Postpartum psychosis. Yes, it is a severe condition that is an elevated form of post-partum depression, but is it an excuse to kill their children? That cannot be right. Medications, therapy, and constant love are something post-natal mothers need to get through the post-partum disorder stage. However, their psychosis is no reason to kill off the children who are giving them the disorder in the first place.
A crime that shook Massachusettes back in January, whereby a mother, Lindsay Clancy, strangled her three children before attempting suicide herself. However, People reported new evidence in court documents alleging that Clancy’s move on her children was deliberate, as signaled from her search engine history, ‘ways to kill,’ which she searched before the incident.
People previously reported the case where Clancy, 33, faced three counts each of murder and strangulation for the January killings of her kids, Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and 7-month-old Callan, after being indicted by a Plymouth County grand jury in September.
On the evening of Jan. 24, in their family home in Duxbury, Massachusettes, prosecutors allege Clancy strangled each of them to death with an exercise band while her husband, Patrick Clancy, stepped out to run a couple of errands. WCVB-TV, MassLive, and The Boston Globe reported new evidence via People that shows contents of newly unsealed court documents, including search warrants and accompanying affidavits detailing the evidence that was recovered from the former nurse’s home.
The Boston Globe addresses and People reports, “Investigators are also aware that Ms. Clancy used her cellular telephone 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, which means that [it] is reasonable to conclude that Ms. Clancy would have used all formats and tools available to her including a tablet.” People stated that the nearly 300 pages of the document do not uncover the details of the searches conducted by Clancy.
According to Clancy’s attorney back in February, her initial defense stance was that she was severely overmedicated with psychiatric drugs and inadequately treated for the postpartum mental illnesses she was allegedly experiencing in the months leading up to the suspected killings and thus could not be held liable for her alleged actions.
Newly unsealed documents, as per Boston Globes reports via People, state that Clancy’s husband, Patrick, said she had been prescribed Zoloft, Valium, Trazodone, Ativan, Klonopin, Prozac, and Seroquel and took at least four prescriptions a day. Prosecutors alleged that post committing the murders in the basement, Clancy locked herself in her bedroom, slit her wrists, and jumped off the bedroom window. Her husband returned home to find his three children in the basement with exercise bands wrapped around their necks and his wife seriously injured in the backyard.
People report that while Callan was treated at the Boston Children’s Hospital for several days before he succumbed to his injuries, Cora and Dawson were taken to the hospital and pronounced dead that day, per the prosecutors. As a result of the jump from her window, Clancy has been hospitalized, and she has been paralyzed from the waist down.
Reddington, Clancy’s defense attorney, said that she was feeling detached and emotionless toward her kids in the weeks leading up to the murder and had “been unable to express any happiness, or sadness, or cry.” Reddington had earlier stated via People, “Right up to the very end when she was so bad that [Clancy] voluntarily turned herself in” to a Boston psychiatric hospital in early January, where she allegedly spent five days before returning home.
In a GoFundMe created for the family, Patrick wrote about his three children and asked the people to forgive his wife. Patrick wrote on Jan. 28, “The shock and pain is excruciating and relentless. I’m constantly reminded of them, and with the little sleep I get, I dream about them on repeat,” adding, “Cora, Dawson, and Callan were the essence of my life and I’m completely lost without them.”
According to The Boston Globe, reported via People, Clancy is expected to be arraigned Thursday at Tewksbury Hospital, where she has been receiving mental health treatment.
Content Warning: This story discusses sensitive topics, including suicide, that may be triggering for some readers. If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, please seek help immediately. In the United States, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255). In other countries, please refer to local helplines or mental health resources. Reader discretion is advised.