Massachusetts taxpayers could be paying hundreds of thousands of dollars each year — and potentially millions over time — for Lindsay Clancy’s continued medical care following the mistrial in her high-profile murder case.
While Clancy remains at Tewksbury Hospital, her treatment is likely costing the state at least $620,500 annually. She has spent much of the three and a half years since January 2023 at the facility after killing her three children and then attempting to take her own life.
The state-operated hospital, located north of Boston, bills the government at least $1,700 per day for each resident psychiatric patient. Clancy, who has been linked to a bipolar diagnosis and has other reported mental health needs, including PTSD, would likely fall into that category.
Her care could be even more expensive. Clancy was left paralyzed and reliant on a wheelchair after her suicide attempt, meaning she may qualify as a “chronic patient.” According to the latest figures from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, that classification is billed at $1,850 per day — or at least $675,250 a year.
Additional supervision may drive the total higher still. Since the killings, Clancy has reportedly remained under strict suicide watch, a status that requires an attendant to stay with her around the clock.
The exact cost of her treatment remains unclear. The Department of Public Health did not respond to a request for comment.
Clancy, 36, has said she was experiencing severe postpartum depression after the birth of her third child in the months before Jan. 24, 2023. She claimed her condition escalated into hallucinations, including a terrifying voice that urged her to carry out the killings.
She also argued that a combination of medications prescribed by multiple healthcare providers worsened her mental state and directly contributed to her strangling her children — 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson and 8-month-old Callan — before cutting her throat and jumping from a bedroom window.
The central question at her six-week trial was whether Clancy was legally insane at the time. Prosecutors maintained that her actions, including alleged planning and asking her husband to leave the house on an errand beforehand, showed she understood what she was doing and should be held criminally responsible.
Most jurors ultimately supported a finding of not guilty by reason of insanity, but one holdout refused to join them. The deadlock led to a mistrial on Sept. 4 after an exhausting week of deliberations.
As a result, Clancy is expected to return to court at some point. If she is eventually found not guilty by reason of insanity, she would likely spend years in a state-run medical facility similar to Tewksbury Hospital.
Clancy could become eligible for release if doctors determine she is no longer a danger to herself or the public. But Judge William Sullivan warned jurors before deliberations that she could also “remain committed for the duration of her life.”
Massachusetts criminal defense attorney Peter Elikann agreed with Sullivan’s assessment, telling The Post “she may never see the light of day, or she could possibly be released decades from now.”
One hospital she could wind up spending that time in is Bridgewater State Hospital, a facility south of Boston, which spends about $367,007 per patient each year — meaning her care could cost taxpayers tens of millions over the years.
And if she were found guilty the costs of her care would also be high, though not as severely.
Massachusetts prisons’ annual per-patient costs typically run around $100,000 and $250,000 per year.
