CRIME MA: Mom accused of sending her husband on an errand so she could kill her 3 kids before paralyzing herself by jumping out a window, appears in court

Crime happened in January, 2023.


Mass. mom accused of killing 3 kids wants separate verdict on insanity defense involving postpartum psychosis​

By
Priscilla DeGregory
Published Feb. 20, 2026
Updated Feb. 20, 2026, 3:02 p.m. ET

A Massachusetts mom wants her murder trial split into two parts so a jury can separately decide if she was insane and suffering from postpartum psychosis when she allegedly murdered her three kids.

Lindsay Clancy wants one trial for a jury to determine if she is responsible for fatally strangling kids Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and 8-month-old Callan with an exercise band at their Duxbury, Mass. home on January 2023.

And she wants a second, separate phase of trial for jurors to decide if she was suffering from a “mental disease or defect” when she allegedly slayed her children, according to papers filed by her lawyer, Kevin Reddington Thursday.

The second phase of trial would presumably be moot if she was acquitted at the first phase.

Clancy made a rare appearance in Plymouth court Friday afternoon when previously she usually appeared by video for hearings.

She listened attentively as the judge and the lawyers set a next court date for March 2 for oral arguments on various issues, including her bid for a split trial, and discussed her upcoming April 10 mental evaluation to be conducted by an expert chosen by prosecutors.

Judge William F. Sullivan said he wanted the exam to happen soon, adding: “That test is going forward on that date no matter what.”

Sullivan also asked Clancy and her lawyer if they wanted her to be brought back to court for future hearings.

Defense attorney Kevin Reddington leaned over and spoke with Clancy before telling the judge, “I’d like to have her here.”

When the hearing wrapped, a court officer pushed Clancy, a paraplegic bound to a wheelchair, out of the courtroom.

She became paralyzed when she cut her neck and jumped from a window after slaying her children.

Reddington had previously fought over logistics of getting Clancy to court during trial, which is currently scheduled for July. She became paralyzed when she cut her neck and jumped from a window after slaying her children.

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Reddington also filed papers requesting that Clancy’s upcoming mental evaluation by prosecutors’ expert be videotaped so the defense attorney can review it in lieu of being present for the exam.

Sullivan said they would discuss that request further at the next hearing.

Prosecutors last month asked that they be able to evaluate Clancy with their own expert after her lawyers announced her main defense would be that she was innocent of the crimes because she was having a mental break when she carried them out.

The mom has claimed in a lawsuit suit that a revolving door of doctors missed that she was suffering from bipolar disorder while loading her up with myriad drugs from October to December of 2022, like Zoloft, trazodone, Prozac, Ambien, Remeron, Klonopin, Seroquel, Ativan, Valium, and Lamictal.

And Clancy began to wonder if she was a “psychopath,” her suit claimed.

She was overtaken by a “force” with the voice of a man she began hearing since she started taking Seroquel, the day she killed her kids.

It wasn’t until over a year after her arrest that she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder — a condition that antidepressants usually make worse, the suit said.

Her husband, Patrick Clancy, filed a separate lawsuit against her doctors claiming she was “overmedicated” at the time of the killings.

At a hearing in December, where Clancy appeared by video, her lawyer warned the judge of the logistical nightmare of getting her to court for trial everyday, as he requested an ambulance for her transportation.

Reddington also warned that she may try to kill herself during the course of trial.

Clancy has been on suicide watch at Tewksbury State Hospital since her arrest.

nypost.com

Mass. mom accused of killing 3 kids wants separate verdict on insanity defense involving postpartum psychosis

A Massachusetts mom wants her murder trial split into two parts so a jury can separately decide if she was insane and suffering from postpartum psychosis when she allegedly murdered her three kids.
nypost.com nypost.com
 
I don't normally make exceptions for those who murder their own children, but in this case, I would say she was experiencing psychosis from side effects of the drugs she was prescribed. So many people don't realize what some of the pharmaceuticals out there can do to a human mind.
 
Luddite said:
I don't care if there's a definite explanation and excuse regarding the medicines.
She's a cull.

A logical nation wouldn't feed her for the next 20 or 30 years.

Millstones are valuable. A couple of cinderblocks should work just fine.
Click to expand...
She is a genuine victim.
More so than the 11 year old who shot his daddy.
This woman trusted the wrong people.
Why are the Doctors not on trial??
 
I'm okay with cinderblocks for the doctors too.

She might be a victim. My opinion stands. She had enough sense about her to send her husband out.
She fought off all maternal instincts.

I'm not a big fan of victim excuses. Especially with implications of this magnitude.
 
aznurse said:
She was medicated into a psychosis by doctors. 12 medications!! She was not 'self medicating'. She needs medical detox. In this case, tragic, but she is not accountable.
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Pharma and doctors are culpable with crap like this.

They throw pills at people constantly. And anti-depressant drugs especially. That shit alters your brain chemistry. But they pass it out like candy, especially to women.

I believe that contributed to my younger sister's "Parkinsonism" (after other apparently incorrect diagnoses such as Lewy body dementia) and death just after her 59th birthday.
 
JMG91 said:
I don't normally make exceptions for those who murder their own children, but in this case, I would say she was experiencing psychosis from side effects of the drugs she was prescribed. So many people don't realize what some of the pharmaceuticals out there can do to a human mind.
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On top of what was almost certainly severe postpartum depression. Whoever prescribed all those meds for her really needs to be charged as an accessory in their deaths.

And was she still expected to be functioning on her own on all those meds with three small kids?!

What a tragedy.

Summerthyme
 
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summerthyme said:
On top of what was almost certainly severe postpartum depression. Whoever prescribed all those meds for her really needs to be charged as an accessory in their deaths.

And was she still expected to be functioning on her own orthopedic meds with three small kids?!

What a tragedy.

Summerthyme
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No kidding. This situation was a crapshoot from beginning to end!
 
It most definitely is a tragedy.

Did she know right from wrong at that moment? At risk of belaboring the point remember she sent her husband out on an errand.

Yes, defense and prosecution could give completely different perceptions of the same timeframe.
 
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Me being the father... Either she spends the rest of her life incarcerated or a very short life free once that task is accomplished the visits to the gun free zones where the Drs flourish.
No threats, no words, just action. Insanity defence here also.
 
this hurts and it makes me mad. I'm willing to bet she suffers from ppd. Its real y'all, not some made up disease. Our dd has it. She's a couple years older than this woman and the kids are the same age. If you want to blame someone, blame the drs! They're the ones prescribing MULTIPLE drugs, poohooing this woman's concerns (she obviously tried to get help), and in general treating "women's issues" like they're not real.
No she is not in the right to have done what she did but we don't know her mental state or what those drugs did to it.
Did she have any help other than her husband? Were there other women around to support her? I'm sorry, not sorry but sometimes men just don't get what's going on with women. Different physiologies I guess.
So yes lock her up in a mental ward. BUT lock some damn drs up too!
 
ginnie6 said:
this hurts and it makes me mad. I'm willing to bet she suffers from ppd. Its real y'all, not some made up disease. Our dd has it. She's a couple years older than this woman and the kids are the same age. If you want to blame someone, blame the drs! They're the ones prescribing MULTIPLE drugs, poohooing this woman's concerns (she obviously tried to get help), and in general treating "women's issues" like they're not real.
No she is not in the right to have done what she did but we don't know her mental state or what those drugs did to it.
Did she have any help other than her husband? Were there other women around to support her? I'm sorry, not sorry but sometimes men just don't get what's going on with women. Different physiologies I guess.
So yes lock her up in a mental ward. BUT lock some damn drs up too!
Click to expand...
The Doctors just followed the rules.
That were written by the Pharmaceutical industry.
 
Luddite said:
It most definitely is a tragedy.

Did she know right from wrong at that moment? At risk of belaboring the point remember she sent her husband out on an errand.

Yes, defense and prosecution could give completely different perceptions of the same timeframe.
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She was able to plan, yes, but if you have psychosis, you may not recognize that what you are doing is not okay anymore. If she was having delusions, she may have thought that the only way to protect her family was to destroy the 'demons'--her children, in this case.
 
As a man who has been married to a wonderful woman for 27 years...and she suffers from p.t.s.d. from childhood abuse of varying types and has PMDD...scary.

If I wasn't a combat veteran I could never endure the Rollercoaster.

She has great fortitude in keeping it under some level of control, yet as we get older she seems to be episodic more frequently.

Talking through the episodes helps, but sometimes....I worry.

When someone can't help it, help them.

I think in times past they would apply leeches and or finally burn them at the stake, calling them demon possessed, but I think it is a mix of many things.

God help them.

I love my wife to no end and I AM NOT SUICIDAL.
 
Sacajawea said:
Well, didn't the OP mention she was a labor/delivery nurse? Surely, she was acquainted with post-partum issues. SURELY she had other nurse friends to confide in... and not just trust the pill pushers. Something isn't adding up here.
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It's not adding up because you are not figuring her mental state into the equation.
"Confiding in others" is what any sane person would do. She wasn't.
Being acquainted with PP issues does not mean she could think clearly when affected by them herself.
 
I'd bet every drug she took said, "Beware, may cause suicidal thoughts", or voices in your head. Not the first time this has driven someone to kill. Look at all the SSRI's attached to shooters.....MMSA, make medicine safe again..time for a total overhaul of big Pharma and its standard practice of treating symptoms with pills. Here, take two of these twice a day and check back in a few weeks...
 
Hollywierd and the liability law hodes will be in full roar shortly.

I wonder how medical practioners were invilved in perscribing her drug cocktail and when her defence lawyer will be pointing fingers in that direction.

No matter how this shakes out, its a freaking horrtow show for all concerned . . . .
 
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rt: 1:49:20

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View: https://youtu.be/msNQWs5LbKM?si=C8d921MlF9Tn-9A3



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Dr. Witt-Doerring explains how SSRIs and other drugs alter the brain, the hidden risks patients aren’t told about, and why millions may be unknowingly trapped in cycles of dependency.

From the science of chemical imbalance myths to the real stories of those harmed by overprescription, this episode takes a hard look at the costs of a culture that medicates instead of heals.
 
This is true - that if one is already muddled & anxious & overcome with emotions - it doesn't leave much room for rational thought, no matter the education and experience one has. I forgot about that, when reacting to the puzzle pieces. And of course, when one is desperate for relief, one will try anything - especially, if some naive "true believer" claims a pill will help.

A mom with 3 small kids without a lot of continuous support could be expected to have consecutive days where she felt like she was losing her mind - even without deeper issues.
 
Gunther Eagleman:

This is suicidal empathy in its purest form.

A mother strangled her three young children to death. Ages 5, 3, and 8 months.

And now hundreds of people are showing up outside the courthouse in pink, holding signs, raising money, and declaring “I could have been her.”

They’re not mourning the kids.

They’re centering the killer.

When a society starts extending more compassion to the person who murdered three little children than to the children themselves, something is deeply broken.

Empathy without moral clarity isn’t kindness.

It’s civilizational self-destruction.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2090584494684111147
View: https://x.com/GuntherEagleman/status/2090584494684111147
 
auxman said:
Gunther Eagleman:

This is suicidal empathy in its purest form.

A mother strangled her three young children to death. Ages 5, 3, and 8 months.

And now hundreds of people are showing up outside the courthouse in pink, holding signs, raising money, and declaring “I could have been her.”

They’re not mourning the kids.

They’re centering the killer.

When a society starts extending more compassion to the person who murdered three little children than to the children themselves, something is deeply broken.

Empathy without moral clarity isn’t kindness.

It’s civilizational self-destruction.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2090584494684111147
View: https://x.com/GuntherEagleman/status/2090584494684111147
Click to expand...
OTOH, it may be illustrating just *how many* women have struggled with their mental health after having a baby...much less several within three years!

Do NOT fall into the trap of thinking these women are just "weak" or "self indulgent". Hormones can *really* mess with your mind!

Seventy years ago, women gave birth in a hospital and were then kept as inpatient and essentially catered to for a week. Fifty years ago, they kept postpartum women for 2-3 days. These days, once they are sure the infant is stable (and they pay a LOT more attention to the health of the newborn than the mother), they send you home.

IF "home" includes a caring husband who can take a couple weeks off work to give Mom a chance to rest and recuperate from the stress and immense physical effort of labor and delivery, that's great! How many women actually get that support?

I had three kids between January 1977 and August 1980. I picked, snipped and canned 72 pints of beans while in labor with our daughter. One hour after she was born at home, I was alone in our big farmhouse with a newborn and two boys, aged 3 1/2 and 2 1/2, while hubby milked the cows.

I doubt I got a full night's sleep in 4 years. Thankfully, I didn't experience postpartum depression. Definitely many tearful evenings feeling overwhelmed and inadequate to handle everything i needed to handle! But never the deep despair or outright psychosis many women do experience.

It sounds like she got no REAL help...too many doctors these days truly believe that pills can fix anything. Sadly, in her case, they simply "improved" her ability to think and her energy levels sufficiently to be able to plan and carry out a horrible act.

And as a mother, I understand how horribly tortured she must have been in her own mind, because a mother is normally wired to protect and care for her helpless baby above any other consideration.

Getting overwhelmed and even angry at the actions of a toddler (or several preschoolers) is normal. Hearing a specific voice telling you that the only way to "save" the children is to kill them, so they can be "safe" in Heaven is NOT.

I believe she needs to be committed permanently to a psychiatric institution. I don't believe in mental illness , even hormone druven temporary mental illness, being a "get out of jail free" card.

IF she is now capable of thinking rationally, she would agree that she needs to be sterilized...she clearly can't handle the hormonal stresses pregnancy and childbirth create. IF the psychosis and postpartum depression were real, her own guilt and shame should make her recognize that she has forfeited her right to live free in society... maybe ever again.

I'm no psychiatric expert, but my gut says if she's trying to claim (I really haven't follwed the details of this case) that "it was the voice's fault" and she should be found not guilty and set free...it's a scam, and she deserves life in prison.

Summerthyme
 
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