Patrick Clancy has spoken publicly for the first time since his former wife Lindsay Clancy’s case ended in a controversial mistrial, revealing that he experienced suicidal thoughts after the deaths of their three children.
In an emotional interview with 60 Minutes, Patrick described the devastation that followed after Lindsay strangled their children—five-year-old Cora, three-year-old Dawson and eight-month-old Callan—before attempting to take her own life in January 2023.
Patrick, who discovered the children in the basement of the family’s suburban Massachusetts home, said his world abruptly lost its meaning.
“There was no family routine, no bedtime stories, no purpose. Everything just came to a screeching halt,” he said, becoming visibly emotional.
He recalled driving past his children’s school one day at the same time their classmates were being picked up. “I just couldn’t be there anymore,” Patrick said.
The 38-year-old father said the overwhelming grief led to suicidal thoughts, adding that he once felt indifferent about whether he would live to see another birthday.
“There was a time when I didn’t think I would live to see my 35th birthday, and I was completely fine with it,” he told the program.
Patrick also discussed the lasting impact of Lindsay Clancy’s trial, which unfolded three years after the children’s deaths. At the same time, he spoke about rebuilding his life and his plans to start a family with his new wife, Dr. Rachel Danis.
Patrick Clancy gave 60 Minutes his first interview since Lindsay Clancy’s case ended in a controversial mistrial
Patrick Clancy pictured with Cora, Dawson and baby Callan before the children died in January 2023
The case drew intense attention across the United States when Lindsay Clancy went on trial in July, facing three counts of first-degree murder.
On the evening of January 24, 2023, the 36-year-old labor and delivery nurse asked Patrick to leave their home in the affluent Massachusetts town of Duxbury to collect medication from CVS and pick up a restaurant order.
Prosecutors said that while Patrick was away, Lindsay used exercise bands to strangle the children in the basement.
She then attempted suicide by cutting her wrists and neck before jumping from a second-story bedroom window.
Cora and Dawson were pronounced dead that night, while Callan was found with a heartbeat.
The baby survived for four more days before dying in Patrick’s arms.
“I’m so grateful for those four days I had with him. And I’m so grateful he hung on,” Patrick said during the 60 Minutes interview.
Lindsay survived the fall but was left paralyzed from the waist down.
The mother of three has never denied killing her children. However, she pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, arguing that she was experiencing severe postpartum depression and psychosis at the time.
Her six-week trial in Plymouth, Massachusetts, fueled a wider international debate over postpartum mental illness, criminal responsibility and how the justice system should handle such cases.
Ultimately, after seven days of deliberations, a mistrial was declared on September 4 after the 12 jurors failed to reach a unanimous verdict.
In an unprecedented move, it emerged during deliberations that a lone male holdout – since identified as Michael P Desronvil – was refusing to join the other 11 in finding her not guilty by reason of insanity.
Several jurors have since spoken out to accuse him of showing reasonable doubt but refusing to apply it to the law. Desronvil has hired an attorney and released a statement pushing back on their claims, saying he believed Clancy ‘knew exactly what she was doing.’
Patrick Clancy suffered a panic attack at the courthouse as he gave testimony in his ex-wife Lindsay Clancy’s trial
Lindsay Clancy stood trial in July in Plymouth, Massachusetts, for the January 2023 killings of her children
READ MORE: LINDSAY CLANCY COVERAGE
Speaking to 60 Minutes, Patrick revealed that the trauma of testifying at Clancy’s trial took its toll and caused him to suffer a panic attack inside the courthouse in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
‘We did take a break right before they played the 911 call, which I knew was going to be just horrific,’ he said.
‘And I went to a back room, and I started having this massive traumatic panic attack. My heart was pounding.’
Patrick said he was put in an ambulance and offered medication, but turned it down, insisting he wanted to resume testifying.
‘I want to finish this so I can be done with this,’ he said of that moment.
Inside the courthouse that day, the Daily Mail had seen emergency responders entering the room beside the courtroom during a recess, with dispatch audio referring to a juror suffering a panic attack.
When proceedings resumed, all jurors returned but Patrick did not. His testimony was put on pause and two brief witnesses took the stand instead before he returned a few hours later.
Throughout his hours-long testimony, Patrick repeatedly struggled to contain his emotions, trembling at points, taking deep breaths and wiping away tears as he relived the painful memories.
Patrick testified how Clancy had asked him to go to collect a takeout order and medicine that evening.
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He returned home to find the house ‘really quiet’ before discovering his wife lying injured in the back yard.
In one of the most harrowing moments of the trial, jurors heard Patrick’s gut-wrenching 911 call capturing the moment that he found the bodies of his children in the basement.
Cora, five, Dawson, three, and eight-month-old Callan were strangled at the family home in January 2023
Patrick Clancy told 60 Minutes that he felt suicidal after his children’s deaths in January 2023
Patrick’s primal, unearthly screams could be heard in the call before he cried out: ‘She killed the kids!’
The call has not been publicly released with only the jurors and a small handful of members of the public and reporters inside the courtroom that day, including the Daily Mail, hearing it.
In the absence of its release – and claims that Patrick appeared stoic on the stand when viewed through the livestream – the grieving father faced a slew of vile conspiracies and rumors online.
His testimony was picked apart by internet sleuths with some going as far as to accuse him of possible involvement in his children’s deaths.
Patrick told 60 Minutes correspondent Ross Douthat that the rampant conspiracies are ‘painful’ and a ‘huge distraction’ from the issues at the heart of the tragedy.
‘It’s deeply harmful to the legacy of my children. It is a huge distraction from what really matters here, which is perinatal mental health. And it’s done real harm to real people, myself included but also others,’ he said.
‘It’s painful to see. And it makes it difficult to be in public and it’s possible that some of those people after seeing lie after lie after lie, they start to believe it and that’s what we’re left with.’
The 38-year-old’s attorney has since issued a legal warning to conspiracy theorists that ‘this spread of blatant and baseless falsehoods must stop’ or ‘there will be consequences.’
Patrick told 60 Minutes that he had spoken with postpartum mental illness experts and psychiatrists since the tragedy to learn what had taken place.
At the time of Clancy’s spiraling mental health, Patrick said he didn’t know anything about postpartum mental illness.
Patrick Clancy and his new wife, Dr Rachel Danis, met while running in Central Park, she has revealed to 60 Minutes
He recalled noticing a big change in Clancy’s mental health around fall 2022.
‘She went a few nights without sleeping,’ he said. ‘She came downstairs one morning and she said, “I didn’t sleep at all last night.”‘
Her mental health deteriorated further in December before she entered a psychiatric hospital for five days from New Year’s Day 2023. Just 17 days after she was discharged, Clancy killed the children.
Patrick said he now realizes there are ‘things that I didn’t see.’
When asked if he was angry with himself or felt like he had failed in some way, Patrick told correspondent Ross Douthat: ‘I think I did the best I could with what I had at the time, and I live with the outcome. I live with it every day, but I think I did the best I could.’
For Patrick, a move away from Duxbury to New York City in April 2023 – three months after the killings – was the start of him rebuilding his life, he told 60 Minutes.
Five weeks later, on May 26, it was what should have been Callan’s first birthday.
‘How do you celebrate your son’s first birthday months after he’s passed away?’ he said, choking up with emotion.
‘And so I go to St. Patrick’s Cathedral. I light a candle, and I say, “I love you, buddy.” And I walk out on Fifth Avenue and I start crying my eyes out. And nobody cared.’
The following January, he met Dr Rachel Danis at a run club in Manhattan’s Central Park.
The Daily Mail exclusively revealed in July that the couple wed this April in an intimate ceremony at the historic Ladies Pavilion overlooking Central Park’s lake before celebrating with family and friends at Sarabeth’s restaurant.
Patrick with Cora. He returned home to find his wife lying injured in the back yard and his children dead
Joining Patrick in the 60 Minutes interview, Rachel said that she tries to ‘take some of the weight’ from her husband’s grief.
The couple also revealed that they are starting a family together and ‘can’t wait to tell [their children’ about their brothers and sister.’
While Patrick tries to rebuild his life, Clancy’s criminal case now hangs in the balance after the mistrial was declared earlier this month.
Plymouth County District Attorney Tim Cruz is yet to reveal whether or not his office plans to try her a second time – and whether on the same or lesser charges.
Clancy’s defense attorney Kevin Reddington has filed a motion asking the court to acquit her on all charges, arguing that the state did not present enough evidence in its case and so should not be able to retry it.
The motion will be argued when the two sides return to Plymouth County Superior Court for a hearing on September 29.
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