Patrick Clancy, the father of three children who were killed in January 2023, testified Monday as the first witness in the murder trial of his ex-wife, Lindsay Clancy, telling jurors he watched her mental health sharply decline after she began taking the medication Seroquel.
On the stand, Patrick Clancy testified that Lindsay Clancy lost weight, became severely depressed and expressed suicidal thoughts. He told jurors she also reported intrusive thoughts about harming the children but denied having a plan. “I never saw Lindsay harm the kids,” he said, according to court testimony.
Patrick Clancy said he grew alarmed after his then-wife was prescribed about 13 psychiatric medications in the months before the killings and that many of her appointments were brief telehealth sessions. He testified he took her to emergency departments and helped her enter McLean Hospital after she continued to say she was suicidal, and said he would have paid anything to keep her hospitalized if insurance had been an obstacle.
Margaret McLean, a former prosecutor and trial attorney who was quoted by Fox News Digital as teaching at Boston College’s Carroll School of Management, said Patrick Clancy’s measured testimony showed anguish. McLean said the concern that family members may not understand mental illness “is the part that scared me,” according to Fox News Digital.
Prosecutors, led by Assistant District Attorney Shanan Buckingham, told jurors in opening statements that Cora, 5; Dawson, 3; and Callan, an 8-month-old, were “deliberately and meticulously killed” on Jan. 24, 2023. Buckingham alleged Lindsay Clancy sent Patrick Clancy from their Duxbury home to get medication and takeout, then used an exercise band to strangle each child before attempting to kill herself, according to the prosecutor. Defense attorney Kevin Reddington conceded that his client killed the children but said the dispute is what was happening in her mind. “She knows that she killed these children,” Reddington told jurors, according to court remarks.
Lindsay Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse, has pleaded not guilty to three counts each of murder and strangulation. Her attorneys say she lacked criminal responsibility because of severe postpartum psychosis. Judge William Sullivan told jurors the commonwealth must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Clancy was criminally responsible at the time of the deaths.
Jon Ross Myers is the executive editor and publisher of the Mississippi News Network, Mississippi's largest digital only media company. He can be reached at editor@tippahnews.com
