Ordinary text messages Lindsay Clancy sent to her husband while he was out running errands on the day she killed their three children were presented to jurors Thursday, alongside video of the family visiting a museum just weeks before the tragedy.
Clancy, 36, is charged with murdering her children — Cora, five, Dawson, three, and eight-month-old Callan — inside the family’s home in Duxbury, Massachusetts, on January 24, 2023.
She has acknowledged killing the children but has pleaded not guilty to murder by reason of insanity, citing postpartum psychosis. She is also suing her former healthcare providers, alleging medical malpractice and negligence.
On Thursday, however, jurors heard evidence that the mother of three had been exchanging casual messages with her then-husband, Patrick, roughly an hour before the children were discovered dead.
The courtroom was also shown footage of the family spending a day at the Museum of Science in Boston, a video that appeared to leave Clancy visibly emotional as it played.
“Any chance you want to do takeout from ThreeV,” Clancy texted Patrick at 4.53pm that evening, referring to a local restaurant, according to testimony from Massachusetts State Police Trooper Timothy Chiappini.
“Yeah,” Patrick wrote back.
“Okie dokie,” Clancy responded. “Check the menu when you can.”
At that point, Patrick asked Clancy what she wanted to order – and whether their baby boy, Callan, had woken up yet, to which Clancy replied that he had.
Lindsay Clancy, 36, is facing a murder trial in the deaths of her three children
Jurors were shown surveillance footage from a family outing to a science museum just weeks before the children were killed, on January 8, 2023
Clancy strangled her children – Cora, five, Dawson, three, and eight-month-old Callan – back in January 2023, then attempted to kill herself
‘It was just a short nap,’ she responded.
‘Oh, OK,’ Patrick then texted back.
Minutes later, Clancy texted him her food order and he replied with his.
Patrick was then seen on surveillance footage at a nearby CVS picking up medication for his ailing daughter before stopping by the restaurant to pick up the food.
But when he returned home that night, he found his wife sprawled out on the lawn, paralyzed and his children strangled with exercise bands in the basement.
Patrick previously described in heartbreaking testimony how the first child he saw when he then rushed down into the basement was his daughter, Cora, who he said ‘had a band around her neck’ and was ‘face down.’
He previously described the bands as if you ‘tied your shoes but don’t tie the bow.’
‘I immediately ran over and tried to take the band off,’ Patrick continued.
He said she was unresponsive. He then noticed Callan next to Cora with a band around his neck.
Finally, Patrick said he found Dawson and said he ‘knew he was gone.’
Jurors on Thursday heard the mundane text messages Clancy sent her then-husband, Patrick, just one hour before the killings
Patrick Clancy, the father of the three children, previously described how he found the children strangled in the basement
Just weeks before, on January 8, the family was seen on an outing to the science museum.
The video started off by showing Patrick picking Dawson out of the stroller and leading him over to one exhibit, while Clancy was left with Cora and baby Callan strapped to her chest in a carrier.
Clancy could then be seen leading Cora over to one of the exhibits, explaining how to interact with it while Patrick and Dawson were seen standing at a distance, before coming forward to enjoy the exhibit themselves.
Patrick would praise his wife as ‘a good mama’ on the morning of his children’s deaths, after he asked how Cora’s doctor’s appointment went that morning, text messages revealed.
But when authorities later investigated the children’s deaths, they uncovered a number of concerning Google searches Clancy made in the days and weeks before the killings, including a search just four days prior, on January 20, when she searched ‘can you treat a sociopath?’
Clancy’s other searches included ‘how to slit your throat to die,’ ‘where is the carotid artery’ and ‘how to turn airbags off on Kia Sorento,’ jurors heard on Thursday.
Massachusetts State Police Trooper Joshua McKelligan pointed to the Clancy family during their outing as seen in surveillance footage
Clancy put her head in her hands at the defense table when a note detailing how she resented her two older children was read aloud on Thursday. She has pleaded not guilty to murder by reason of insanity
A search of her phone also uncovered a note she wrote on October 25, 2022, in which she divulged that she ‘resents’ her two older children ‘because they prevent me from treating Cal like my first baby.’
‘I’m terrified of something happening to my kids or doing something wrong to mess up their development,’ she continued.
‘I am sad and depressed because I am not able to parent my third child like my first.’
‘I am sad that I stopped breastfeeding. I feel not as connected with Cal now. I think I sort of resent my other children because they prevent me from treating Cal like my first baby. And I know that’s not fair to them.’
She also appeared to write about wanting to have more children.
‘I want to feel love and connection with all my kids. I’m also probably having a bit of an internal conflict because my whole life I wanted to have a lot of kids,’ the note continued.
‘I still don’t want Cal to be our last, but I have a lot of figuring out to do before I have another.’
Clancy was seen putting her head in her hands at the defense table while trooper Chiappini read the note.
The heartbreaking murder trial is now scheduled to continue on Monday morning.
