Lindsay Clancy Was ‘Begging for Help’ Before Killing Her Children, Former Mother-in-Law Testifies
BOSTON — Lindsay Clancy was “begging for help” in the months leading up to killing her three children and attempting to end her own life, Clancy’s former mother-in-law testified for the defense Tuesday in the fourth week of her murder trial, according to AP News.
“Lindsay was struggling — we were all concerned,” said Susan Clancy, whose son Patrick found the couple’s children after they had been strangled in the family basement in Duxbury, Massachusetts, in January 2023. Lindsay Clancy also attempted to take her own life that night and was left paralyzed from the waist down.
The trial centers not on whether Lindsay Clancy killed her children on Jan. 24, 2023 — which her lawyers do not dispute — but on her state of mind at the time. Her attorney argues she should not be held criminally responsible because she was suffering from postpartum psychosis, a rare mental illness linked to the stress, sleep deprivation, and hormonal changes that follow childbirth, as AP News reported.
A Family’s Growing Concern
Susan Clancy, who like Lindsay worked as a labor and delivery nurse, said in Plymouth Superior Court that she and her former daughter-in-law were close and described Lindsay as a “wonderful mother” who was “very nurturing, very loving.” The testimony echoed emotional accounts from the day before from Lindsay Clancy’s mother and sister, who recounted for jurors how they saw her become increasingly anxious, paranoid, and suicidal starting in the fall of 2022, according to AP News.
Susan Clancy said Lindsay was open with her about struggling and asked for her mother-in-law’s support. The jury was shown texts between Lindsay and Susan Clancy in which Lindsay spoke about fears that she had developed a dependence on benzodiazepines but couldn’t sleep without taking them.
“I’m not okay and I’m terrified of taking meds tonight,” Lindsay texted her mother-in-law on Nov. 30, 2022, two months before the killings.
The Guardian reported that Lindsay’s mother, Paula Musgrove, testified her daughter told her “I’m really sick. Something is wrong” in a text on Oct. 20, 2022, and that she asked “I don’t want to be alone.” Musgrove said her daughter was scared of sleeping alone, became increasingly paranoid, and believed the medications she was taking “were destroying her mind.”
That December, Lindsay Clancy told her mother and her then-husband that “she had thoughts of harming the children,” Musgrove said. Lindsay’s sister Allison Ozga testified that at the end of December, Lindsay told her she had experienced suicidal thoughts every day for a month.
The Defense’s Case: A Psychotic Break
The defense has argued that Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital, suffered from postpartum psychosis compounded by bipolar disorder, and that antidepressants prescribed after the birth of her third child worsened her condition. She was prescribed 13 different psychiatric medications in the four months before the killings.
Dr. Paul Zeizel, a clinical and forensic psychologist who visited Clancy in the hospital in early February 2023, testified that Clancy told her then-husband in a phone call that she heard a male voice ordering her to kill her children and then herself, as the New York Post reported.
“She told Patrick that she loved him very much,” Zeizel testified. “She said she heard a male voice ordering her, telling her that she didn’t have any choice, but she had to kill her children and kill herself.”
Zeizel, who has met with Clancy dozens of times since, testified that psychological testing administered by a government doctor found no evidence she was faking or exaggerating psychiatric symptoms. He also testified that psychotic symptoms can come and go and that a person experiencing psychosis can still perform ordinary activities such as making a phone call or driving a car.
The Prosecution’s Counterargument
Prosecutors argue that Clancy planned the killings and contrived to get her husband out of the house by sending him on errands. They have pointed to normal activities she performed that day, including taking her children to the doctor and playing with them in the snow.
“This was not a woman in the throes of psychosis,” prosecutor Shanan Buckingham told jurors. “This is not a public debate about women’s mental health and how the medical system treats women. This case is about this defendant, Lindsay Clancy.”
Prosecutors also highlighted that Clancy never told her psychiatrists about hearing voices before the killings, and noted her internet search for “Can you treat a sociopath?” four days before the killings.
A Case That Has Captured National Attention
Clancy’s livestreamed trial has generated intense public interest. Over the prior weeks, jurors visited the home where she killed her children and heard emotional testimony from Patrick Clancy, who described the horror of returning home to find his dead children. Prosecutors played a seven-minute 911 call in which he can be heard finding the bodies and telling a dispatcher, “She killed the kids!”
The case has also drawn attention to the broader issue of maternal mental health. As NPR reported, postpartum psychosis affects an estimated 1 to 2 women per 1,000 births and can include hallucinations, delusions, and paranoia. Most women with the condition do not harm their children.
Advocates say the case highlights gaps in mental health care for new mothers and the urgent need for more research and public education about a rarely discussed but severe illness. Doctors emphasize that if diagnosed correctly, it is treatable and patients can go on to live normal lives.
The case has drawn comparisons to the 2001 Andrea Yates case, in which a Texas mother who drowned her five children was found not guilty by reason of insanity in a retrial. Illinois is the only state with a law allowing for undiagnosed or untreated postpartum depression or postpartum psychosis to be a mitigating factor in sentencing.
What’s at Stake
If convicted of murder, Lindsay Clancy faces life in prison without parole. If found not guilty because of a lack of criminal responsibility, she would be committed to a state mental health facility.
Clancy, who has been held at Tewksbury State Hospital, remains paralyzed from the waist down. The defense is expected to continue calling witnesses, with forensic psychologist Dr. Paul Zeizel set to continue his testimony. The trial, now in its fourth week, shows no signs of concluding soon, and the jury’s verdict will likely hinge on how they weigh the competing narratives of a mother’s mental collapse versus a deliberate act.
If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, free and confidential help is available 24/7. Call or text the national suicide and crisis lifeline at 988.