Friends and relatives of Patrick Clancy are speaking out in his defense as unfounded conspiracy theories spread online while his ex-wife, Lindsay Clancy, faces trial over the deaths of their three young children.
Lindsay Clancy, 36, is accused of strangling five-year-old Cora, three-year-old Dawson and eight-month-old Callan with exercise bands at the family’s home in Duxbury, Massachusetts, in January 2023.
She has denied criminal responsibility, arguing that she was suffering from severe postpartum psychosis and had been dangerously overmedicated when the children were killed.
The case, now being heard in Plymouth Superior Court, has drawn national attention and sparked a wave of sympathy for Lindsay, a nurse whom many supporters view not simply as a defendant, but as someone overtaken by a devastating mental health crisis.
But that public sympathy has, in some corners of the internet, turned into baseless suspicion directed at Patrick, 39, and his new wife, Dr. Rachel Danis, 37, whom he married in April this year.
Patrick, a Microsoft salesman, has been accused by online critics of overlooking signs that Lindsay’s mental health was worsening and of failing to protect the children in the days and hours before their deaths.
The backlash has since taken an even darker turn.
Some viral posts have gone so far as to suggest, without any evidence, that Patrick was somehow connected to the murders.
The previous family life of Patrick Clancy (right), came crashing down in 2023 when wife Lindsay (left) strangled their three children to death then tried to take her own life
Patrick found new love in Dr Rachel Danis, whom he married earlier this year
Neither Patrick nor his attorney responded to requests for comment from Our News Outlet, but those close to him were willing to speak, defending a man they say has been unfairly savaged online while quietly trying to hold his life together amid unspeakable grief.
A close relative, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the rumors swirling around Patrick have become genuinely distressing for the family.
‘The things that are going around right now are heinous. It has been really upsetting and damaging,’ they said.
The family member added: ‘Pat has always been the nicest, most supportive person ever. He loved his family, he loved his wife, and he did everything he could to support her, and this is just a really sad story.’
Patrick’s new wife, Rachel, meanwhile, has also been targeted by online trolls.
Both have been hit with death threats and had their personal information posted publicly in a campaign of digital harassment.
Rachel could not be reached for comment. But a colleague acknowledged the relentless online scrutiny had clearly worn her down in recent months, even as she continued pushing forward with her life and career as a fertility doctor at a New York clinic.
‘It’s been tough. She’s hanging in there,’ said the coworker.
The scrutiny intensified after Patrick relocated from the Boston suburbs to Manhattan in May 2023, four months after his children were killed.
Photographs of him with Rachel began circulating online the following February, and the Clancy family’s former Duxbury home was sold in May 2024.
Patrick grew emotional as he took the stand to testify in his ex-wife’s trial – the first time he has seen her since the killings
Lindsay Clancy has been receiving psychiatric treatment since the tragedy in Januray 2023
Rachel eventually moved into Patrick’s Midtown Manhattan apartment, and by late 2025 she appeared in photos online wearing what looked like an engagement ring.
The couple married in April this year in an intimate ceremony at the Ladies Pavilion overlooking Central Park’s lake, celebrating after with family and friends at the nearby restaurant Sarabeth’s.
Those who know Patrick say he has spent the years since the tragedy rebuilding his life through his faith, charity work, long-distance running and, more recently, leaning on his new marriage for strength.
But online, conspiracy theorists have twisted those efforts to rebuild, seizing on Patrick’s new relationship as apparent evidence of emotional detachment, rather than seeing it for what those close to him say it is: a man trying to survive unimaginable grief.
Others have accused him of a form of neglect for leaving Lindsay home alone with the children that night in January 2023, even though her own treating doctors had assured him she posed no danger.
A friend of Patrick’s, who asked not to be named, said the online frenzy had spiraled completely out of control in recent weeks as the trial has continued.
‘The internet mobs are going nuts,’ the friend said. ‘These people are insane. It’s awful because Pat has been through enough already.’
A friend of Rachel’s family also defended him.
‘He had three kids, was working his ass off,’ the friend said.
‘She [Lindsay] was tired. She was up at night. He obviously didn’t realize how bad it was. And that’s something he’s got to live with for the rest of his life. But it’s called 20/20 hindsight.’
Couple Patrick Clancy and Rachel Danis have shared passions for charitable causes
Patrick and Rachel dining out together to celebrate her completion of a race in New York City
Patrick has not been accused of any wrongdoing by prosecutors and took the stand in Plymouth as a witness earlier in the trial.
Observers in the courtroom described him visibly shaking as he testified, forced to take deep breaths to steady himself before continuing.
Throughout his testimony, Patrick insisted his ex-wife had been a devoted and loving mother before spiraling into a medical crisis nobody around her fully understood in time.
Patrick’s relative described the online rumors as a distraction from the important issues raised by the case.
Lindsay’s mental health crisis and the children’s deaths should be a wake-up call for ‘systemic changes to our country’s healthcare system,’ said the source.
She pointed to the Heard Foundation, a charity founded by Patrick in 2024 to honor his children and improve care for mood disorders around childbirth.
‘When you take care of parents, you take care of your whole family,’ she added.
Nearly three and a half years after the killings shocked the nation, jurors in Plymouth must now decide whether Lindsay was legally insane at the time she killed her children or whether she should be held fully criminally responsible.
A first-degree murder conviction would carry a mandatory sentence of life without parole.
If jurors instead accept her insanity defense, Lindsay would remain committed indefinitely to a state psychiatric hospital, with any future release contingent on doctors determining she no longer poses a danger to herself or others.
