The trial began Monday for Massachusetts mother Lindsay Clancy, who is accused of killing her three children in what prosecutors told jurors was a planned attack, but defense attorneys said was the result of a postpartum psychotic episode.
Ms. Clancy faces murder charges in the January 2023 strangulations of 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson and Callan, who was just 8 months old. Authorities say after the killings she leapt from a second-story window in the family’s Duxbury home, leaving her paralyzed.
Ms. Clancy, 35, pleaded not guilty to the three counts of murder as her defense team said she suffered from severe mental illness stemming from postpartum depression. The defendant could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted on the charges.
But prosecutors portrayed Ms. Clancy’s actions as deliberate during the trial’s opening statements Monday in Plymouth Superior Court.
“This was not a woman in the throes of psychosis,” Plymouth County prosecutor Shanan Buckingham said in court. “This is a woman who acted intentionally, rationally and swiftly with a very specific goal — to kill.”
Prosecutors said Ms. Clancy timed how long her husband was going to be out of the house to run errands on Jan. 24, 2023, so she could take the kids into the basement and kill them.
“She separates Dawson from Cora and Callan, and then she proceeds to wrap exercise bands around each child’s neck and then pull until they are dead,” prosecutor Jennifer Sprague said.
Ms. Sprague said the defendant then went upstairs and launched herself out of the window in an attempt to take her own life.
Patrick Clancy arrived home a short time later and discovered his children’s bodies in the basement, prosecutors said.
Cora and Dawson were pronounced dead after being rushed to a hospital, but Callan had a faint heartbeat. He died three days later, never regaining brain activity.
Ms. Clancy’s defense attorney Kevin Reddington described the mother as a woman at her wit’s end following a lengthy battle with postpartum psychosis.
He said Ms. Clancy sought medical help for her condition nearly 20 times between September 2022 and January 2023 before she ultimately killed her children.
“She was so depressed,” Mr. Reddington said in his opening statement. “She couldn’t laugh, she couldn’t cry, she couldn’t have any feelings. She was … an absolute zombie.”
Mr. Clancy testified Monday about his wife’s deteriorating condition in the months before their kids were strangled.
He said Ms. Clancy struggled with anxiety after being separated from the children when she had to go back to work as a nurse.
Mr. Clancy, who divorced the defendant and remarried, said Ms. Clancy’s mental health took a nosedive around Thanksgiving 2022.
“She wasn’t talking much, she had low energy, she was really depressed,” Mr. Clancy said, who added that the couple even skipped going out for their anniversary that December because of Ms. Clancy’s condition.
Once Ms. Clancy began taking Seroquel, a drug used to treat depression as well as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, he said her “big spiral started.”
Mr. Clancy said she lost weight and her depression worsened. It was also when she first shared that she was suicidal, her ex-husband said.
He testified that he took his wife to treatment centers after she shared that she told her father that she wanted to die and “it didn’t bother her.”
Mr. Clancy said the couple also talked about her “intrusive thoughts,” such as hurting the children.
The trial is expected to last several weeks.
