In a gripping moment during Thursday’s court proceedings, prosecutors unveiled text messages sent by Lindsay Clancy to her husband, Patrick, while he was out running errands on the day she allegedly took the lives of their three children. The chilling exchange was accompanied by footage capturing a seemingly joyous family outing to a museum, which occurred just weeks before the heartbreaking events unfolded.
The 36-year-old Clancy is facing grave charges for the murder of her children—Cora, five, Dawson, three, and Callan, who was only eight months old—on January 24, 2023, at their home in Duxbury, Massachusetts. The tragic case has drawn considerable attention, raising complex issues surrounding mental health and justice.
While Clancy has acknowledged her role in her children’s deaths, she asserts her plea of not guilty on the grounds of insanity, claiming she suffered from postpartum psychosis. In a bid to seek accountability beyond the criminal case, she is also pursuing legal action against her former healthcare providers, alleging medical malpractice and negligence.
In a detail that starkly contrasts the tragic outcome, jurors learned of Clancy’s mundane texts to Patrick just an hour before the children were discovered dead. This revelation adds a perplexing layer to the case, challenging narratives and perceptions about her mental state at the time.
Adding to the emotional weight of the trial was a video shown to the court, depicting the family’s recent visit to the Boston Museum of Science. The footage, which visibly moved Clancy, painted a picture of happier times, leaving onlookers to grapple with the monumental shift from those light-hearted moments to the day’s incomprehensible agony.
‘Any chance you want to do takeout from ThreeV,’ Clancy texted Patrick about a local restaurant at 4.53pm that night, according to testimony from Massachusetts State Police trooper Timothy Chiappini.
‘Yeah,’ Patrick responded.
‘Okie dokie,’ Clancy replied. ‘Check the menu when you can.’
At that point, Patrick asked Clancy what she wanted to order – and whether their baby boy, Callan, had woken up yet, to which Clancy replied that he had.
Lindsay Clancy, 36, is facing a murder trial in the deaths of her three children
Clancy strangled her children – Cora, five, Dawson, three, and eight-month-old Callan – back in January 2023, then attempted to kill herself
‘It was just a short nap,’ she responded.
‘Oh, OK,’ Patrick then texted back.
Minutes later, Clancy texted him her food order and he replied with his.
Patrick was then seen on surveillance footage at a nearby CVS picking up medication for his ailing daughter before stopping by the restaurant to pick up the food.
But when he returned home that night, he found his wife sprawled out on the lawn, paralyzed and his children strangled with exercise bands in the basement.
Patrick previously described in heartbreaking testimony how the first child he saw when he then rushed down into the basement was his daughter, Cora, who he said ‘had a band around her neck’ and was ‘face down.’
He previously described the bands as if you ‘tied your shoes but don’t tie the bow.’
‘I immediately ran over and tried to take the band off,’ Patrick continued.
He said she was unresponsive. He then noticed Callan next to Cora with a band around his neck.
Finally, Patrick said he found Dawson and said he ‘knew he was gone.’
Jurors on Thursday heard the mundane text messages Clancy sent her then-husband, Patrick, just one hour before the killings
Patrick Clancy, the father of the three children, previously described how he found the children strangled in the basement
Just weeks before, on January 8, the family was seen on an outing to the science museum.
The video started off by showing Patrick picking Dawson out of the stroller and leading him over to one exhibit, while Clancy was left with Cora and baby Callan strapped to her chest in a carrier.
Clancy could then be seen leading Cora over to one of the exhibits, explaining how to interact with it while Patrick and Dawson were seen standing at a distance, before coming forward to enjoy the exhibit themselves.
Patrick would praise his wife as ‘a good mama’ on the morning of his children’s deaths, after he asked how Cora’s doctor’s appointment went that morning, text messages revealed.
But when authorities later investigated the children’s deaths, they uncovered a number of concerning Google searches Clancy made in the days and weeks before the killings, including a search just four days prior, on January 20, when she searched ‘can you treat a sociopath?’
Clancy’s other searches included ‘how to slit your throat to die,’ ‘where is the carotid artery’ and ‘how to turn airbags off on Kia Sorento,’ jurors heard on Thursday.
Jurors were shown surveillance footage from a family outing to a science museum just weeks before the children were killed, on January 8, 2023
Massachusetts State Police Trooper Joshua McKelligan pointed to the Clancy family in the surveillance footage
Clancy put her head in her hands at the defense table when a note detailing how she resented her two older children was read aloud on Thursday. She has pleaded not guilty to murder by reason of insanity
A search of her phone also uncovered a note she wrote on October 25, 2022, in which she divulged that she ‘resents’ her two older children ‘because they prevent me from treating Cal like my first baby.’
‘I’m terrified of something happening to my kids or doing something wrong to mess up their development,’ she continued.
‘I am sad and depressed because I am not able to parent my third child like my first.’
‘I am sad that I stopped breastfeeding. I feel not as connected with Cal now. I think I sort of resent my other children because they prevent me from treating Cal like my first baby. And I know that’s not fair to them.’
She also appeared to write about wanting to have more children.
‘I want to feel love and connection with all my kids. I’m also probably having a bit of an internal conflict because my whole life I wanted to have a lot of kids,’ the note continued.
‘I still don’t want Cal to be our last, but I have a lot of figuring out to do before I have another.’
Clancy was seen putting her head in her hands at the defense table while trooper Chiappini read the note.
The heartbreaking murder trial is now scheduled to continue on Monday morning.