PLYMOUTH, Mass. — In the weeks before Lindsay Clancy strangled her three young children in January 2023, she used her phone to search for information about hallucinations, psychosis and the side effects of medications she had been prescribed, according to cellphone data analysis presented Thursday at her Massachusetts murder trial.
Investigators said Clancy’s searches in late December 2022 included suicide methods, bipolar disorder and insomnia. In January, she looked up postpartum depression. Months earlier, in an October 2022 note, she wrote at length about her worries as a mother, questioning whether she had made the right choice in stopping breastfeeding her 8-month-old and reconsidering whether to have a fourth child.
Her defense team argues Clancy was suffering from bipolar disorder and postpartum psychosis, a rare but severe condition that can distort a woman’s perception of reality after childbirth. A forensic psychiatrist later diagnosed her with both conditions after the children were killed.
In the note, the 36-year-old former labor and delivery nurse appeared especially troubled by the thought that she could not give her youngest child the same level of attention she had given her older children, who were 3 and 5.
“I’m terrified of something happening to my kids or doing something wrong to mess up their development,” Clancy wrote. “Our generation is inundated with information about every aspect of parenting. … It’s insane. For the last five years, I’ve just filled my mind with all things parenting and it’s just unhealthy.”
If you are experiencing suicidal thoughts, substance use concerns or another mental health crisis, call or text 988 to reach a trained crisis counselor for free, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Help is also available at 988lifeline.org or by calling 800-273-8255 [TALK].
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