Lindsay Clancy's diary entries were read aloud in a Massachusetts courtroom this week, revealing her deteriorating mental state in the months before she strangled her three young children on January 24, 2023. The entries were presented during the second week of her trial in Plymouth County Superior Court.
Clancy, a 35-year-old former labor and delivery nurse, is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of her children, Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months, at the family's home in Duxbury, Massachusetts. Prosecutors say she strangled the children with exercise bands in the basement, then cut her wrists and neck and jumped from a second-floor window. She has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, arguing she was suffering from severe postpartum depression and psychosis.
Sanity defense at center of trial
The defense argues Clancy was not of sound mind, pointing to her documented mental health struggles and the rapid succession of psychiatric medications she was prescribed beforehand. Defense attorneys also noted that Clancy paralyzed herself jumping from the window, suggesting a sincere suicide attempt and a break from reality.
Prosecutors argued Clancy planned the killings carefully and that her apparent suicide attempt was staged to make it look like she had acted while mentally unwell. They pointed to what they called "superficial injuries" to her wrists and neck, arguing they were not intended to be fatal, and said Clancy was only left permanently paralyzed because frozen ground beneath her window made the impact worse than she anticipated. Blood stain analysis experts testified that blood was found on shingles below the second-floor window, which could indicate Clancy hung by her arms from the ledge before dropping, or that she leaned forward out of the window.
Diary entries read to jury
Investigators found the journals during a search of the Clancy home, along with a copy of the book Good Moms Have Scary Thoughts and information booklets on postpartum anxiety and depression. Among the journals were a brown notebook, a Tree of Life journal with a tree-patterned cover, and a yellow notebook labeled "Callan Patrick Clancy" containing a detailed schedule for the youngest child and notes for the nanny.
Clancy's attorney, Kevin Reddington, who previously represented mobster James "Whitey" Bulger's longtime girlfriend Catherine Greig, read the entries to the jury one by one. In the journal, Clancy described being "obsessed" with Callan's sleep schedule and overwhelmed with guilt over sleep-training him. She wrote of having "brain fog" and feeling desperate to feel like herself again.
"I now have horrible insomnia and anxiety which is causing depression. I have no appetite, I don't know what's wrong with me. I want help. I want to be well," one entry read. Another said: "I feel completely disconnected with my baby. I feel like I'm going through the motions every day."
Other entries read: "I'm really worried about going back to work and not being able to function with the brain fog," and "I'm completely overwhelmed taking care of the three kids. I feel like I'm drowning." In one entry, Clancy wrote that hearing her child cry for over an hour without intervening "just about killed me," and admitted: "I even said 'I want to die' to Pat when he was crying."
The journals also revealed guilt over her marriage and her decision to stop breastfeeding to try to improve her mental health. One dated entry, from November 18, 2022, about two months before the killings, read: "It's like I'm so desperate to get a mental break from taking care of everyone that my mind is trying to make something physically wrong with me." Clancy also kept detailed notes on the psychiatric medications she was prescribed and the side effects she experienced.
Hospital questions after the killings
Dr. Jhilam Biswas, a forensic psychiatrist at Brigham and Women's Hospital, testified she evaluated Clancy on January 26, 2023, two days after the killings. Clancy was awake but intubated and unable to speak, so doctors communicated with her using pen and paper. Asked about her mood, Clancy wrote: "Horrified."
Using the pen and paper, Clancy also asked questions, including whether she had an attorney, whether her body was "broken," whether her legs were straight, whether she could have visitors, and where her family was. It remains unclear whether she was referring to her children or whether she knew they had died. Dr. Biswas testified she saw no signs of psychosis in her assessment, telling jurors that people hearing voices typically appear to actively respond to or interact with them, which Clancy did not.
Under cross-examination by Reddington, Dr. Biswas acknowledged she had only seen Clancy once, for about 20 to 30 minutes, and that psychosis can fluctuate, with patients experiencing "moments of clarity."
Second psychiatrist's testimony
Psychiatrist Dr. Sejal Shah began treating Clancy on January 29, 2023, five days after the killings. That day, Clancy asked to change her healthcare proxy from her husband, Patrick Clancy, to her parents. By then she was off the breathing tube and could speak, but was suffering visual hallucinations and felt delirious, Dr. Shah testified. The psychiatrist said Clancy had recently undergone major spinal surgery, had just come off anesthesia, and had an elevated heart rate and low oxygen saturation, all of which could have contributed to the hallucinations and delirium. Dr. Shah waited until the next day, once Clancy no longer felt delirious, before allowing the healthcare proxy change.
During later treatment, Clancy denied having hallucinations, delusions, or suicidal and homicidal thoughts, and her medical records noted her mood was "okay" and that she seemed "future-orientated." Dr. Shah confirmed that people can plan and act on plans while in a state of psychosis. Clancy also asked to sign a do-not-resuscitate order, which doctors refused because of her apparent suicide attempt days earlier.
Nurse Rachelle Amadee testified earlier Monday that hospital staff had discussed whether Clancy might have postpartum psychosis, the first time the diagnosis was raised during the trial. Clancy remained largely composed during expert testimony about her own condition, but cried when doctors described Callan's death in detail.
Cora and Dawson were pronounced dead the night of the killings. Callan still had a heartbeat and was placed on life support, but he was brain dead and was taken off life support on January 27, 2023. If convicted, Clancy will be sentenced to life without parole. If acquitted by reason of insanity, she will be admitted to a psychiatric hospital. The trial continues.
