knew, Reddington said, "it was going to kill the soul of this young woman."

Patrick Clancy took the stand as the first witness, and his testimony painted a portrait of a marriage and a mind in crisis. He described the months leading up to January 24 with the precision of someone who had replayed them countless times. In December 2022, Lindsay switched to a new medication. That, Patrick testified, was "where her big spiral started." She lost weight rapidly, became deeply depressed, and began telling him she was suicidal. Around the same time, she mentioned intrusive thoughts—the sense that something might happen to the children. When he asked if she felt she needed to be kept away from them, she said no. Yet the next moment she would be making them lunch or putting them to bed. "I never saw Lindsay harm the kids," he said.

By late December, Patrick took her to Massachusetts General Hospital. One doctor recommended inpatient care at McLean Hospital; two others suggested a day program in Providence. She went to Providence, and Patrick picked her up each day. By New Year's Eve, she was back in an emergency room with fresh concerns about suicide. "I was exhausted," Patrick testified. "I said I think it's time to go to McLean." She was admitted and, after treatment, began asking to be discharged so she could attend their daughter's birthday party. On January 5, she was released.

What happened in the three weeks between her discharge and the killings became the crux of the prosecution's case. Patrick testified that on January 8, the family went to the Museum of Science in Boston. A week later, they visited the Cape Codder resort. Video footage from these outings showed Lindsay appearing engaged, present, "much better," Patrick said. The prosecution showed these videos to the jury deliberately—evidence, they argued, that she was not in the grip of psychosis but rather capable of planning and deception. On January 16, Patrick went skiing with Cora while leaving the two younger children with Lindsay. He felt comfortable doing so because, he testified, "her mood seemed better. She was more active. She was able to partake in more things." He said he was hopeful things were improving.

Then came January 24. Patrick and Lindsay exchanged text messages throughout the day while he worked in the basement and she played with the children upstairs. He went up only once or twice because it was a busier work day than usual. When the prosecutor asked if Lindsay was having suicidal thoughts that day, Patrick answered simply: "She was having one of her best days." Later, when photos of the children were displayed in court, Patrick became emotional. He hesitated, took deep breaths, and described his deceased children while fighting back tears. Lindsay Clancy reached for tissues and cried as the images appeared on the screen.

The trial is expected to last six to eight weeks. Nearly 200 potential witnesses are on the list. If convicted of first-degree murder, Clancy faces life in prison without the possibility of parole. If the jury finds her not criminally responsible due to mental illness, she will be committed to a state mental health facility in Massachusetts. The jury—twelve women and six men—will have to decide whether the woman in the wheelchair before them was a killer with a plan, or a mother whose mind fractured under the weight of untreated illness and medication she may not have been taking as prescribed.