Patrick Clancy has spoken out for the first time since a mistrial was declared in his ex-wife Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial.
Patrick, whose three children were killed in January 2023, issued a statement through his attorney David Meier on Thursday after Judge William Sullivan ended proceedings when the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict. Lindsay Clancy, 36, a former labor and delivery nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital, had been on trial to determine whether she was criminally responsible or not of sound mind when Cora, five, Dawson, three, and eight-month-old Callan died.
“Patrick Clancy is grateful to the court and to the jurors for their hard work, their commitment, and their perseverance,” Meier said in the statement, according to WBZ correspondent Kristina Rex.
“The loss of Patrick’s children is something from which he will never recover and from which there will never be closure.”
He continued: “The prospect of reliving this tragedy through another trial is extraordinarily painful – for Patrick, for his family, for all of us.”
The mistrial leaves several paths forward for prosecutors in Massachusetts, where jury verdicts must be unanimous. The Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office could retry the case with a new jury, negotiate a plea agreement, or decline to pursue the matter further.
Lindsay Clancy does not dispute that she killed her children. The trial centered entirely on her mental state at the time of the killings, with the defense arguing she was suffering from a severe postpartum psychiatric condition and the prosecution maintaining she was criminally responsible.
The case has drawn national attention to gaps in postpartum mental health care. Lindsay had been open on social media about her struggles after her first two births, and after Callan’s birth in 2022, she posted about feeling “dialed in” through exercise and nutrition. But as her maternity leave ended, anxiety set in. She visited two psychiatrists, received a generalized anxiety disorder diagnosis, and was prescribed multiple psychiatric medications.
She underwent an evaluation at the Women and Infants Hospital Center for Women’s Behavioral Health but was not diagnosed with postpartum depression, according to prosecutors. Patrick testified that he told police she was having suicidal thoughts and thoughts of harming their children. She admitted herself to McLean Hospital for five days but was discharged when clinicians determined she was not an imminent danger.
The events of January 24, 2023, unfolded with documented precision in court. That morning, Lindsay took Cora to a pediatrician appointment, then played with the children in the snow, sending photos to Patrick and her mother. At 4:02 p.m., she searched for children’s laxatives and a local restaurant, ThreeV in Plymouth. She called a CVS in Kingston at 4:47 p.m. To ask about Miralax stock; the manager later told authorities she sounded normal, without slurred speech.
At 4:35 p.m., she texted Patrick, who was working from home, about takeout. He agreed, and she asked him to check the menu. She called in the order at 5:10 p.m., then texted him about a different stool softener at 5:15 p.m. Patrick left to pick it up. When he arrived at CVS at 5:33 p.m., Lindsay didn’t answer his call at first, then rang back to confirm the medication. He picked up the food at 5:54 p.m. And returned home at 6:09 p.m.
“The first thing he noticed was the silence,” prosecutors said. “He did not see or hear the defendant or the children.” He found their bedroom locked, eventually got inside, saw blood, and ran outside to find Lindsay on the ground. At 6:11 p.m., he called 911. Lindsay was saying, “I tried to kill myself.” When Patrick asked where the children were, she responded, “In the basement.” He went down and was heard “screaming in agony.” Cora and Callan were in the den, Dawson in Patrick’s home office. When officers arrived, Patrick alleged, “She killed the kids.”
Cora and Dawson were pronounced dead at 7:28 p.m. Callan was flown to another hospital but did not survive. Lindsay was hospitalized with injuries that left her paralyzed below the waist. Police charged her with two counts of murder, three counts of strangulation or suffocation, and three counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. The strangulation charges were later subsumed into the murder counts.
While hospitalized, Lindsay used a whiteboard to ask, “Do I need an attorney?” according to Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague. In a call with Patrick while a defense psychologist was present, she said she had experienced a “moment of psychosis” and heard “a man’s voice telling her to kill the kids and kill herself.”
Patrick has publicly grappled with dual loyalties. He asked the public to forgive Lindsay, telling The New Yorker: “I wasn’t married to a monster – I was married to someone who got sick.” The couple also filed a civil lawsuit against medical providers, accusing them of failing to properly diagnose, treat, and monitor her for a severe postpartum psychiatric condition.