PLYMOUTH, Mass. , The murder trial of Lindsay Clancy entered its second week of testimony Monday, with jurors hearing from emergency room doctors who treated the defendant and two of her three children after she allegedly strangled them in early 2023.
The testimony built on the prosecution’s case from last week, which included a jury visit to the family’s home in Duxbury, Massachusetts, where the killings occurred.
Upcoming witnesses are expected to address the mental health issues central to the case. Clancy’s defense team argues she was a devoted mother overmastered by postpartum psychosis, a rare psychiatric condition that can develop after childbirth and distort a person’s perception of reality.
Prosecutors counter that Clancy acted intentionally and should be held accountable for the deaths of her children, Callan, Dawson and Cora Clancy, who ranged in age from 8 months to 5 years.
Lindsay Clancy attends her murder trial at Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth, Mass., on Wednesday, July 29, 2026. (David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via AP, Pool)
Clancy, 35, cried at the defense table last week as her ex-husband, Patrick Clancy, and other witnesses testified about the killings. He discovered the children in the basement of the family home and found his wife gravely injured in the yard. She had jumped from a second-floor window and remains paralyzed from the waist down.
Dr. Michael Snyder testified Monday that Cora had no heartbeat when she arrived at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center-Plymouth and was declared dead shortly after. Eight-month-old Callan was “cold on arrival,” “quite limp” and showed signs of brain swelling.
“It was believed he was strangled and, when he arrived at Plymouth, he was in cardiac arrest,” said Dr. Andrew Capraro of Boston Children’s Hospital, where Callan was later transferred. Callan required a ventilator to breathe but had a heartbeat. He died three days later.
Defense focuses on medication history
Clancy’s attorneys do not dispute that she killed the children. Both in her criminal case and a separate medical malpractice lawsuit, her lawyers have argued that she had bipolar disorder that was not fully diagnosed until after the killings. They say her condition worsened as she cycled through various psychiatric medications, some of which were problematic for bipolar patients.
In the three months before the January 2023 killings, multiple clinicians prescribed Clancy antidepressants, sleep aids, an antipsychotic and other medications as she reported worsening insomnia, anxiety, despair and confusion about what was real, according to her lawsuit.
Defendant sought help for postpartum depression
When she entered a postpartum depression program in late December 2022, providers noted her symptoms might be medication-related, according to the lawsuit. Those clinicians instructed her to taper off the antipsychotic and discharged her after a day, the suit claims.
Clancy admitted herself to a psychiatric hospital on New Year’s Eve and spent several days there. After returning home, she resumed appointments with her psychiatrist, who last saw her for 17 minutes on Jan. 23, 2023, according to her lawsuit.
The next day, she believed a commanding voice was telling her to “kill the children so you can kill yourself,” according to her lawyers.
That evening, she asked her husband to run errands, a request prosecutors characterized as an attempt to get him out of the house. During a rare site visit Friday, jurors passed the businesses he visited before being escorted through the Cape Cod-style home where the family lived.
Father returns home to a shocking scene
In emotional testimony last week, Patrick Clancy described returning to a horrific scene: a bloodied bedroom, an open window, his wife on the ground below it, and the children in the basement, strangled with exercise bands.
“She killed the kids!” he told a 911 dispatcher on a call played in court.
In separate lawsuits, Lindsay and Patrick Clancy allege that various providers failed her and should have recognized she posed a danger to herself and the children. The providers, at least those who have responded so far, deny the allegations and dispute that she clearly stated she intended to harm the children.
Prosecutor Shanan Buckingham told jurors in her opening statement last week to keep their focus on the defendant rather than her medical providers.
“This is not a public debate about women’s mental health and how the medical system treats women,” Buckingham said.
If convicted of murder, Clancy faces life in prison without parole. If found not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility, she would be committed to a state mental health facility.
If you are experiencing suicidal, substance use or other mental health crises please call or text the new three digit code at 988. You will reach a trained crisis counselor for free, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can also go to 988lifeline.org or dial the current toll free number 800-273-8255 [TALK].