The final witness in Lindsay Clancy’s case has taken the stand, marking the conclusion of a tense five-week trial as she awaits her verdict.
On Tuesday, FBI forensic psychiatrist Dr. Gregory Saathoff testified as the prosecution’s closing rebuttal witness in the high-profile murder trial.
In 2023, Clancy, 36, tragically took the lives of her three children—five-year-old Cora, three-year-old Dawson, and Callan, who was only eight months old—at their home in Duxbury, Massachusetts.
She used exercise bands to strangle her children and then allegedly attempted suicide, a bid that was unsuccessful and left her paralyzed, confined to a wheelchair permanently.
Although Clancy has confessed to the killings, she has pleaded not guilty to murder, citing postpartum psychosis as her defense. She is seeking commitment to a state mental health facility rather than being sentenced to prison.
Saathoff, who interviewed Clancy by Zoom twice for a total of about 11 hours, revealed new details about her version of the killings.
Clancy told him that her hallucination – the voice – occurred when she was standing at the refrigerator.
She said she was making the children their dinner when Patrick called.
Prosecution witness Dr Gregory Saathoff poked holes in Lindsay Clancy’s story about the night she killed her children as he took the stand in her murder trial
Saathoff is expected to the the final witness to testify before the case is sent to the jury to decide Clancy’s fate
He had called at 5.33pm, but she missed it and called back one minute later.
After she returned the call, she said she then heard the voice.
However, Dr Saathoff testified that she told Dr Margaret Spinelli she heard it almost as soon as Patrick left the home, around 5.15pm.
She also told some experts that the children would suffer if she did not kill them as well as herself – but had not said that to him.
The voice was ‘very clear, ‘came from outside her head,’ and was ‘constant.’
The voice repeated ‘over and over and over again’ while she was killing her children. Then it stopped when she had finished killing the children, he said.
It’s not typical for someone in psychosis to hear the voice only one time or to hear a constant voice rather than intermittent, according to Saathoff.
She said it was the ‘same thing in the same tone repeated over and over and over until she had strangled Callan.’
Committing the act is not curative of the voice, he added.
The forensic psychiatrist said the widely different reports from Clancy and Patrick raised doubts.
‘One of them is not correct in their statement,’ he said.
Saathoff testified that Clancy told him she started to hear the command voice that told her to kill the kids when she was standing at the refrigerator, after Patrick called her
Clancy has admitted to killing her children but pleaded not guilty to murder by reason of insanity, citing postpartum psychosis
I’m Rachel Sharp, US Crime Desk Editor, and I have been in court covering every day of the Lindsay Clancy trial.
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I have shared my experiences in our new podcast series, which you can listen to for free by clicking here
A bowl of chicken nuggets was found on the couch in the home during the search – where Dawson had been sitting eating – supporting Patrick’s account.
‘It’s hard to know which version is the one I should consider,’ he said.
Dr. Saathoff testified that Patrick told him they had never gotten takeout from 3V, but they had from several other places nearby.
They had eaten there before, though, and liked it, he testified.
The order in which she made those decisions was not what Clancy said.
Instead of asking her husband if they should get takeout, he said she did a lot of searching for the restaurant and the route first.
Clancy looked into the Miralax for Cora and CVS after 4pm but did not mention the importance of picking it up until just before he left, he said.
‘She also added on that errand right before he left,’ he said.
‘It lengthened the trip. It added one extra obligation for Patrick, and that would make for a longer time that he was away,’ he said.
Clancy said that, after calling Patrick, that was when she took Dawson down the stairs into Patrick’s office to strangle him.
Cora and Callan were left upstairs.
Clancy said she could not recall what she said to get him to come downstairs or whether he resisted.
Saathoff said the widely different reports from Clancy and Patrick about the night of the killings raised doubts
Clancy is on trial for the murders of her her children, Cora, five, Dawson, three, and eight-month-old Callan, at her home in Duxbury, Massachusetts, in 2023
She then went up to get Cora, bringing her into the living room area of the basement.
After killing Cora, she then went back upstairs to get Callan.
She could not remember where she had left Callan during that time.
‘Dr Resnick described Ms Clancy as a puppet, but the children were not puppets,’ Dr Saathoff testified.
He noted how active the children were in footage from a water park and a museum.
Judge William Sullivan then called for the jury to be dismissed for the day.
He advised that the evidence will likely conclude on Wednesday, and then he will meet with the attorneys.
Sullivan anticipates closing arguments on Thursday, after which the jury will begin deliberations.