“It has become something of a national fixation,” Boston criminal defense lawyer Peter Elikann said.
The murder trial of a Massachusetts mother accused in the deaths of her three young children has drawn intense attention online, turning the case into a major topic across social media and true-crime circles.
Lindsay Clancy, 35, is charged with three counts of first-degree murder after her children — Cora, Dawson and Callan, each younger than 6 — were discovered strangled inside the family’s home in Duxbury in 2023.
Defendant Lindsay Clancy listens during her murder trial at Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth, Mass., on Thursday, July 30, 2026. (CJ Gunther/The Boston Herald via AP, Pool)
Clancy has not disputed that she killed the children. Her defense team argues she was in the grip of severe postpartum psychosis when the deaths occurred, and she has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
“This is not simply a matter of someone feeling sad, overwhelmed or depressed,” Elikann, who is not connected to the Lindsay Clancy trial, told News Outlet.
Jurors take a court-supervised view during Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial on Friday, July 31, 2026. (Josh Reynolds for Daily Mail /Pool | Instagram)
Elikann said public understanding of postpartum psychosis is still developing, noting that the condition is distinct from postpartum depression and can involve far more severe symptoms.
He referenced the Andrea Yates case from the early 2000s in Houston, Texas where the mother drowned her five children in a bathtub and was found not guilty by reason of insanity.
“This psychosis is really kind of an emerging field,” he says.
Some TikTokers and social media sleuths are jumping to Clancy’s defense, developing conspiracy theories and claiming she did not have the support she needed.
Clancy’s attorney is hoping to have one TikToker testify, asking the judge to allow Emily Thorndike, a former McLean Hospital clinical social worker, to be added to the witness list. Thorndike had publicly accused witnesses of spreading “lies and misrepresentations” about the psychiatric facility where Clancy was treated weeks before she killed her three children.
Clancy’s attorney, Kevin Reddington, said he tracked down Thonrndike after she posted about the case on TikTok.
“I saw her video saying that she could not stand for, and I quote, ‘the lies and the misrepresentations from that witness stand about McLean Hospital’,” Reddington said.
Lindsay Clancy attends her murder trial at Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth on July 29, 2026. Lindsay and Patrick Clancy with two of their three children in this undated photo. (Lindsay Marie Clancy/ Facebook; David L. Ryan/Pool)
Speaking about the high interest on social media, Elikann said, “It’s kind of a cultural obsession and people feel that they’re part of some kind of community.”
Elikann went on to say, “With the advent of not just the internet, but now social media, it’s like on steroids now, and everybody’s an expert.”
While unsubstantiated claims and speculation circulate online about what led to the killings, Elikann emphasized the importance of following official facts over social media speculation.
He mentioned one positive about the social media obsession.
“The public is getting educated as to this issue of postpartum psychosis and trying to understand how a supposedly loving mother—who always indicated great interest in her children, was happy with her life, liked her job, liked her marriage, lived in this great community by the water south of Boston—why she would suddenly, out of the blue, commit this horrific, monstrous nightmare of an incident,” Elikann said.
Clancy’s trial resumes on Monday.
