PLYMOUTH, Mass. – The former husband of a Massachusetts woman on trial for killing their three young children is expected to return to the stand Wednesday, continuing his testimony about a day that began with art projects and playtime in the snow and ended with him coming home to find the bodies.
Prosecutors say Lindsay Clancy strangled her children — Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months — on Jan. 24, 2023, after sending her then-husband, Patrick, out for some errands. She then used multiple methods to try to end her own life and was paralyzed from the waist down after jumping from the home’s second-story window.
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Whether Clancy killed the children is not in dispute. But her attorney argues that she was driven by postpartum psychosis, a rare mental illness linked to the stress, sleep deprivation and hormonal changes that follow childbirth. Prosecutors contend that she acted intentionally and bears full responsibility for the deaths.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988.
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Patrick Clancy has said in interviews that he forgives his ex-wife, whom he viewed as ill rather than evil.
He was the first witness to take the stand Monday, when he testified about his former wife's deteriorating mental health in the months before the killings, including describing intrusive thoughts of harming the children and of suicide. But he said she appeared to be doing better as recently as two weeks before the murders.
Patrick Clancy closed out that testimony by going through the day of the deaths, which he said started as one of her “best days.” Lindsay Clancy took Cora to a doctor’s appointment and then returned home to build a snowman with her children and work on art projects.
If convicted of murder, Lindsay Clancy faces life in prison without parole. If found not guilty due to a lack of criminal responsibility, she would be committed to a state mental health facility.
The trial took a break Tuesday before resuming Wednesday.