Lindsay Clancy’s lawyer has pointed to her deteriorating handwriting in journals as evidence of her declining mental state during her ongoing murder trial.
Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital, has pleaded not guilty to the murders of her three children — Cora, five, Dawson, three, and Callan, eight months — at the family’s Duxbury, Massachusetts home in January 2023. While she does not dispute that she killed the children, her defense team argues she was suffering from severe bipolar disorder and postpartum psychosis at the time and cannot be held criminally responsible. Prosecutors counter that Clancy is liable and that evidence shows premeditation.
The jury was shown Clancy’s journals during the trial, which included detailed schedules of the children’s nap times, bed times, and meal times. Another journal contained accounts of her mental state, with Clancy writing repeatedly about having “no motivation” and “horrible, intrusive thoughts.” As the journal continued, the court heard how her handwriting had become what her lawyer described as “chicken scratch,” with the defense arguing this physical deterioration reflected her worsening psychiatric condition.
The first witness to take the stand was Clancy’s ex-husband Patrick Clancy, who testified about her struggles following Callan’s birth. He described how she had been having thoughts about suicide and hurting their children in the months leading up to January 2023, and that “her big spiral started” in December 2022.
“She started to lose a lot of weight, and she became very depressed, and she was having a really hard time,” Patrick told the court.
He recounted how Clancy had spent time in a facility with a locked ward, which made him feel “hopeful” as “she seemed much better” afterwards. On the day of the killings, Patrick testified that Clancy “was having one of her best days” and had “seemed in a good mood.”
Patrick had left the house to pick up medications for their daughter and collect takeout from ThreeV restaurant. He returned to find what prosecutors described as a horrific aftermath, with the children fatally injured and Clancy having attempted suicide.
“I saw blood everywhere,” Patrick testified.
Clancy was left wheelchair-bound from injuries sustained during her suicide attempt. Approximately a week later, Patrick recalled that Clancy had called him from hospital.
“She didn’t talk about our kids, she talked about what she went through,” he told the court. “She said she heard a man’s voice telling her that if she didn’t do it now, she would lose her chance – or something like that.”
In the viral moment that preceded the trial, prosecutors detailed how Patrick returned home on January 24, 2023 to find silence where there should have been family noise. After discovering their second-floor bedroom locked, he eventually got inside, saw blood on the floor, and ran outside to find Lindsay lying on the ground. During the 911 call at 6:11pm, prosecutors say Lindsay was saying “I tried to kill myself,” and when Patrick asked where the children were, she responded “In the basement.” Patrick was then heard “screaming in agony” as he discovered Cora and Callan on the floor of the den and Dawson in his home office. Cora and Dawson were pronounced dead that evening; Callan was medically flown to another hospital but also did not survive.
The murder trial has now entered week five. Judge William Sullivan has laid out the legal test jurors must apply as deliberations approach. The jury is expected to hear closing arguments on August 27 and could begin deliberations as early as August 28.