Emily Thorndike, a licensed independent clinical social worker, previously worked at the same inpatient hospital where Lindsay Clancy was treated before the deaths of her three children.
In a since-viral TikTok video, she spoke about her experience of the staffing levels at McLean Hospital and took issue with the prosecution’s depiction of the care they provided. Having seen the video, Clancy’s attorney Kevin Reddington proposed she testify as a witness for the defense, and she took part in a voir dire session on Aug. 19.
Although the judge found Thorndike credible, he declined to let her testify, citing in part the “limited materiality” of her proposed testimony. Thorndike left McLean Hospital in December 2021, more than a year before Clancy’s five-day inpatient stay there.
In an exclusive interview with Oxygen, Thorndike discussed her reaction to the closely watched trial, which ended in a mistrial after jurors reported an 11-to-1 deadlock.
“My initial reaction to the mistrial, like the first emotion that comes to mind, is disappointment,” she said, “and I think primarily in the context of this one juror who was holding out.”
Still, despite her disappointment with the outcome, Thorndike said she remains optimistic about a potential retrial.
“I hold out hope,” she said. “In my opinion, this one juror, I wish he could have been literally excused from this; but in my mind, he’s excused.”
The mental health professional added, “I’m hopeful that we can find a jury who will give a verdict under the law and using the facts.”
Thorndike also said she believes Lindsay Clancy, who is accused of killing the three children she shared with her former husband, Patrick Clancy, should have been acquitted.
“I don’t think it ended in the way that’s morally right, in my opinion,” she said. “I think she should have been found not guilty by reason of insanity.”
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Oxygen contacted McLean Hospital for comment. Prosecutors declined to comment when reached by Oxygen.
What Was Lindsay Clancy Accused Of?
Lindsay’s murder trial centered on the harrowing events of Jan. 24, 2023: the day she acknowledges she killed her and Patrick’s kids—5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson and 8-month-old Callan—in their Duxbury, Mass., home.
As Patrick testified, that evening, Lindsay requested that he drive to a local CVS pharmacy to pick up medication, then to a nearby restaurant to grab takeout for dinner. When he returned home, he found her lying in the backyard after jumping out a second-story window in a suicide attempt. In their basement, he discovered Cora, Dawson and Callan strangled with exercise bands, and all three passed away from the attack.
In their opening statement, the prosecution argued that during the time frame that Patrick was out of the house, Lindsay executed the children’s killings with “deliberate premeditation and extreme atrocity and cruelty.”
“This was not a woman in the throes of psychosis on Jan. 24, 2023,” Plymouth County Assistant District Attorney Shanan Buckingham told jurors. “This was a woman who acted intentionally, rationally and swiftly to accomplish a very specific goal: to kill.”
“This was a woman who no longer liked the life she thought she wanted,” she added. “It was getting harder and harder to control, and when she saw the opportunity to escape, she made the selfish choice to take it, and to take Cora, Dawson and Callan first before attempting to take her own life.”
What Was Lindsay Clancy’s Defense?
Lindsay’s defense attorney Kevin Reddington did not dispute she killed the children, but he argued that her actions were driven by postpartum psychosis, not malice, and that she was therefore unable to understand the wrongfulness of them.
“This is a woman that was suffering from psychosis at the time that she went down to that basement,” he told jurors during his opening statement. “She had no motive. She loved her children. She intended to kill herself. She didn’t fake that.”