DUXBURY, Mass. — Lindsay Clancy, the mother accused of killing her three children inside their home in Duxbury before attempting to take her own life in January 2023, plans to pursue an insanity defense, court documents show.
In a Plymouth Superior Court filing dated Dec. 13, 2024, defense attorney Kevin J. Reddington wrote that “statements of the defendant as to her mental condition will be relied upon by defendant’s expert witnesses and the defendant does intend to present to the court a defense of lack of criminal responsibility.”
Lindsay Clancy Doc 1 by Boston 25 Staff on Scribd
Massachusetts’ model jury instructions on homicide state that a defendant’s “lack of criminal responsibility must be due to a mental disease or defect.” It also states that a person is not guilty if they lacked criminal responsibility when they committed the offense, sometimes referred to as “not guilty by reason of insanity.”
Clancy, 33, is charged with three counts of murder and strangulation in the deaths of her 5-year-old daughter, Cora, her 3-year-old son, Dawson, and her 8-month-old baby, Callan. She has pleaded not guilty.
Since the tragedy unfolded inside the family’s Summer Street home on the evening of Jan. 24, 2023, Reddington has maintained that Clancy, whom he has described as a “troubled soul,” had been suffering from postpartum depression and that she was overmedicated at the time of the deaths of her three kids.
Prosecutors say Clancy used exercise bands to strangle her kids before jumping out of a window in a suicide attempt. Court documents also revealed that Clancy used her cell phone and her journal to document her mental state and her feelings about her children, in addition to keeping track of her medications and researching ways to kill.
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Prior to the deaths of the kids, Clancy used maps on her phone to determine how long it would take to go to and from a restaurant and then texted her husband, Patrick, who was working in his home office, to pick up a takeout order.
Patrick agreed to pick up the food and while he was gone, his wife allegedly took the lives of their children. In February 2023, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague described in court the moment Patrick returned home with the takeout order.
Patrick was heard “screaming in agony and shock” as he located his children, face down on the floor, with the bands used to strangle them tied around their necks, according to Sprague. “He yells out, ‘She killed the kids!’” Sprague added.
Clancy, who was ordered to be committed at Tewksbury State Hospital in May 2023, suffered serious spinal injuries that left her paralyzed when she jumped from the window.
In another Plymouth Superior Court filing dated Dec. 13, 2024, Second Assistant District Attorney Jennifer L. Sprague requested a September trial date.
“While DNA testing results and reports from experts our outstanding, it is reasonably believed that this discovery will be complete well in advance of September of 2025,” Sprague wrote in the filing.
Lindsay Clancy Doc 2 by Boston 25 Staff on Scribd
Patrick Clancy, Lindsay’s husband, told The New Yorker in an interview published in October 2024 that he didn’t blame Lindsay for what happened and didn’t express anger with her.
“I wasn’t married to a monster. I was married to someone who got sick,” Patrick said in the interview.
The Clancy case is slated to return to court on Wednesday.
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