In Duxbury, Massachusetts, Lindsay Clancy appeared to have created a picture-perfect home with her husband and their three small children, each younger than 6. But prosecutors say that life unraveled in January 2023, when Clancy allegedly strangled her children to death.
Clancy, 35, has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder. Her closely watched trial is scheduled to get underway on Monday, July 20. If she is found guilty on the murder charges, she would face a mandatory sentence of life in prison.
Prosecutors argue that Clancy acted intentionally, while she has pleaded not guilty to every charge. Her attorneys maintain that she was suffering from undiagnosed postpartum psychosis when the children were killed. The case will now be left for a jury to decide.
Here is what is known about Clancy’s life, the alleged killings, and what could unfold as the trial begins.
Is Lindsay Clancy Still Alive? Who Is Lindsay Clancy?
Lindsay Marie Musgrove was born on August 11, 1990, according to court documents obtained by WPRI.com. She grew up in Wallingford, Connecticut.
She later enrolled in an intensive accelerated nursing program at Massachusetts General Hospital and went on to spend nine years there as a labor and delivery nurse.
Lindsay married Patrick Clancy in December 2016. Together, they had three children: Cora, born in December 2017; Dawson, born in September 2019; and Callan, born in May 2022. The family made their home in Duxbury, Massachusetts.
“She was a fun-loving, doting wife and mother,” Susan Clancy, Patrick’s mother, told a grand jury of Lindsay. “She loved her kids, and she was a nurturing mother who smiled all the time.”
Lindsay began experiencing postpartum anxiety following the birth of both Cora and Dawson, according to The New Yorker. After Dawson’s birth, she managed her symptoms with exercise, meditation, and therapy. After Callan’s birth, however, the symptoms grew in severity. After a period of hypomanic behavior, meaning heightened energy and mood, Lindsay “experienced debilitating anxiety, [insomnia,] sleeping only approximately three hours per night, and exhaustion during the day.” She also heard voices and experienced suicidal ideation.
Lindsay sought help from postpartum mental health specialists, although she was only diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder. She even insisted she needed to be hospitalized for mental health concerns in December 2022, Patrick told The New Yorker, but she never received a more severe diagnosis. On January 1, 2023, she was admitted to an inpatient program at a top psychiatric institution, McLean Hospital, but was discharged after just five days.
Patrick later confirmed Lindsay had been prescribed and tried more than a dozen medications in an attempt to manage her apparent depression.
Tragically, the saga culminated in a violent incident that left their three children dead.
Why Is Lindsay Clancy Accused of Killing Her Children?
According to prosecutors, Lindsay took her daughter to the pediatrician and played in the snow with her children on January 24, 2023, before asking Patrick to pick up takeout for dinner and medication at a nearby pharmacy. She was allegedly fully coherent, according to witnesses.
When he returned home, Patrick discovered Lindsay semi-conscious and bleeding outside. She claimed she had tried to jump out a window in a suicide attempt.
Inside, Patrick found all three of their children in the home’s basement. They allegedly had exercise bands wrapped around their necks. Cora and Dawson were pronounced dead at the hospital the same day, while Callan was placed on life support but died on January 27. All three died of “ligature strangulation.”
On February 7, 2023, the Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office announced Lindsay was arraigned from her bed in a Boston hospital and charged with three counts each of murder, strangulation, and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. She pleaded not guilty to the charges. Judge John Canavan also ordered Lindsay to be held at a medical facility until her treatment following the incident was complete.
Months later, in October 2023, NBC10 reported Clancy was ordered to be held without bail and to remain at the Tewksbury Hospital. She is still at the facility as she awaits trial, and is now paraplegic and confined to a wheelchair following her suicide attempt.
Just days before the scheduled start of the trial on July 10, 2026, prosecutors dropped the three strangulation charges against Clancy—citing their redundancy when coupled with the first-degree murder charges.
What Has Lindsay Clancy Said About the Case?
Clancy doesn’t deny killing her three children, but has argued in pretrial motions that she was suffering from postpartum psychosis at the time of their deaths and thus not guilty by an insanity defense, according to Court TV.
The defense team previously petitioned for a “bifurcated trial,” with one phase to determine guilt and another for criminal responsibility, and Clancy was reportedly willing to admit to her role in her children’s deaths in writing so only the second part would be considered. If she is found mentally incompetent at the time of the killings, she wouldn’t go to prison but could be committed to a mental health facility.
However, so far, this request has been denied and it will be a standard trial.
Just weeks after Lindsay’s arraignment, Patrick issued a statement saying he had forgiven her and that her passion “taught me how to be a better father.”
“She’s recently been portrayed largely by people who have never met her and never knew who the real Lindsay was,” Patrick added. “Our marriage was wonderful and diametrically grew stronger as her condition rapidly worsened. I took as much pride in being her husband as I did in being a father and felt persistently lucky to have her in my life.”
When Does Lindsay Clancy’s Trial Begin?
Clancy’s trial is set to begin on Monday, July 20, at Plymouth County Superior Court in Plymouth, Massachusetts. A final pretrial hearing was held one week prior on July 13. The trial is expected to last six to eight weeks total, according to ABC 5.
Judge William Sullivan has said he expects to seek 18 jurors for the case. However, an attorney for Clancy moved to block a larger-than-normal number of prospective jurors from being added to the panel.
The trial has already experienced three significant delays. It was supposed to begin in February 2026, but both Clancy’s defense attorney and prosecutors requested more time to prepare for the “discovery-intensive case.”
What Do We Know About Evidence at Lindsay Clancy’s Trial?
Prosecutors presented the judge with a list of 168 potential witnesses who may be called to testify—though the number is likely to be condensed, according to ABC 5 in Boston. The defense said it has about 50, mostly character witnesses.
Prosecutors requested the jury in the trial be allowed to visit the home where the killings took place, per The Patriot-Ledger. The new homeowner—Patrick Clancy sold the residence at 47 Summer Street in Duxbury in 2024—reportedly objects to the motion. However at a pretrial hearing on June 18, Judge William Sullivan granted attorneys the ability to take jurors to the site to view the house, according to ABC 5 in Boston.
Additionally, Sullivan granted the prosecution permission to present several key pieces of evidence, including photographs of the children from when they were alive and autopsy photos following their deaths. Only medical experts will be allowed to discuss Clancy’s mental health diagnosis, and witnesses other than Clancy’s family members will be sequestered.
On June 29, ABC 5 confirmed jurors will be allowed to hear Patrick Clancy’s 911 call made after discovering Lindsay outside their home the day of the alleged strangulations. “The cries for help and the statements of Mr. Clancy also have significant probative evidentiary value in terms of proving deliberate premeditation, extreme atrocity or cruelty, and the state of mind of the defendant,” prosecutors claim, according to court records. However, the jury will receive a limiting instruction on how to legally consider the recording during the trial.
Also according to ABC 5, prosecutors have withdrawn a motion requesting to use a physical blood spatter demonstration.
