Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts mom accused of killing her young children last month, allegedly checked her Apple Maps app to make sure her husband—whom she sent to pick up dinner and meds from CVS—would be away long enough for her to strangle her kids before he returned.
Prosecutors used that allegation on Tuesday to argue that Clancy, 32, orchestrated the triple homicide of her children on Jan. 24—sending her husband away just long enough for her to kill 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson, and 8-month-old Callan before she threw herself out of a second-story window.
“The defendant did not take advantage of the situation when her husband left the home that night,” Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague said. “She created the situation. And she used Apple Maps to make sure she had enough time to strangle each child before her husband returned from where she sent him.”
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That shocking detail was one of many to emerge Tuesday. Sprague revealed that Clancy used exercise rope to strangle each child “in the place where they should have felt the safest”—a lengthy process she claimed could only be done by someone who knew what they were doing.
Sprague said it’d taken at least four minutes to strangle each child, suggesting Clancy had significant time to change her mind about the killings if she wanted to, despite the 32-year-old’s defense that medication had clouded her decision making.
Sprague revealed that Clancy, while speaking to a psychiatrist, said she “killed the kids because she heard a voice” and the she “had ‘a moment of psychosis.’” The prosecutor claimed that Clancy’s husband, Patrick, said the first time he’d heard Clancy use the word “psychosis” was after speaking with a doctor sent by her defense attorney.
After strangling her kids, cops said Clancy jumped from a second-floor window of her Duxbury, Massachusetts, home—a plunge that the mom admitted to her husband was a failed suicide attempt.
Her defense attorney, Kevin Reddington, revealed Tuesday that Clancy is now paralyzed from the waist down because of spinal injuries sustained in the fall. He added that she requires 24/7 care, cannot use the bathroom on her own, and is under suicide watch.
Clancy attended Tuesday’s arraignment via Zoom. She wore a mask and a neck brace, but never spoke.
Prosecutors asked a judge to hold Clancy without bail. They argued she was aware of what she was doing, and that her thoughts were not clouded by postpartum depression or medication.
In an attempt to prove this, Sprague pointed out that Clancy’s first question upon regaining consciousness in her hospital bed wasn’t to ask about her kids, but was, “Do I need an attorney?”
Reddington countered by claiming that Clancy had been prescribed an “unbelievable” amount of medication that was “turning her into a zombie” as she battled postpartum depression and possibly postpartum psychosis.
“She was so bad she turned herself into McClean Hospital,” Reddington said before rattling off a list of drugs she’d been prescribed. “This is really a tragedy in this case.”
Reddington said it’d be “inhumane” to hold Clancy without bail given her medical state, asking that she be transferred to a rehab center with a tracking device, if needed.
A Plymouth District Court judge ruled that Clancy must remain in her current hospital until she’s healthy enough to transfer to a rehabilitation facility, where she’ll then be discharged and fitted with an ankle monitor.
Patrick Clancy with his three kids, Cora, 5; Dawson, 3; and 8-month-old Callan, all of whom were strangled to death last month.
GoFundMePatrick was supportive of his wife in a statement posted to GoFundMe on Jan. 28. He said his pain from the ordeal is both “excruciating” and “relentless,” and that he only hopes that his estranged wife can “find peace.”
“I want to ask all of you that you find it deep within yourselves to forgive Lindsay, as I have,” Patrick wrote. “The real Lindsay was generously loving and caring towards everyone.”
While Patrick has shown support for his wife since the incident, chilling 911 recordings allegedly reveal the initial horror he felt when he returned home with dinner to find nearly his entire family wiped out.
Sprague said Patrick came home to “silence” before he spotted his wife lying on the ground in their yard. He quickly called 911 and went searching for Cora, Dawson, and Callan, whom he found with exercise ropes still around their “little necks.”
Once first responders reached the home, Sprague said that Patrick yelled out, “She killed the kids!”
“Cora, Dawson, and Callan, you gave me so much in your short time here,” Patrick wrote in his statement. “I don’t know if the pain will ever go away, but I’ll do my best to carry on in your honor. Dada loves you so much and will always remember you.”
