Lindsay Clancy spoke the words “Go to God” as she strangled her middle child with an exercise band, a psychiatrist testified in court.
Dr. Avram Mack, the psychiatrist who examined Clancy on behalf of the state in April 2026, appeared on the witness stand Friday afternoon and described what he said occurred in the hours before the children were killed in 2023.
According to Mack, Clancy told him that on the afternoon of the killings she heard a loud male voice instructing her: “You should kill the kids. This is your last chance so you can kill yourself.”
Mack testified that Clancy brought Dawson to the basement first, put an exercise band around his neck and strangled him while repeatedly saying, “Go to God.”
He told the court that Clancy then strangled Cora and Callan before going back upstairs to the bedroom, where she attempted to take her own life.
Once in the bedroom, Mack said, Clancy took medication, cut her wrists and neck, and then, after cutting through a window screen, “caused herself to fall from the window.”
After recounting the harrowing details of the children’s final moments, Mack testified that he believed Clancy was capable of being held criminally responsible when she “methodically” killed her three children.
Asked about the final words Clancy reportedly spoke to her children, Mack said the phrase reflected “not only hope for the children but a description of the situation.”
Lindsay Clancy said ‘Go to God’ aloud as she strangled each of her young children with an exercise band, a psychiatrist revealed in court
Dr Avram Mack, the state’s rebuttal psychiatrist who evaluated Clancy in April 2026, took the stand Friday afternoon during her murder trial and testified about the events just before the 2023 killings
Mack said Clancy told him that, on the afternoon of the murders, she heard a loud male voice say: ‘You should kill the kids. This is your last chance so you can kill yourself’
According to Mack, Clancy awoke after the murders overcome with immediate horror and shame – feelings he said showed she knew what she had done was wrong.
‘The deaths were done one by one in a way that was organized and tended to achieve a particular goal,’ he explained. ‘Her attempt at suicide was also organized in that it included as many methods as possible.’
The revelations came as Mack detailed the hours before the killings, saying Clancy reported having a ‘good day’ and her husband, Patrick, told welfare officials it was the best day she had experienced in a long time.
‘She described the day as being a fun and productive day,’ he said. But he said that behavior was ‘not inconsistent with suicide’ and did not necessarily contradict the depressive disorder she had.
Mack explained that some people experience an improved mood immediately before attempting suicide, adding that hallucinations can be either persistent or sporadic in people experiencing delusions.
Just hours earlier, defense expert Dr Phillip Resnick testified that Clancy had Bipolar II disorder with severe depression and was ‘frankly psychotic’ when she killed her children.
Clancy’s diagnosis has become a major battleground in the trial.
Her providers have testified that she did not meet the criteria for bipolar disorder or psychosis, while the defense argues that she was in the grip of psychosis and command hallucinations that prevented her from controlling her actions.
Mack, who evaluated Clancy two years before the killings, testified that he found no evidence of mania or hypomania in her records and no basis for a bipolar disorder diagnosis.
If you or someone you know needs help, please call or text the confidential 24/7 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in the US on 988. There is also an online chat available at 988lifeline.org
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