Three children lost their lives in a tragedy that has shaken a Massachusetts community to its core.
The response has been visceral: anger, revulsion and a rising demand for accountability.
In the wake of such unbearable loss, it is understandable that many people search for an explanation — and for someone to hold responsible.
Lindsay Clancy, 36, is now in the harrowing second week of her murder trial. Prosecutors for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts allege she caused the deaths of her children.
Clancy has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. Her defense team argues that she, too, was failed — allegedly overmedicated and inadequately treated by a healthcare system that placed her on a punishing cycle of prescription drugs without giving her the care she needed.
Ultimately, the verdict will rest with a jury. But outside the courtroom, online sleuths and social media commentators have spent weeks pushing their own theories, with some attempting to cast suspicion on Lindsay’s now ex-husband, Patrick Clancy, 37.
The family of five lived in Duxbury, a postcard-pretty coastal town about 35 miles southeast of Boston and sometimes nicknamed “Deluxe-bury.” Crime scene images have shown children’s bedrooms filled with playful decorations, smiling family photos on the walls, and a sign above three-year-old Dawson’s bed that read: “It’s A Wonderful Life.”
Could anyone have really seen the horror that was coming?
Over the past few weeks amateur online investigators have claimed to have found the real villain in the twisted Lindsay Clancy tragedy: Her now ex-husband Patrick
Lindsay, according to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is responsible for the death of her three children in January 2023
Just a few weeks after a five-day voluntary stay at McLean Hospital, a psychiatric facility, in January 2023, Lindsay asked her husband to run out to the pharmacy and pick up dinner.
She was having ‘one of her best days,’ he testified last week. Lindsay and the kids had built a snowman in the yard and worked on art projects. She was, he thought, more optimistic.
Most of America knows what happened next.
While Patrick was out of the house, Lindsay strangled her children – Cora, 5, Dawson and Callan, her baby, just eight-months-old – with exercise bands. Then she slashed her wrists and neck and jumped from a second story window, severing her spine, paralyzing herself from the waist down.
When Patrick returned from his errands, he found the house eerily quiet, the master bedroom door locked and his wife bleeding in the snow. He called 911 and waited for paramedics to arrive.
Only then did he look in the basement.
‘She killed the f***ing kids!’ he screamed into the phone.
It’s now clear to me that Lindsay had been on a multi-month, perhaps even years-long, emotional rollercoaster, suffering from severe mental illness and, yes, postpartum psychosis.
None of the psychiatric heavy artillery, from Zoloft to Prozac and Seroquel to Trazodone, appeared to have made any real difference for her. A civil complaint filed by Lindsay against her medical providers claims she was already exhibiting signs of bipolar disorder in 2020, largely driven by anxiety over returning to work in a Boston hospital, as a labor and delivery nurse.
Her doctors and nurse have denied any wrongdoing.
Lindsay was cratering. Her mind reportedly riddled by insomnia, anxiety, delusion and suicidal thoughts. And, to his credit, Patrick was throwing up red flags.
According to a lawsuit he filed against Lindsay’s doctors, he told them that she was suicidal and that her medication was turning her into a ‘zombie.’ According to the Massachusetts police search warrant affidavit, he told friends that she was suffering from being on too many drugs.
But who, the denizens of online chatrooms are now asking, would ever leave a child alone with her?
The answer: Plenty of people.
‘I observed a wonderful mom who loved her kids,’ the family’s nanny Elaine Rossi told the jury last week. ‘She was concerned about their safety and Callan eating and sleeping. She was a wonderful mother.’
Rossi also saw signs that Lindsay was in crisis, had lost a lot of weight, couldn’t sleep. And she said Lindsay told her she had ‘postpartum.’
That’s not enough for the trolls on Reddit and TikTok who want to place the blame squarely on Patrick’s shoulders.
‘Something is really off about this guy!’ one nameless crime-nerd posted last week. ‘He looks and answers questions like a rehearsed sociopath.’
If anyone is a ‘sociopath’, it’s people who spend time writing posts like that.
Who among us is fit to judge a guy who has lost everything?
And Patrick’s performance on the stand is far from the only thing that these attention-hungry ghouls are sniffing around.
Within months of this life-shattering horror, Patrick had relocated hundreds of miles away to Manhattan. After that he started dating again and by April 2026, more than three years after everything fell apart, he was married for the second time.
His new wife Dr Rachel Danis, many online have noted, bears a striking resemblance to Lindsay. She also happens to make her living in reproductive medicine, like Lindsay.
While Patrick was out of the house, Lindsay strangled her children with exercise bands. Then she slashed her wrists and neck and jumped from a second story window
Patrick Clancy’s new wife Dr Rachel Danis (left), as many online have noted, bears a striking resemblance to Lindsay. She also happens to make her living in reproductive medicine, like Lindsay
If you’re feeling a little queasy taking this in, you’re not alone. I also initially recoiled at thought of a man moving on, perhaps too quickly. But then, I thanked my lucky stars and rightly concluded that no one should sit in judgement of Patrick Clancy.
He is not on trial. No ending to this gruesome tale will ever be satisfying or just. Why make it worse by embracing every cruel thought and conspiracy?
Let the justice system serve its purpose.
And to the trolls, move out of mom’s basement already.
