00:00:17
She planned these murders, gave herself the time and privacy needed to commit the murders,
00:00:23
and then she strangled each child in the place where they should have felt the safest, at home with their mom.
00:00:31
>> This is not a situation you're going to bet was planned by any means. This is a
00:00:35
situation that clearly was a product of mental illness. >> That is the prosecution and the defense
00:00:42
at the 2023 arraignment of Lindsay Clancy. She's the former labor and delivery nurse who is accused of
00:00:49
murdering her three young children at their home in Duxbury, Massachusetts. That's a coastal suburb of Boston.
00:00:56
Lindsay attended the hearing remotely via video conference from her hospital bed where she was recovering from
00:01:01
injuries she sustained on the night of January 24th, 2023. I'm 48 Hours correspondent Natalie
00:01:09
Morales and this is case by case. Now, neither the prosecution nor the defense here dispute what happened that night,
00:01:17
that Lindsay Clancy killed her three children, 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson, and 8-month-old Callan. Now, the
00:01:25
question at the center of it all is why. Were Lindsay's actions premeditated or was she over-medicated and suffering
00:01:33
from postpartum mental health issues that led to this tragedy? Joining me today is Christina Rex, reporter and
00:01:40
anchor for Boston CBS station WBZ. She's been reporting on this case since the very beginning and she'll be covering
00:01:46
Lindsay's trial, which is set to start next week. Thank you for joining us, Christina.
00:01:52
>> Thanks so much for having me. >> And and when I say that you've been covering this case from the very
00:01:56
beginning, I mean, literally, you were there. You reported from the crime scene on the very night of the killings. Take
00:02:02
me back to that moment. >> Yeah, this case is so unique for me in my career because I followed it from its
00:02:08
inception. So, I was covering the night shift at the time it happened. So, I reported from outside of the Clancy home
00:02:14
in Duxbury that very night. And I remember personally seeing police officers actually crying, which is
00:02:20
something that I had never seen at a crime scene before. It was also an unusual case because Duxbury is a very
00:02:25
quiet, wealthy town where things like this don't usually happen. So, since then, I followed the case closely
00:02:31
attending most of the pre-trial hearings in person. >> So, Christina, before we get further
00:02:36
into our discussion, can you give our audience who may not be familiar with this case an overview? What happened on
00:02:43
the night of January 24th, 2023? >> Of course. So, prosecutors laid out a timeline of that night at Lindsay
00:02:50
Clancy's arraignment, which as a reminder, she attended remotely because she was in a hospital bed due to her
00:02:55
injuries from what had happened. So, prosecutors said that Lindsay asked her husband, Patrick, to leave their house
00:03:01
to pick up medication and take out food for dinner. Prosecutors alleged that she
00:03:06
researched online how long that trip would take. When Patrick returned home less than an hour later, he went
00:03:12
upstairs. He found the couple's bedroom door locked, and he said that he was able to unlock it. And inside the
00:03:18
bedroom, he noticed blood on the floor and an open window. So, Patrick then ran to the backyard, where he found his
00:03:25
wife, Lindsay, lying on the ground. And Lindsay had what appeared to be cuts on her neck and her wrists, but she was
00:03:31
still conscious. And at that point, Patrick called 911. >> Now, according to the prosecution, on
00:03:37
that 911 call, you can hear Patrick talking to his wife, right? >> Yeah, and just as a note, we've never
00:03:44
actually heard the 911 call, but it's been described in court motions, and we know that jurors are going to hear it as
00:03:50
part of evidence at trial. So, prosecutors have said that on the call, Patrick asked his wife what she had done
00:03:57
and that she allegedly replied, "I tried to kill myself and jumped out the window." Now, prosecutors said he can be
00:04:03
heard on the 911 call asking, "Where are the kids?" And he later told police that
00:04:08
Lindsay replied to him, "In the basement." So, after EMS and first responders arrived and were tending to
00:04:14
Lindsay, Patrick went to the basement and prosecutors said he can be heard still on the 911 call screaming. They
00:04:21
described it as in agony and in shock as he discovered his children. So, their 5-year-old daughter, Cora, their
00:04:28
3-year-old son, Dawson, they were declared dead that night. And then their 8-month-old son, Callan, he was
00:04:33
medevaced to a Boston hospital, but he died several days later. >> I mean, just a horrific and emotional
00:04:39
911 call, and the jury is going to be hearing that for the first time. Um Lindsay Clancy, she was hospitalized.
00:04:46
She was placed under police supervision following the killings. Now, according to her defense attorney, as a result of
00:04:53
that fall, she is permanently paralyzed from the waist down. So, I think when we're reviewing all the
00:05:00
facts, what we know of the facts in this case, you know, the first question on everyone's mind is
00:05:06
why would a mother kill her three children? >> And it's not just the first question on
00:05:11
everyone's mind, right? It's going to be the question of this trial. And we really can't answer it definitively, but
00:05:17
we know that Patrick Clancy, he did file a wrongful death lawsuit in January of this year against some of Lindsay's
00:05:24
health care providers, and that may give us some insight into Lindsay's mental health struggles leading up to these
00:05:30
killings. So, I just want to tell you a little bit about that lawsuit. It it alleges, {quote} Prior to the alleged
00:05:36
murder, Lindsay sought medical treatment for her anxiety and increasingly poor and deteriorating mental health
00:05:42
condition. That lawsuit goes on to read, {quote} Ultimately, defendants' negligent treatment of Lindsey,
00:05:48
including their complete failure to recognize and address the radical erosion of her mental health, resulted
00:05:54
in tragedy, namely, allegations that Lindsey took the lives of her children." >> Um just such a horrific case again. I
00:06:02
mean, I just cannot overstate that. As of now, um that civil lawsuit is still ongoing. One of the defendants, though,
00:06:10
has responded in a court filing denying allegations that they provided substandard care.
00:06:17
>> Yeah, we also reached out to the other defendants for statements related to this case, and one of them, a regional
00:06:22
healthcare system, gave us a statement on behalf of themselves and their employee, who's also named in the
00:06:27
lawsuit, noting that they can't comment on specific allegations due to the ongoing litigation here. And we did not
00:06:33
hear back from the fourth defendant at the time of this recording. >> So, according to both Patrick and the
00:06:38
prosecution, Lindsey actually called Patrick from the hospital about 2 weeks after the killings, and she gave a
00:06:46
little more insight into what happened that night. >> Yeah, according to both Patrick and the
00:06:51
prosecution here, she allegedly told him that she heard a voice and had a moment
00:06:56
of psychosis. Now, according to the prosecution, she said that she heard a man's voice telling her to kill her kids
00:07:04
and herself because, quote, "It was her last chance." >> So, Lindsey was charged with the murders
00:07:13
of her three children in February of 2023. Now, leading up to the trial, both the
00:07:19
defense and the prosecution's medical experts have evaluated her mental health. Lindsey's defense attorney has
00:07:25
suggested that she was not only suffering from postpartum depression, but also possibly postpartum psychosis.
00:07:33
Now, I think most of us, Christina, have heard of postpartum depression. It's a type of depression that it can occur
00:07:38
after giving birth. You know, Callan is 8 months old at the time. Now, this is fairly common, apparently it affects one
00:07:45
in seven mothers. We don't hear often though about postpartum psychosis. How does that differ from postpartum
00:07:53
depression? >> Well, Natalie, it's very different. So, postpartum psychosis is also a mental
00:07:58
health condition that can occur soon after giving birth, but it's categorized by the medical community as a mental
00:08:04
health emergency that affects a person's sense of reality. It can cause hallucinations, delusions, paranoia, or
00:08:11
other behavioral changes. It's rare, estimated to affect about one or two in a thousand new mothers, and only a very
00:08:19
small percentage of those women go on to die by suicide or commit infanticide. Now, it's also worth noting that it is
00:08:27
both preventable and treatable. Medical experts say that those suffering with postpartum psychosis require inpatient
00:08:34
psychiatric care. That's where they can be continuously monitored by professionals to ensure that they stay
00:08:39
safe. >> So, different then of course than postpartum depression. And so, we know
00:08:44
that at this point Lindsay had been going to doctors, she had been getting treatment, right?
00:08:51
>> Yeah, she had been getting treatment, and we know that she was on a variety of
00:08:55
medications in this case. And as we mentioned, those two different diagnoses really are so different, and there
00:09:01
should be a lot of regular screenings for postpartum depression. I mean, I can speak from my own personal experience. I
00:09:08
had a baby just about 9 months ago now, and every appointment, including in the hospital, at the pediatrician, I was
00:09:15
always screened for any postpartum depression symptoms. I was very lucky that I didn't have symptoms. But as a
00:09:22
part of my reporting in this case, also a few years ago, I did some interviews with women who had experienced PPP,
00:09:28
that's postpartum psychosis. They were all part of this support organization for women who had experienced that. And
00:09:34
I I remember at the time one woman telling me that when she used to experience postpartum psychosis, she
00:09:41
would have these hallucinations that she had actually stabbed her baby, even though that had never happened and her
00:09:47
child was not harmed at all. And fortunately, those women who I spoke to as a part of that story got help and no
00:09:53
longer experienced those symptoms. >> Yeah, something that surprised me about this case was the statement that Patrick
00:10:00
made just days after the killings. Now, as we said, Patrick was the one he dis- covered his children in the basement. Um
00:10:08
he was with 8-month-old Callan when he was removed from life support, and he now of course is grieving the loss of
00:10:14
his three children and that life that he once knew. But just four days after the
00:10:19
killings, he posted a statement on a GoFundMe page that had been set up for medical bills and funeral expenses, and
00:10:26
he actually asked people to please forgive his wife. I mean, forgive his wife for the unthinkable.
00:10:33
>> Yeah, it was a stunning and really interesting aspect of the case at the time. So, Patrick's GoFundMe statement,
00:10:38
it was mainly about his children. He said the shock and the pain was relentless and that with the little
00:10:44
sleep he got, he dreamed about them on repeat. But he also wrote about Lindsey, and he said she was a loving wife, a
00:10:50
loving mother, and nurse. He said she loved being a nurse, but he said, "Quote, nothing matched her intense love
00:10:58
for our kids and dedication to being a mother. It was all she ever wanted." And he also asked others to join him in
00:11:05
forgiving his wife. So, he said their marriage was wonderful and it grew stronger even as her condition rapidly
00:11:11
worsened leading up to these killings. >> Now, Patrick was also asked about the status of his marriage in an extensive
00:11:18
interview that he did with the New Yorker back in 2024, right? >> Yeah, and at the time he said he
00:11:24
preferred not to comment out of deference to Lindsey, although his mother was quoted as saying, "He has to
00:11:30
come to terms with the fact that she's no longer part of anything. Quote, she's going to go her way and he's going to go
00:11:36
his. >> And I know some of our listeners are going to be surprised by Patrick's ability to forgive Lindsay. I mean, so
00:11:43
soon after the deaths of his children. But as we've touched on, he had additional insight into her mental
00:11:49
health struggles leading up to the killings. And he really opened up about those struggles in that 2024 New Yorker
00:11:57
article, right? >> Yeah, in addition to laying out Lindsay's treatment history and the
00:12:01
civil lawsuit that he filed against several medical professionals, Patrick also broke down Lindsay's history of
00:12:06
mental issues leading up to the night of the killings in that New Yorker interview that you mentioned. So,
00:12:11
according to Patrick, Lindsay began seeking out psychiatric support in September 2022 after giving birth to
00:12:18
their son Callan in May prior to that. So, she was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder and received a
00:12:24
prescription for Zoloft from a local psychiatrist as well as additional medication including Ativan after she
00:12:30
suffered from insomnia as a side effect. >> And just a reminder, in a recent court
00:12:34
filing, the psychiatrist denied allegations that she provided substandard care. So, what else did
00:12:41
Patrick detail in that interview? >> So, Patrick claims that over the next couple of months, Lindsay visited the
00:12:47
emergency room, attended virtual telehealth and in-person appointments with a perinatal psychiatric nurse
00:12:53
practitioner, and visited a facility that specializes in perinatal care. And she was prescribed several more
00:13:00
medications including Ambien and Seroquel, and various doctors said she should be okay or found that she had no
00:13:07
symptoms of postpartum depression actually. >> So, when I read the interview, I was
00:13:11
just struck when Patrick said that Lindsay actually told him she had had thoughts of wanting to die. She had also
00:13:17
had unwanted thoughts of harming the children. This is about a month before the killings. Now, Patrick says she told
00:13:25
him she needed to be admitted to a hospital. And so, she spent 5 days in an inpatient facility before being
00:13:32
discharged with a prescription apparently for an antidepressant. Now, according to Patrick, this was her 13th
00:13:39
medication in a span of 4 months. I mean, she was being heavily medicated and treated at this point, right?
00:13:47
>> Yeah, and that's part of her defense strategy as well, Natalie. But, according to the prosecution, when she
00:13:51
left the inpatient hospital, she denied having any more intrusive thoughts at that point. By mid-January, she seemed
00:13:58
to be improving and was back under the supervision of that first psychiatrist we talked about. And I also want to
00:14:03
mention that Patrick was never told that Lindsay shouldn't be left alone, according to the defense.
00:14:09
>> Now, Lindsay's treatment history is, of course, something that her defense lawyer has really emphasized as well.
00:14:14
You're going to be hearing this throughout the trial as it gets underway. But, here's a clip of her
00:14:18
defense attorney, Kevin Reddington, at her arraignment in February of 2023. >> The West to say
00:14:26
fails miserably in treating women with postpartum depression or even postpartum psychosis. It's medicate,
00:14:37
medicate, medicate. Throw the pills at you, and then see how it works. If it doesn't work, increase the dose or
00:14:43
decrease the dose. Then end up trying another combination of medications. >> Yeah, and Lindsay's most recent pretrial
00:14:50
hearing was actually just this week, and Kevin Reddington, her lawyer, reiterated
00:14:54
that same sentiment. So, Lindsay's defense lawyer, Mr. Reddington, he's a well-known defense lawyer here in
00:14:59
Massachusetts. He's a self-described kind of old-school lawyer. He even has a license plate on his car, famously, that
00:15:06
has the initials NG for not guilty. I should also mention that the arraignment, the prosecutors made pretty
00:15:12
much the opposite argument of what he did. They say Lindsay was of sound mind at the time of her children's deaths.
00:15:19
They pointed to evidence that she had looked up the restaurant for takeout on Apple Maps before sending Patrick to
00:15:24
pick up food, arguing that she had calculated how long he was going to be gone. >> And I hear that they also argued Lindsay
00:15:31
had not been diagnosed with postpartum depression, though they conceded that according to Patrick she had been
00:15:37
initially diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder. >> Yeah, that's right. They argue that she
00:15:43
had never used the word psychosis until after she had met with a doctor that was
00:15:48
hired by her defense team in this case. >> And I want to talk a little bit more about Lindsay Clancy's trial that is
00:15:53
getting underway this month. I mean she has been charged again with three counts
00:15:57
of first-degree murder. She's pleaded not guilty. Her defense lawyer has indicated he's going to pursue an
00:16:03
insanity defense. And what does the law say about when a defendant can be found not guilty by reason of insanity?
00:16:12
>> Well, in Massachusetts, somebody can be found not guilty by reason of insanity
00:16:15
if, due to mental illness, they couldn't control their actions, even if they did
00:16:20
understand what they were doing and they knew it was wrong. So, basically, the law not only considers whether Lindsay
00:16:26
knew what she was doing was wrong, but if she was able to act on that understanding at the time of these
00:16:32
killings. So, at Lindsay's arraignment, the prosecution suggested that her actions earlier that day, including
00:16:37
taking her daughter to a doctor's appointment, show that she was thinking lucidly, but some experts have noted
00:16:44
that evidence that Lindsay was acting rationally earlier in the day, and even evidence that she planned the killings,
00:16:50
possibly, is not enough to rule out temporary insanity. >> So, what would happen in Lindsay's case
00:16:57
if a jury were to find her not guilty by reason of insanity? >> So, according to legal analysts, it
00:17:03
wouldn't be the same as being acquitted. Lindsay's currently in a secure mental health facility here in Massachusetts,
00:17:09
so it's likely she would stay there and be evaluated periodically to determine whether it would be safe for her to be
00:17:15
released. But it is possible that she would stay in that facility for a very long time.
00:17:23
>> There have been several famous cases in the US of mothers killing their children. Can any of these other cases
00:17:30
be seen as perhaps benchmarks in this case? >> You are right that there have been so
00:17:35
many high-profile cases of women killing their children that could offer some insight, but most of them occurred
00:17:41
outside of Massachusetts, so they don't necessarily provide a legal benchmark for this case. The case that comes to
00:17:47
mind for me is the 2001 case of Andrea Yates. She drowned her five children in a bathtub at the family home in Texas,
00:17:54
and she said at the time that Satan ordered her to kill her children to save them from eternal damnation. She'd been
00:18:01
hospitalized with postpartum depression shortly before those killings. Now, initially, a jury did convict her of
00:18:07
capital murder, but they rejected the death sentence in that case. But, that verdict was later overturned, and a
00:18:14
second jury found Yates not guilty by reason of insanity. So, today, Yates remains at a mental health facility, and
00:18:21
she's repeatedly declined to seek release, meaning she chooses to remain under that psychiatric care.
00:18:27
>> And, you know, I think also back to the Susan Smith case. I mean, she killed her
00:18:31
two young sons in 1994 by rolling her car into a South Carolina lake while they were strapped in their car seats.
00:18:39
And, she initially claimed that a carjacker drove away with her sons, but when the truth came out, she was
00:18:45
convicted of their murders. >> That's right. She was convicted of murder, and the jury sentenced her to
00:18:51
life in prison, but again, not the death penalty in that case. >> You know, and it's interesting that in
00:18:55
both these cases, the women were spared the death penalty. I'm wondering if there is
00:19:00
a social or a cultural element at play with how the juries looked at these kinds of cases.
00:19:09
>> You know, interestingly, Philip Resnick, so he's a national expert on filicide,
00:19:14
he was retained by Lindsay Clancy's legal team. He evaluated her mental health. And in that New Yorker article
00:19:20
we talked about, he suggested that women who are accused of killing their children may actually benefit from
00:19:26
society's assumptions about a mother's unconditional love. So Resnick argued that many people believe a mother must
00:19:33
be insane to kill her child because no sane mother would ever do that. >> Yeah, and then on on the other hand, I
00:19:39
mean, this social expectations of mothers, does it make it harder for women who are struggling with We're
00:19:45
talking seriously struggling with mental health conditions to ask for help before
00:19:50
they reach a point a point of crisis? >> Yeah, I mean, absolutely. Researchers actually say social norms and
00:19:57
expectations around motherhood, that can leave women suffering with mental health
00:20:01
conditions feeling isolated or guilty. And the stigma around mental illness can make it harder for them to ask for help.
00:20:08
Speaking from my own experience, having again just had a baby 9 months ago, I was asked regularly about my own mental
00:20:16
health even at my daughter's appointments by the pediatrician. And I was always pointed to resources
00:20:22
if I was feeling depressed in any kind of way. So it did feel like there was an effort from doctors and nurses to kind
00:20:28
of reduce the stigma around asking for help if needed. But in Lindsay's case, she apparently actually turned to
00:20:34
strangers online for support in the months leading up to the killings. So for example, she was in a Facebook group
00:20:40
called I Am Not Alone, Postpartum Depression/Anxiety and Rage. But she didn't really share
00:20:47
the extent of her struggles with the other mothers in the town of Duxbury. >> I can't imagine also you being a new
00:20:54
mother reporting on this case as extensively as you did. I mean, it must be you know, just it must hit so much
00:21:01
harder in some ways, too. I mean, there's so many hormones and emotions that you're
00:21:06
dealing with, and then, you know, covering a case like this, wow. >> Yeah, absolutely. It's you know, I'll be
00:21:12
honest that I'm a bit anxious about seeing the evidence at trial. >> Yeah, going back to the to the case here
00:21:18
though. In a June 2026 pre-trial hearing, prosecutors revealed that Patrick Clancy will testify at his
00:21:25
wife's trial. Do you have any insights into what information he might share? >> Well, it's possible that Patrick will be
00:21:33
asked about his conversations with Lindsay, you know, both before and after the killings. We know from that
00:21:39
interview he did in the New Yorker that he says he and Lindsay spoke over the phone a few times following the deaths
00:21:45
of their children and he asked her in one of those calls if she had planned to kill their children and if if that's why
00:21:51
she had actually sent him out to get the takeout food and medicine that night. And according to Patrick, she said, "No,
00:21:57
it was just like a snap of the fingers." And Patrick also said he asked Lindsay why she looked up how long it would take
00:22:03
him to get to the restaurant and Lindsay told him she'd been concerned about him
00:22:07
getting stuck in rush hour traffic. >> Now, Lindsay's trial is set to start next week. The prosecution has listed
00:22:13
168 names that includes law enforcement, medical professionals, family members, also of course including Patrick. Now,
00:22:22
Patrick is also on the defense's witness list. With so many witnesses, I mean, do
00:22:27
we know how long this trial could last? >> So, there have been estimates at the pre-trial hearing earlier this week.
00:22:34
Lawyers estimated 6 to 8 weeks for this trial. And just remember, just because a
00:22:39
witness is listed, it doesn't mean either the Commonwealth or the defense will actually call them to the stand.
00:22:46
They have to send in a list of any potential witnesses. We do know in the case of Patrick, he could be called by
00:22:51
the Commonwealth for example by prosecutors and then just cross-examined by the defense. It doesn't mean the
00:22:56
defense will then also call him as a witness. >> And what do What do know about the
00:23:00
possibility of whether or not Lindsay Clancy will testify in her own defense? >> She's not on the defense's witness list,
00:23:08
but Lindsay has attended her recent pre-trial hearings in person. So, she does plan to attend the entire trial in
00:23:15
person as well. Now, she's paralyzed from the waist down and she's wheelchair-bound now because of what
00:23:22
happened that night back in 2023. She gets full-time care at a Massachusetts hospital for people with mental and
00:23:28
physical illnesses. In the pre-trial hearing earlier this week, Lindsay's lawyer said she does intend to be
00:23:34
present for the full trial, but it is unusual for a criminal defendant to take the stand. So, I would be shocked if she
00:23:42
testifies. >> Yeah, and now is there anything else we should be looking out for at trial?
00:23:47
>> I think that really Patrick's testimony is going to be what people are looking
00:23:52
to see. He's He's the closest thing to a first-hand witness of what happened that
00:23:57
night with the exception of Lindsay, of course. And the judge also did rule in this case that he's going to allow
00:24:02
Patrick's 911 call to be played for the jury after he provides what's called a limiting instruction. So, that
00:24:08
instruction typically directs jurors to consider that recording only for its evidentiary value and not to be swayed
00:24:16
by the emotional impact it might cause. And one other thing is just in the final
00:24:21
pre-trial hearing this week, the judge denied a motion from the defense. Kevin Reddington, the defense attorney,
00:24:27
actually wanted to introduce testimony from over a dozen witnesses who have personally experienced postpartum
00:24:34
psychosis and postpartum depression, but had no direct connection to this case. Prosecutors challenged that motion and
00:24:40
the judge ruled that just expert testimony on that issue would suffice here. >> So, for the jury, it really all will
00:24:47
come down to what they believe was Lindsay Clancy's state of mind at the time that she killed her three children.
00:24:57
So, I imagine there's going to be a lot of medical evaluation, a lot of talk about the differences between postpartum
00:25:05
depression, postpartum psychosis, and that's what the jury is going to have to decide here, right, Christina?
00:25:12
>> Exactly. And really whether they believe that Lindsey understood that what she
00:25:16
was doing was wrong or if she had the ability to act on that understanding. And I think, you know, jury selection is
00:25:23
always so important in criminal trials and murder trials, but in this case with just how emotional the evidence is going
00:25:30
to be and the fact that it involves the deaths of children, I think jury selection could take a long time for
00:25:35
that reason. >> There, yeah, I I imagine it would. Um Christina Rex, so nice to have you with
00:25:41
us. This is just a horrific, tragic case. I can't imagine, um you know, being a a new mother
00:25:48
yourself having to, you know, report on this case, but we really appreciate what
00:25:53
you're doing and and thanks for sharing your thoughts with us today. >> Of course, thank you so much for having
00:25:58
me. >> Now, we do want to use this opportunity to say that if you or someone you know
00:26:02
may be experiencing a mental health crisis, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by simply dialing or texting
00:26:11
988. If you are pregnant or have just had a baby, you can dial or text the National
00:26:17
Maternal Mental Health Hotline at 1-833-TLC-Mama. And we will be back next week with
00:26:26
another episode of Case by Case. Be sure to rate and review and let us know which
00:26:30
cases you are following and which cases you would like us to follow.