PLYMOUTH, Mass. — Duxbury mother Lindsay Clancy started her day on Tuesday, Jan. 24 as any mother would, by taking one of her three young children to the pediatrician for a morning appointment, according to court documents and a local prosecutor.
There were no immediate concerns about the demeanor or behavior of the 32-year-old Clancy, who left the pediatrician’s office with her daughter and returned home, where she took her children outside to play in the snow, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said in Plymouth District Court on Tuesday.
Once outside, her children built a snowman. Clancy texted photographs of the children playing to her mother and to her husband, Patrick Clancy.
“Nothing in the texts was out of the ordinary,” Sprague said.
But later that day, prosecutors allege that Clancy, using exercise bands, fatally strangled her three children: 5-year-old daughter, Cora, her 3-year-old son, Dawson, and her 8-month-old baby, Callan. The elder children were pronounced dead that day; the infant died days later.
On Tuesday, Lindsay Clancy was Zoomed into Plymouth District Court and arraigned on charges of murder, strangulation or suffocation, and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, an exercise band, in the deaths of her three children. During her arraignment, Clancy lay in a hospital bed, wearing a white mask and a neck brace.
Lindsay tried to kill herself by jumping out of a second-story window at her home, and suffered serious spinal injuries that left her paralyzed, said her defense attorney, Kevin Reddington. He said in court that Lindsay had been fighting mental health issues and had been overmedicated as she sought treatment.
“This is not a situation that was planned by any means. This is a situation that clearly is a product of mental illness,” Reddington argued in court.
Below is a timeline of the events of Jan. 24, as outlined in court documents and by Sprague in court:
4:02 p.m.: Lindsay Clancy searched “kids Miralax” on her cell phone.
4:13 p.m.: Lindsay searched “take out 3v” on her cell phone. She used Apple Maps on her phone “to determine the time it would take someone to travel from her home in Duxbury to ThreeV in Plymouth,” according to court documents.
4:47 p.m.: Lindsay searched for the CVS website, and called CVS at 189 Summer St. in Kingston, and asked the manager if they had children’s Miralax.
4:53 p.m.: Lindsay texted her husband, Patrick, who was working in his home office in the basement of their home. She texted, “Any chance you want to do takeout from 3V... I didn’t cook anything... It’s beena long day.” Patrick texted back, “Yes.” Lindsay asked him to check the menu.
5:06 p.m.: Patrick asked her what she’s going to order for food. She responded that she’d get the “mediterranean power bowl.” Patrick responded that he wanted the “scallop and pork belly risotto.”
5:10 p.m.: Lindsay called ThreeV restaurant in Plymouth to order food, and gave Patrick’s name for pickup.
5:15 p.m.: Lindsay texted the words “Pedialax liquid stool softener” to her husband, and she sent her husband out to run these errands.
5:32 p.m.: Surveillance video shows Patrick Clancy at the CVS on Summer Street in Kingston, where he went to the children’s medication aisle.
5:33 p.m.: A call from Patrick to Lindsay’s cell was unanswered.
5:34 p.m.: Lindsay called Patrick. The call lasted 14 seconds. He confirmed with Lindsay which medication to get. He checked out at the register, and left the CVS three minutes later.
5:54 p.m.: Patrick arrived at ThreeV restaurant in Plymouth, paid for food, and headed home.
6:09 p.m.: After arriving home, there was “silence,” and Patrick did not see or hear Lindsay or the children. Patrick called Lindsay again while looking for her. The call was not answered.
Patrick Clancy then went to his bedroom on the second floor, and found the door locked. He saw blood on the floor and noticed an open window, according to court documents.
He ran outside to the backyard, and found Lindsay on the ground, conscious and with cuts to her wrists and neck. He called 911.
He asked Lindsay: “What did you do?” She responded, “I tried to kill myself and jumped out the window.”
During the 911 call, Patrick was heard asking his wife, “Where are the kids?” He later told police that she replied, “In the basement.”
When emergency crews arrived, Patrick asked them to stay with Lindsay because he had to find his kids, according to court documents.
While still on the 911 call, Patrick was heard entering the home and heading to the basement.
“Guys?” Patrick called out.
He then began screaming in “shock and agony as he found his children,” who were on the floor, according to court documents.
“Each child still had the exercise band that was used to strangle them tied around their necks when their father found them,” said Sprague, the prosecutor.
Sprague said Lindsay planned the murders of her children and “She used Apple Maps to make sure she would have enough time to strangle each child before her husband returned from where she had sent him,” Sprague said.
Lindsay “is a danger to herself and others,” Sprague said. “She planned these murders, gave herself the time and privacy needed to commit the murders, and then strangled each child in the place where they should have been safest -- their home. She did so with deliberate premeditation and extreme atrocity and cruelty.”
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