A hospital chaplain took the stand Thursday to recount Lindsay Clancy’s first words after the deaths of her three children.
Sheila Cavanaugh, a board-certified chaplain at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, testified at Plymouth Superior Court that she first visited Clancy, 36, on January 25, 2023, the day after the Duxbury mother strangled her daughter Cora, 5, son Dawson, 3, and infant son Callan, 8 months, before attempting suicide by jumping from a second-story window. At that first visit, Clancy was intubated and unconscious, dressed in medical armor including a neck brace and bandages, unable to speak after her suicide attempt left her paralyzed from the waist down.
Cavanaugh, who spent 16 years as a senior vice president at Fidelity Investments before becoming a chaplain, said she returned several times before finally having a conversation with Clancy on January 31, 2023, after she had been extubated. Describing Clancy’s demeanor that day, Cavanaugh told the court: “Her emotional state was very neutral, a flat affect.”
The chaplain said she held Clancy’s hand to comfort her when Clancy spoke her first remembered words: “I am so glad my children are safe.”
Cavanaugh replied theologically: “Lindsay, your children are safe. They’re safe in heaven with God.”
The pair prayed for the children, Cavanaugh testified.
Cavanaugh said Clancy also alluded to hearing a voice during multiple conversations. “She alluded to having heard a voice, and the voice, according to Lindsay, told her that if she did not follow the command, neither she nor her children would be safe,” Cavanaugh testified. She later added: “She alluded to the fact that it was a male voice and it was persistent.”
Prosecutors challenged why Cavanaugh never documented the alleged voice in her detailed hospital notes. Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague asked: “In all of these notes that detail every time you interacted with her, you never once wrote that she told you she heard a voice or what that voice said. Correct?”
Cavanaugh acknowledged this was correct, explaining her documentation approach: “I’m not there to evaluate the patient. I’m there to bear witness to their suffering.” She noted she is not medically trained and her notes are not meant to be verbatim transcripts.
The defense has placed Clancy’s claim of hearing a male voice at the center of its argument that she was experiencing postpartum psychosis and should not be held criminally responsible. Her attorney, Kevin Reddington, had told jurors in opening statements that the chaplain would testify about Clancy mentioning voices before she had met with defense experts, undercutting any claim the symptoms were fabricated. “She’s living her own hell,” Reddington said. “She knows what happened with those kids, and she wanted to die when she was in the hospital.”
Outside the courthouse Thursday, women in pink rallied in support of Clancy, standing silently for more than an hour before breaking into applause at the sight of Reddington. Rally organizer Renee Kimball implored the crowd to trust that Reddington “has Lindsay’s fight.” Supporters formed a circle, said the Lord’s Prayer, held up their arms and formed hearts with their hands.
In the viral moment that launched this case, Clancy’s husband Patrick Clancy called 911 on January 24, 2023, screaming “She killed the kids!” After returning home from a pharmacy run. Prosecutors have argued Clancy acted deliberately and intentionally, pointing to evidence she searched “can you treat a sociopath” and allegedly chatted with her husband on the phone while he shopped moments before the killings. The defense argues Clancy suffered from postpartum psychosis and that doctors prescribed dangerous antidepressants despite signs she may have had bipolar disorder. “You don’t put them on what’s called an SSRI,” Reddington said in opening statements. “It messes with your brain.”
Judge William Sullivan told jurors to expect a lengthy day of testimony Friday as the defense nears the conclusion of its presentation.