Patrick Clancy had to face a moment that shattered his world indefinitely.
During the murder trial of his former wife, Lindsay Clancy, Patrick walked out of the courtroom. Jurors were absorbed in the distressing 911 recording that captured the moment Patrick stumbled upon the tragic deaths of their children at Lindsay’s hands.
“No, no, no,” he cried out, his voice an echo of torment and disbelief, during the call played back in court on July 29, as detailed by the New York Times. He could be heard repeating, “My God.”
“Sir? Hello? Hello?” came the concerned voice of the 911 dispatcher. “What’s happening in the basement, sir?”
His screams filled more than 30 seconds of the call, noted the publication, before Patrick somberly responded, “She killed the kids.”
Lindsay is accused of strangling her children in the basement of the Duxbury, MA home in January 2023 before jumping from a second-story window.
During the nearly seven-minute 911 recording, Patrick was heard talking to a crying Lindsay, who is now paralyzed from the waist down.
“Look at me, look at me,” he was heard saying, according to the New York Times. “Lin, look at me, open your eyes.”
As the gut-wrenching call played, Lindsay—who has pleaded not guilty to three counts of first-degree murder—placed her face in her hands.
Earlier in the trial, Patrick told the courtroom that when he returned from running errands the house was unusually quiet. He entered his bedroom, where he found the window open.
“I saw blood everywhere,” he testified. “It looked like, sprayed, almost like with a hose.”
Patrick said he found Lindsay in the backyard, where she told him she had attempted suicide before directing him inside to the bodies of their children.
While Lindsay has admitted to killing her children—Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and 8-month-old Callan—the prosecution and defense disagree on whether she should be held criminally responsible for their deaths.
The state has argued that Lindsay killed her children in “deliberate, premeditated and extreme atrocity and cruelty” fashion.
Meanwhile, Lindsay’s defense team claims she was experiencing postpartum psychosis when she killed her children.
“This is a woman who was suffering from psychosis at the time that she went down to that basement,” defense attorney Kevin Reddington told jurors on July 27. “She had no motive. She loved her children. She intended to kill herself. She didn’t fake that.”
Patrick has testified that Lindsay’s mental health had severely declined in the months before the killings and that she had “intrusive thoughts” about harming their children.