Full story
Trial centers on care
Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial focused on her psychiatric care before she killed her three children, with testimony tracing a monthslong path to a final appointment the day before the tragedy.
“In that virtual visit on Jan. 23, 2023”
In a virtual visit on Jan. 23, 2023, psychiatrist Dr. Jennifer Tufts told jurors that the Massachusetts mother appeared depressed, said she felt no motivation, and reported bouts of heart-racing anxiety.
Tufts testified that Clancy gave no indication of hearing voices that, according to the defense, commanded her the next day to take her children’s lives so she could end her own.
Prosecutors and defense both framed Clancy’s mental state around the killings, which involved the strangling deaths of Callan, Dawson and Cora Clancy, found in the basement of the family’s home in coastal Duxbury, Massachusetts, while their mother was badly injured in the yard.
Clancy, 35, has pleaded not guilty to murder charges in the deaths of her children, and her defense attorney Kevin Reddington argued she had postpartum psychosis and severe mental illness.
Psychiatrists deny psychosis
Psychiatrist Dr. Alia Goodheart, who treated Clancy during a brief inpatient stay in early January 2023, told jurors, "I did not have any concerns about her safety or her risk for anybody else."
Goodheart testified about Clancy’s alleged suicidal thoughts, recalling that Clancy said her family—namely her children and her mother—was the main reason she did not want to harm herself.
On cross examination, Goodheart acknowledged she never treated a patient with postpartum psychosis, which the ABC News report described as a rare but serious medical emergency characterized by severe, rapid onset psychiatric episodes such as mania, depression or hallucinations.
ABC News also reported that Goodheart said sleep deprivation could contribute to a manic episode, and that Clancy reported feeling "numb" and wanted further observation of her sleep when she checked out of the facility.
Prosecutors attempted to cast doubt on Clancy’s claim that she was not properly treated, while her defense attorney Kevin Reddington argued she had postpartum psychosis and severe mental illness.
Competing narratives and stakes
The trial testimony described Clancy’s psychiatric care as a contested turning point, with prosecutors underscoring that Clancy denied wanting to hurt anyone else or planning to kill herself.
“"Did she tell you that she was planning to kill the children?"”
Prosecutor Jennifer Sprague asked Tufts, "Did she tell you that she was planning to kill the children?" and Tufts replied, "No," and then "Absolutely not."
Clancy’s defense narrative, as reflected in the testimony, argues that various providers did not properly diagnose her and put her on a series of medications that left her worse off.
The Boston Globe reported that the day before the killings, Tufts told the jury Clancy said she had to “force herself to get out of bed and out of the house,” and that Tufts described her mood as “flat, anxious, no motivation, numb.”
After the killings on Jan. 24, 2023, Clancy attempted suicide by jumping out a second-story window of their Duxbury home, and she severed her spinal cord in the attempt and is paralyzed from the waist down.
