Patrick Clancy Expected to Testify in Defense of Wife Accused in Deaths of Three Children

Lindsay Clancy, a 35-year-old former nurse from Massachusetts, faces trial this week in connection with the deaths of her three young children: Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months. Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday morning at Plymouth Superior Court, with more than 200 potential witnesses identified for the proceeding. Among those expected to testify is Clancy’s husband, Patrick, who will support his wife’s defense strategy.

The Clancys have contended that psychiatric providers misdiagnosed Lindsay’s condition and administered inappropriate medications that triggered auditory hallucinations instructing her to harm her children. Patrick Clancy has corroborated accounts of his wife’s deteriorating mental state in the months preceding the January 24, 2023 deaths. The couple’s legal position centers on allegations of medical negligence and failure to recognize escalating postpartum psychosis.

According to an amended complaint filed in Norfolk Superior Court, Clancy alleges a network of psychiatric providers failed to properly diagnose bipolar disorder with postpartum onset and prescribed a changing regimen of medications that worsened her condition. The lawsuit names Tufts, Diaz, Jollotta, Dr. Alia Goodheart, Aster Mental Health, South Shore Health System, McLean Hospital and Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island as defendants. Clancy has pleaded not guilty in the criminal case.

The complaint details Clancy’s mental health decline beginning after Callan’s birth in May 2022. By approximately 12 weeks postpartum, she experienced severe anxiety, depression, exhaustion and insomnia, sleeping only a few hours nightly. The lawsuit asserts these symptoms warranted concern for antidepressant-induced activation and possible bipolar disorder but were instead addressed through uncoordinated medication changes.

In late November 2022, after taking Remeron, Clancy allegedly experienced dissociation and disorientation. Days later, following initiation of Seroquel, she allegedly developed suicidal ideation and began hearing voices. Patrick Clancy contacted a nurse practitioner’s office on December 15 reporting his wife had suffered a “devastating week” and was hearing voices continuously.

Lindsay Clancy received treatment at Massachusetts General Hospital on December 20 and subsequently entered a partial hospitalization program at Women & Infants Hospital in Rhode Island. She admitted herself to McLean Hospital on New Year’s Eve and remained on a locked unit with suicide monitoring before discharge on January 5 following a five-day stay. The lawsuit claims she continued to deteriorate in outpatient care thereafter.

On January 16, Clancy allegedly reported hallucinations commanding her to harm the children and herself. A provider prescribed Amitriptyline, another antidepressant, according to the complaint. On January 23, her dosage was increased, and that night she did not sleep, the lawsuit states.

The following day, Clancy allegedly entered a dissociative state after hearing a commanding voice instructing her to kill the children as her “last chance” before taking her own life. She subsequently strangled the children and attempted suicide through medication overdose, wrist and neck lacerations, and jumping from a second-floor window. Cora and Dawson died that day; Callan died three days later.

The civil complaint seeks damages for Clancy’s physical injuries, psychological trauma, medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering, permanent disability and loss of consortium. Trial proceedings commence with jury selection at 9 a.m. Monday, July 20 at Plymouth Superior Court.